1 Revolution, Democracy and Political Culture
This study deals with the situation of art and the importance of art education for the change in art production after the Portuguese Revolution of April 25, 1974. The political openness that emerged was not only linked to the expansion of public and collective spaces but also to the concept of Celebration (Festa),
The 1960s were characterized by a pronounced creative individualism, evidenced by a range of developments emerging from pop art and conceptual art. This period saw the rise of new figuration, which often continued into informal art, op art, land art, conceptual art, minimalism, process art, performance art, assemblage, and more. Artists aimed to be genuinely modern, despite their geographic and political constraints, although asserting this modernity was naturally easier outside the oppressive confines of a dictatorship. This diversification of artistic approaches was largely influenced by international contacts that were facilitated by emigrated artists, brief visits to major artistic centers, foreign specialized magazines, direct or indirect connections with journalists covering important art events abroad, and the rare exhibitions of internationally renowned artists held in Portugal.
Between the late 1950s and the early 1970s, large numbers of Portuguese artists emigrated to Europe and occasionally to the United States. An important factor driving this emigration was the financial support provided by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation from 1957 onwards (Nogueira, 2022). Among the various artists who left the country were prominent figures such as Alberto Carneiro, Ana Hatherly, Ãngelo de Sousa, Costa Pinheiro, Eduardo Batarda, Fernando Lemos, Graça Pereira Coutinho, João Cutileiro, João Vieira, Jorge Martins, Jorge Pinheiro, José Barrias, Júlio Pomar, Lourdes Castro, Manuel Alvess. Helena Vieira da Silva had relocated to Paris early on and became a
During the Marcelist era, official interest in modern and contemporary art was predictably low and contact with art from the United States and Eastern Europe was limited. Thus, the official art events organized by the National Secretariat of Information (SNI), which was transformed into the State Secretariat of Information and Tourism (SEIT) in 1968, were rather mediocre, as were the National Art Salons (1966â1969). In 1969, university students (felt most strongly by the students of Coimbra) took to the streets to protest against the oppressive regime, to which the government responded with imprisonment and forced conscription into the Colonial War. By 1972, repression and censorship had intensified, along with a rise in political arrests. The clandestine struggle against the regime grew stronger across intellectual, student, labor, and military circles
The Revolution of April 25, 1974, ended an anti-democratic, colonialist, isolated, and authoritarian regime. Portugal maintained the longest dictatorship in 20th-century Europe and possessed the most enduring colonial empire, extending across four continents. The Revolution was instigated by the military, disillusioned by the protracted colonial wars, and by the more or less clandestine actions of the anti-fascist movement over the years. This pivotal event opened the door for democracy in Portugal. The subsequent democratization process led to the stabilization provided by parliamentary democracy within a still dynamic society. The first constitutional government was elected in July 1976.
Despite the profound socio-political changes brought about by the Carnation Revolution, its impact on the development of art was less substantial than one might expect. One reason for this was that the structures in the institutional context, that is, in universities and museum settings, were deeply rooted. On the other hand, it was also due to the lack of a sufficient number of artists who could have brought about immediate change. Following the Revolution, only those artists who had left Portugal for overtly political reasons returned. Most of those who had emigrated mainly for artistic, intellectual, practical or educational reasons did not return, which illustrates the continuing problems in Portuguese cultural and artistic life. The change that has nonetheless taken place since the 1960s could only be driven forward by artists who felt committed to modernism regardless of their political or geographical context. This development stands in contrast to the assumptionâoften held during the
The need for reform in art education was clear, although significant changes from official side did not occur until the 1990s. In particular, the Schools of Fine Arts in Lisbon and Porto were elevated to faculties and thus integrated into the university sector. Equally significant was the creation of Ar.Co in 1973, in Lisbon, originally conceived as an alternative to the Lisbon School of Fine Arts and offering a different educational approach (Nogueira, 2007, pp. 131â136). Our focus, however, is not on the universities of Lisbon or Porto, but rather on the University of Coimbraâoriginally founded in Lisbon, in 1288, and relocated to Coimbra in 1537, has consistently been one of the countryâs most prominent centers for scientific inquiry and classical studiesâwhich, notablyParte inferior do formulário, never had a Faculty of Fine Arts. It was within this context that the striking experimentalism of CAPC emerged vividly in the 1970s. The 1970s were, in factâcontrary to the assumptions of more traditional historiographyâamong the most modern and artistically consequential decades of 20th-century Portugal (Nogueira, 2022).
