The paintings of Pedro Calapez during this period are emblematic of artists' concern with the nature of art history itself. Calapez's paintings from the 1980s attempt to analyze memory in its relation to historical analysis. Calapez's paintings also link Portuguese art to the wider Neo-expressionist art movement of the 1980s.
Another artist who dealt with these themes - this time in the sculptural realm - was Rui Chafes. The art critic and historian Joana Cunha Leal has suggested that Chafes's earliest work from the 1980s already asserted some of the structural postulates of his subsequent artistic production: the creation of delimited objects, the predomination of organic-like forms, the suggestion of lightness and dematerialisation enhanced by fragile materials. Furthermore, the work gave priority to the question of the relationship of the objects to space, in the sense that his pieces refuse the literal logic of the monument, and often have the effect of an installation.
In a series of untitled black-and-white self-portraits, Julia Ventura effectively continued the work of such experimental artists from the 1970s as Helena Almeida. These portraits also put her in league with other Western photographers as Cindy Sherman who explored the fluid nature of feminine identity through the self.
Another prominent artist to have emerged in the 1980s was Antonio...
Olaio was not merely a painter, but also a pop musician. With paintings like 40 Years in a Plane, Olaio unabashedly embraced kitsch and such "low brow" forms of art as comic strips. It is not always clear what Olaio's intentions are - in this respect, many of his paintings, such as this one, seem to be spontaneous, even Dada-esque in their random nature. 40 Years in a Plane effectively brings us up-to-date with the more recent concerns of Portuguese artists, for whom the artificial boundary previously separating high and low cultures has been dissolved.
Indeed, the 1970s and 1980s were a pivotal transitional moment in the history of Portuguese art. This was the period that linked Portugal to the larger Western art world, and thus assured that Portuguese art production would no longer be a marginal affair.
Helena Almeida
Tela Habitada, 1976
Julia Ventura
Untitled, 1984
Antonio Olaio
40 Years in a Plane, 2004
Works Cited
Lapa, Pedro. "A Brief History of Portuguese Contemporary Art." In Contemporary Art from Portugal. Retrieved 11 March 2008 from www.ecb.int/events/pdf/art/Portugal.pdf.
Leal, Joana Cunha. "Rui Chafes." Retrieved 11 March 2008 at http://www.camjap.gulbenkian.pt/Gallery/%7Be45beeae-8cbf-4918-bfdf-4bb1d025bb2f%7D/2f0e1189-923e-44b3-b0f6-c7178217ca51.pdf.
