Independents (Oporto artist group)
Encyclopedia
Fernando Lanhas
Fernando Lanhas, GOSE is a Portuguese painter and architect. He studied architecture but became known as the leading name in Portuguese abstract painting. He started painting in 1944, influenced by music, astronomy, and the international abstract movement...
, coincidentally is the central figure of abstractionism.
After the I Exhibition in April 1943, in the of Fine Arts School of Porto, with sculptures of Altino Maia, Mário Truta, Arlindo Rocha, Serafim Teixeira, Augusto Tavares and Manuel Pereira da Silva
Manuel Pereira da Silva
thumb|200px|Manuel Pereira da SilvaManuel Pereira da Silva was a Portuguese sculptor. He was born in Oporto, Portugal....
, the Independents exhibitions will be place outside the school and several times outside the Oporto, a first example of decentralization, does not avoid a certain marginalization of Oporto artists on events and initiatives for greater visibility and impact of the capital.
The II Independents Exhibition shows, in February 1944, at the Atheneum Commercial of Oporto, with sculptures of Altino Maia, Arlindo Rocha, Eduardo Tavares, Joaquim Meireles, Manuel da Cunha Monteiro, Maria Graciosa de Carvalho, Mário Truta, M. Félix de Brito, Manuel Pereira da Silva
Manuel Pereira da Silva
thumb|200px|Manuel Pereira da SilvaManuel Pereira da Silva was a Portuguese sculptor. He was born in Oporto, Portugal....
and Serafim Teixeira. It will be from there that the action of Fernando Lanhas
Fernando Lanhas
Fernando Lanhas, GOSE is a Portuguese painter and architect. He studied architecture but became known as the leading name in Portuguese abstract painting. He started painting in 1944, influenced by music, astronomy, and the international abstract movement...
will be felt in the consistent quality of the catalogue and exhibitions, as well as persistence in keeping alive the initiatives.
The III Independents Exhibition takes place in the same year, in the hall of the Coliseum of Oporto, with sculptures of Abel Salazar, Altino Maia, António Azevedo, Arlindo Rocha, Eduardo Tavares, Henrique Moreira, Manuel Pereira da Silva
Manuel Pereira da Silva
thumb|200px|Manuel Pereira da SilvaManuel Pereira da Silva was a Portuguese sculptor. He was born in Oporto, Portugal....
, Mário Truta and Sousa Caldas. In the catalogue of the exhibition, that goes to Coimbra
Coimbra
Coimbra is a city in the municipality of Coimbra in Portugal. Although it served as the nation's capital during the High Middle Ages, it is better-known for its university, the University of Coimbra, which is one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest academic institution in the...
, Leiria
Leiria
Leiria is a city in Leiria Municipality in the Centro Region, Portugal. It is the capital of Leiria District. The city proper has 50,200 inhabitants and the entire municipality has nearly 120,000...
and Lisboa, in 1945, states that the name of "Independents" is not a name at random, but involves the awareness that art is a heritage of humanity and hence the "Our presence varied, it being understood that this should enable it to build the future, can not be denied the right to remember the past.
For Fernando Lanhas the "Independents Exhibition" of Oporto is a significant historical moment in our painting and sculpture. First, because together painters and sculptors of different training (the reason for the word "Independents" has no affiliation of an "ism" particular), also engaged in a collective action and immersed in the same enthusiasm. Second, because there appears, without pre-concepts or complexes, this original and fruitful abstraction. And thirdly, because they escape to the centralized voracity of the capital.
Between 1946 and 1950, there are four more independent exhibitions in the Bookstore Gallery Portugála, in Oporto, on 46, 48 and 50, and one in Braga in the 49.
From 1943 to 1950, exhibited in almost all expositions the painters Fernando Lanhas
Fernando Lanhas
Fernando Lanhas, GOSE is a Portuguese painter and architect. He studied architecture but became known as the leading name in Portuguese abstract painting. He started painting in 1944, influenced by music, astronomy, and the international abstract movement...
, Júlio Resende, Júlio Pomar
Júlio Pomar
Julio Pomar, GOL, GCM is a Portuguese painter. He studied painting in both Lisbon and Porto Academy of Fine Arts, in this last he one he joined the group of other fellow artists called Independents....
, Nadir Afonso
Nadir Afonso
Nadir Afonso, GOSE is a geometric abstractionist painter. Formally trained in architecture, which he practiced early in his career with Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, Nadir Afonso later studied painting in Paris and became one of the pioneers in Kinetic art, working alongside Victor Vasarely,...
, Rui Pimentel, Dordio Gomes, Carlos João Chambers Ramos, Amândio Silva, António Lino, Aníbal Alcino and Vítor Palla.
Exhibitions
- I Independents Exhibition, in the Escola Superior de Belas-Artes do Porto (1943).
- II Independents Exhibition, in the Ateneu Comercial do Porto (1944).
- III Independents Exhibition, in the Coliseu do PortoColiseu do PortoThe Coliseu do Porto is a theatre in Porto, Portugal. It is arguably one of the most relevant landmarks of Porto and a prestigious venue for music and cultural events. Together with Batalha Cinema, the Coliseu is a very good example of Portuguese Streamline Moderne and Art Deco in the city of Porto...
(1945).