Designed from the beginning as an event with “a somehow retrospective character” (Notes from the Fine Arts Department, 27 Aug. 1969, Gulbenkian Archives, SBA 15366), this exhibition had, according to the text of the catalogue, the “sincere purpose” of paying tribute to the Portuguese born painter, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (Lisbon 1908–Paris 1992), “paramount figure of Contemporary Art”, in what was the first major exhibition of the artist in Portugal (Vieira da Silva, 1970).

The idea to organise this exhibition emerged from an “exchange of views” between José de Azeredo Perdigão, President of the FCG, and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, when an idea emerged- the opportunity to inaugurate the new Temporary Exhibition Gallery of the FCG with an exhibition of the painter. Eventually, after many movements, it was decided to include this exhibition in an itinerant exhibition set to tour other European cities such as Paris, Rotterdam, and Basel. Therefore, the FCG joined a “pool” (a kind of consortium) composed of many organising institutions and coordinated by the Centre National d'Art Contemporain, in Paris, that aimed to share expenses and to facilitate the processes of lending artworks or the elaboration of the(?) catalogue (Notes by the Fine Arts Department, 27 Aug. 1969, Gulbenkian Archives, SBA 15366).

The commissioner of the Lisbon exhibition was Guy Weelen (1919-1999), writer and art critic, friend and collaborator of Vieira da Silva and her husband, Arpad Szenes (1897-1985), and one of the main promotors of the study and dissemination of her work. Weelen conceived this display with a distinct structure from the previous assemblies, notably the integration of a larger number of pieces – “two hundred pieces, among them we can include innovatively some tapestries” (Vieira da Silva, 1970) – and the creation of an important section made of evocative pieces of Lisbon and watercolours of the artist, held in Portugal.

Vieira da Silva was the first artist to individually display in the new facilities of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which was inaugurated in 1969. The painter did not attend the official inauguration of her exhibition, since she did not want to take part of an event where the President of the Portuguese Republic would be, this way marking her opposition to the current Portuguese regime. Vieira visited her exhibition a few days later, having been received with some apparatus by the press and the protagonists of the Portuguese cultural and artistic life.

In a letter written to José de Azeredo Perdigão, Guy Weelen commented that his experience working with the FCG had been “gripping”, having revealed to be positively surprised with the public reaction to the exhibition:

“The reactions of the public and the press to Vieira da Silva's exhibition confirm that the Portuguese public is currently curious about art and painting. It is inquisitive.” (Letter of Guy Weelen to the President of the FCG, 9 Jan. 1971, Gulbenkian Archives, SBA 15366).

The cultural programme, associated to the exhibition, comprised a guided tour cycle, led by the historians and art critics, José Augusto França, Fernando Pernes, Adriano de Gusmão, Rui Mário Gonçalves and Rocha de Sousa and viewed by 400 people. The same document also registers the number of visitors to the exhibition:

“The Exhibition continues to register a high number of visitors, having already reached an impressive 34,000. Last Saturday and Sunday, the 1st and 2nd of the present month, we welcomed 421 and 429 visitors, respectively, and even though it is a smaller number than the usual ones during a weekend, they still are comfortingly high.” (Notes by the Fine Arts Department, 4 Aug. 1970, Gulbenkian Archives, SBA 15366)