Artistas iraquianos
Em dezembro de 1962, o Dr. José de Azeredo Perdigão deslocou-se ao Iraque para participar na celebração do Milenário da Cidade de Bagdade. As relações económicas da Fundação com o Iraque eram muito fortes na época, o que se refletiu igualmente no incentivo aos artistas iraquianos através da aquisição de um conjunto obras que estavam expostas no Museu de Arte Moderna de Bagdade.
Em novembro de 1966, na inauguração da Sociedade dos Artistas Iraquianos e da Arte em Bagdade foi realizada uma exposição internacional, com obras de artistas portugueses e estrangeiros pertencentes à Coleção da Gulbenkian, ao mesmo tempo que era mostrada arte moderna iraquiana, que resultou na aquisição de importantes obras para a coleção de arte da Fundação que aqui apresentamos algumas.
Um dos grandes artistas iraquianos aqui destacado, Dia Al-Azzawi, encontrou na arte islâmica signos e símbolos que influenciaram a sua obra, bem como viu na arte popular ou na poesia Palestiniana fonte de trabalho. Al-Azzawi influenciou uma série de outros artistas que procuraram nas raízes da arte islâmica inspiração para as suas obras.
Patricia Rosas, curadora
The Lalique drawings make more than one connection. We placed them at the later end of the exhibition because they were only bought recently. Just as with some of the works at the other end of the show, especially the paintings, which were bought at around the same time, even though they are years apart, here at this end we have things bought with the eye of the present.
The founder’s collection is usually described as closed, but that is not 100% the case. If relevant material, relating to that which is already in the collection, becomes available, it may very occasionally be bought. This was the case with these studies by Lalique, which relate very closely to pieces on show in the museum. They were bought around the same time as the drawings by Alexandre Conefrey, and the reason to put them together is less about the dating than about the way they use nature on the page. Lalique was tremendously inspired by the way plants grow, and often used their shape and structure as a basis for his own creations. Lalique’s work is often based in symmetry, and even if Conefrey’s drawings are not quite so symmetrical, they too arrange the plant and its stalks across the page, marking out a kind of space which hints at the shallow space occupied by a plant, or by a piece of jewellery.
Penelope Curtis, curator