Exhibition curated by Carlos Silveira, researcher at the IHA (RG MuSt), on the artist Jorge Barradas, resulting from the Research Grant he was awarded in 2019 under the project BOLSAS MILLENNIUM ARTE – Study of the Millennium bcp Collection of Portuguese Painting from the XIX-XX centuries. Partnership between the IHA, the Millennium bcp Foundation and MNAC.
Jorge Barradas (1894-1971) is one of the reference artists of the first generation of modern artists, which emerged with the exhibitions of the Humourists group in the 1910s. In addition to establishing himself as an innovative caricaturist, Barradas was the most important graphic artist of the 1920s, chronicler of social changes and the post-war fever for living. He was also the renovator of artistic ceramics, already in the 1940s, becoming a prolific ceramist of great acceptance in the market and requested for numerous orders of decorative ceramics in public and private buildings throughout the country. In painting he undertook unpublished projects, such as the trip to the island of São Tomé in 1930, and reinterpreted avant-garde movements such as surrealism and gestural abstraction towards the end of his career in the 1960s. His work bears witness to the renewal of artistic practices in Portugal in the first half of the 20th century.
A century after the peak of Jorge Barradas’ graphic production, MNAC, from 4 April to 27 August 2023, presents in its halls the largest exhibition held to date on this multifaceted artist, covering the entire period of six decades of his career.
The exhibition presents nearly 60 works, from institutional and private collections, with emphasis on the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the National Tile Museum. Organized in four sections, the exhibition presents works of different formats and techniques, from drawings in china ink to illustrations in watercolour, from gouache or oil painting to decorative ceramic pieces, or tile panels, which will allow the visitor to contact with the diversity and technical sophistication of this important 20th century Portuguese modernist.
