Open to the public at the Soares dos Reis National Museum from July to December of 2023, the temporary exhibition “Portreto de la Animo. Art Brut Etc.” provided a meeting between works from the collection of the Soares dos Reis National Museum and the Treger Saint Silvester collection, stored at the Centro de Arte Oliva (S. João da Madeira). The curatorship was made by António Saint Silvestre and came from a selection of portraits and self-portraits of both collections, in drawing, sculpture, painting and photography.
The surprising exhibition design fostered unusual encounters between the exhibition’s visitors and the work of over 100 artists of the so-called Art Brut.
Part of those works will now be on display in the Parisian gallery Halle Saint Pierre, from March 12th to August 14th, in the “L’Esprit Singulier” exhibition, with 150 works of Art Brut from the Treger Saint Silvestre Collection.
Specialised in Art Brut, Singular Art and Pop Culture, the French gallery Halle Saint Pierre classifies the estate of the private collectors Richard Treger and António Saint Silvestre as “one of the most important European collections of Art Brut and Singular Art”.
The exhibition is curated by Martine Lusardy, who, having directed Halle Saint Pierre since 1994, recognises the new exhibition – whose title means “The Singular Spirit” – “the magic of an interworld that is at once familiar and unknown”.
Agnès Baillon, Henry Darger, Jacques Deal, Jaime Fernandes, Martha Grünenwaldt, David Houis, Foma Jaremtschuk, Alexander Lobanov, Marilena Pelosi and Adolphe Wölfli are just some of the authors whose work will be showcased at Halle Saint Pierre.
At the Soares dos Reis National Museum, the exhibition “Portreto de la Animo. Art Brut Etc.” allowed to establish a relationship between the two collections, exploring the different ways of representing the human figure and self-representation through art, from personal universes and interior worlds that are so diverse, between canonical formal solutions and others unconventional ones.
The exhibition included several objects from the Soares dos Reis National Museum collection, placed in dialogue with pieces from the Treger Saint Silvestre Collection, such as the Bust-Reliquary of São Pantaleão; the “Death mask of Soares dos Reis”, by Joaquim José Texeira Lopes; the Spittoon, by Rafael Bordallo Pinheiro; and the oil “Mãe e Filha” (Mother and Daughter), by Sarah Afonso; among others.
As part of the “Art & Health” programmatic axis of the Soares dos Reis National Museum, the exhibition was complemented by an extensive program of mediation activities, scientifically supported by the National Coordination of Mental Health Policies, which included commented visits, talks, workshops and performance. During the period in which it was open to the public, it registered a total of 35 thousand visitors.