This exhibition explores the relationship between the work of Sarah Affonso and the folk art from the Minho region. Often remembered as the wife of Almada Negreiros, our intention here is to evoke Sarah Affonso as a recognised modernist artist with her own exceptional career.

Establishing a bridge between the two most important variables in this dialogue we evoke – Sarah Affonso and the folk art from the Minho –, the exhibition displays, in parallel, the works by Sarah Affonso that refer most specifically to the regional vernacular objects of ceramics, textiles, and silver work, which make up part of the visual lexicon that inspired her. Sarah Affonso used these references in the context of a clearly modernist visual production, whose origin and affiliation are the object of investigation.

The publication accompanying the exhibition is part of the Conversations series and the bilingual texts (Portuguese/English) are written by the curator of the exhibition, Ana Vasconcelos, and by António Medeiros, Rosa Maria Mota and Vera Barreto.

António Medeiros highlights the artist’s references to the Minho region in her work and the way these are intertwined with the ‘Minho style’ that marked Portuguese culture and art in the early 20th century.

The curator of the exhibition, Ana Vasconcelos, revisits the artist’s work through a specific group of pieces inspired by the popular iconography of the Minho region and memories of her childhood, spent in Viana do Castelo.

Rosa Maria Mota underlines the importance of gold artefacts in the lives of the people of the region, on an economic, social and religious level. This experience witnessed by the artist echoes in her work.

A brief biography of Sarah Affonso by Vera Barreto is revealed through a diachronic perspective on the life and work of this artist.