Another important reason for the delayed change in art, which was similarly institutionally constituted, was the lack of museums of modern and contemporary art in Portugal for several years during this period. The Museu Nacional de Arte ContemporâneaâMuseu do Chiado, originally founded in May 1911, faced numerous challenges and did not open to the public until July 1994. In July 1983, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation inaugurated the Centro de Arte Moderna (Modern Art Center, CAM), which later adopted the name of the Foundationâs first president and was henceforth known as the Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão. Additionally, a temporary contemporary art museum was established in the Vizela-Riba dâAve Mansion, also known as the Serralves Villa, in May 1987. This initiative eventually evolved into the Serralves Contemporary Art Museum in 1999, marking a significant development in the contemporary art landscape in Portugal. In 1976, also in Porto, the CAC (Centre for Contemporary Art) was established, operating between 1976 and 1980 within the Soares dos Reis National Museum. It was not a contemporary art museum per se, but rather a space dedicated to contemporary art within an institution primarily focused on naturalism.
Immediately following the April 25, 1974, Revolution, the state proved incapable of developing a coherent and structuring cultural policy, resulting in the continued fragmentation of efforts among various actors within the artistic field. In this context, it can be concluded that the core issue lay in a certain fragility inherent to Portuguese cultural and artistic history, primarily manifesting in the difficulty of establishing innovative institutionsâa constellation
2 Visual Arts in the Context of Democracy
Although there was no general restructuring in the arts and their institutions, the state at least supported some cultural promotion campaigns aimed at uniting the Armed Forces Movement, the National Salvation, the population and artists. One notable initiative was the creation of the Painel do 10 de Junho [June 10th Mural] in 1974, a tribute to the April Revolution organized by the Democratic Movement of Visual Artists. This large mural, divided into three tiers and comprising 48 square panels, symbolized the number of years the dictatorship had endured. It was destroyed in a fire at the Belém Gallery in 1981. In the immediate aftermath of the Revolution, there was a period of intense, militant engagement from artists, who were committed to a culture âin the service of the Peopleâ (Chicó, 1984, pp. 20â21; Nogueira, 2024; Couceiro, 2004). This era was characterized by slogans such as âFascist art is bad for the eyesâ (Marcelino Vespeira)âa motto announced at an event organized by the Democratic Movement of Visual Artists on May 28, 1974, at Palácio Fozâ, âFight aggressivity with creativity,â and âAesthetic quality is progressive; mediocrity is reactionaryâ (Salette Tavares).
Acre Group was built after 25 April as a serene and conscious attitude. [â¦] it is a project, and only projects are consistent. Today. Like the revolution. Everything else is outdated. When Acre Group rolled out a strip of plastic from the top of Torre dos Clérigos it was the dazzling body of Clara Semide that extended out. [â¦] As well as [the body] of other companions. And our own, as we start to understand all this. Extended (by the invented appropriation) of Nasoniâs architecture, of Oporto, of the City, of the Country, of Dream, of Utopia. And this is worth as much, or more, than painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. (Sousa, 1975, p. 41)
I think that underneath the whole activity of the Group there is a polemic attitude. [â¦] While in the last two years the stress has been exclusively on political intervention, PUZZLE dare to talk about themselves, about family and everyday problems, about the problems of art, about current myths and taboos (the national flag is just one among many) and even, and also, about politics, which is seen from an ironic, critical, dangerous point of view. [â¦] The primacy of ideas over technique. [â¦] For all this it seems to me that PUZZLE Group occupy a position at the avant-garde of the art field. (Ãlvaro, 1977, pp. 18â20)
During this period, a particularly notable event was the series of International Art Encounters, orchestrated primarily by critic, curator, and gallerist EgÃdio Ãlvaro in collaboration with the Alvarez Gallery, and widely publicized by Revista de Artes Plásticas. These encounters commenced in 1974 in Valadares and continued in Viana do Castelo the following year, subsequently moving to
3 CAPC: Facilitating Collective, Educational, and Public Engagement
An intervention-like-the-name-of-Joseph-Beuys, which could have turned sour. But that is how it can go when one finds valid interlocutors instead of a passive, masochistic audience which even applauds and pretends to feel insulted. The CÃrculo de Belas-Artes/Fine Arts Circle (is this really their name?) de Coimbra were present, and their presence enlivened a DIALOGUE that was exceedingly more important than many ex-cathedra pedagogical flights. A dialogue that perhaps promises a whole future. (Sousa, 1973, p. 4)
Indeed, a highly productive collaborative workspace emerged among de Sousa, Alberto Carneiro, António Barros, Armando Azevedo, João Dixo, Rui Ãrfão, Túlia Saldanha, and other artists.
Semana da Arte na Rua, Coimbra, 1976. Photograph: unknown. Courtesy of Collection CAPC, Coimbra
CAPC performance Cores at Alternativa Zero: Tendências Polémicas na Arte Portuguesa Contemporânea, Lisbon, 1977. Photograph: unknown. Courtesy of the Collection Ernesto de Sousa, Lisbon
CAP or C.A.P. these are the letters to keep in mind by readers travelling to Coimbra and wishing to talk under the pretext of art with art people. Action arts, fine arts, dark arts of freedom: to meet oneself and others. [â¦] What matters is not the whole dreariness of techniques and alienation, a convolutedly pre-built and pre-established beauty, that path leading to all the Academies (and, of course, to market economy). What matters is that discovery, which can only be achieved in a full exercise of body and mind, hands and head. Such exercise is the everyday practice of CAPC. (Sousa, 1974, pp. 4, 6)
[Notice] the exaggeration. For instance, to live in Coimbra, to be from Coimbra, our city that belongs to them, and to dare a (visual) activity that
may go beyond the limits (of the city, of the street) and returns people to the lost dimension (to Paradise Lost). [â¦] to Celebration [Festa]âthat is the example of the most complete exaggeration, of the clearest modernity, [â¦] âART can be LIFE.â (Sousa, 1976, p. 70)
In conclusion, the experience of celebration (festa), especially within the collective public space and fostered by the democratization of the political regime, was emblematic of Portugal in the 1970s. Concurrently with the political and social transformations in Portugal, artistic mediaâsuch as video, 8mm film, performative body work, and the âactionsâ of âaesthetic operatorsââexpanded and gained new significance. The 1970s, especially in the wake of the creative freedom unleashed by the revolution, were therefore pivotal, defining an era of rich and intense artistic activity that was unparalleled in both Portuguese and broader Western art contexts. This period was also a critical moment for the public affirmation of prominent female artists (Túlia Saldanha, Clara Menéres, Helena Almeida, Ana Vieira, Lourdes Castro), further marked by the activities of the CAPC, which functioned as a genuine laboratory of experimentation in a country emerging from dictatorship. While the 1970s occasionally produced art deeply engaged with the Revolution, the decade predominantly fostered works that were profoundly aligned with modernity, establishing it as one of the most politically and artistically significant decades of the Portuguese 20th century.
Indeed, at a time when the overhaul of higher artistic education (both theoretical and practical) was slow and, even by the 1990s, when its effective reform and modernization were finally realized, the updating of university curricula took considerable time to reflect contemporary art practices. In fact, it was at CAPC, in the 1970s, as a free and experimental laboratory, that true modernity in art education occurred. This was achieved through discussion cycles and conferences, as well as non-formal courses given by some of the countryâs most famous artists, who traveled to Coimbra specifically for this purpose. It is noteworthy that this way an informal, free and modernized artistic education was able to develop, and thus modern educational progress took place in the environment of Portugalâs oldest university.
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