Last year, PortoBeerFest was voted one of the 10 best non-music festivals on the Iberian Peninsula in the Iberian Festival Awards. This year, the organisation has prepared the venue, as usual, so that the visiting user’s experience has even more parameters of quality and enjoyment of the event. PortoBeerFest has therefore developed a model for implementing good environmental practices and ecological sustainability, recycling, waste treatment and regeneration, mobility and accessibility to the venue with partners from the city.

In the complementary route to the venue, and throughout the city of Porto and Matosinhos, in the bars and restaurants taking part, the brewers in this edition will present their trends in tastings, mini events and talks, in coordination with PortoBeerFest.

From 1976 to 1980, the Contemporary Art Centre promoted around 100 exhibitions and various cultural activities. Alberto Carneiro, Ângelo de Sousa, Álvaro Lapa, Júlio Pomar, Emília Nadal, Eduardo Nery, among many others, showed their artworks in anthological form for the first time in Porto.

The intense dynamism of the programme was only possible thanks to the establishment of partnerships with embassies, foreign cultural institutes and institutions, which made it possible to present important contemporary art exhibitions on national and international tour in Porto.

Curated by Miguel von Hafe Pérez, the exhibition ‘Centro de Arte Contemporânea – 50 years, Making Art Democratic’ revisits the story of this primordial adventure in the Portuguese institutional context, recreating some of its exhibition moments and bringing to light rarely seen graphic documents.

As part of the official programme for the 50th Anniversary of 25 April, the exhibition will be on display at the Soares dos Reis National Museum until the end of 2024, with the patronage support of BPI and ‘la Caixa’ Foundation, and the institutional support of Círculo Dr. José de Figueiredo – Friends of the Museum.

Joining this informal network of museums and cultural institutions, which around the world will reinforce the importance of valuing cultural heritage, the Soares dos Reis National Museum will share content on its Instagram account related not only to the June programme – associating the opening of the temporary exhibition ‘Centro de Arte Contemporânea – Making Art Democratic’ and the commented session of the object of the month with Museum Week 2024 – but also with artworks and objects from its collection, projecting the Museum’s activity internationally.

The planned calendar of talks includes sub-themes related to the backstage of cultural spaces, biodiversity, selfies in nature, water and green spaces in cities.

MuseumWeek was launched for the first time in 2014 and has been held every year since with the institutional support of UNESCO. In last year’s edition, the content posted on social media led to the collective sharing of around 77,000 hastags, with a very high global reach, especially in countries like France and the United States of America.

As this is an award among peers, the Museum of the Year Award ‘acquires even greater significance and relevance, reflecting the recognition of the work that has been carried out over the last few years, especially after the complete reopening of the Museum’.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum was also awarded the Partnership Prize for the Art and Health Programme, developed in partnership with the University Hospital Centre of Porto, with the patronage of the António Manuel da Mota Foundation. This programme is aimed at the community of users, companions, carers and health professionals of one of the most populous entities in the Museum’s ‘neighbouring’ territory: the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto, made up of Hospital Santo António; Centro Materno Infantil do Norte Albino Aroso; Centro de Genética Médica Jacinto de Magalhães, Centro Integrado de Cirurgia de Ambulatório and Hospital Magalhães Lemos.

Bringing together the most important collection of 19th-century-Portuguese art, the renovated long-term exhibition at the Soares dos Reis National Museum, which opened to the public on 13 April 2023, was built in accordance with the latest standards of accessibility and museum inclusion.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum assumes itself as a plural space for sharing identity and belonging through art and culture, promoting reflection, creativity and contemporary critical thinking based on the collections it holds, conserves, researches and communicates.

The Velodrome included ancillary buildings, an elegant wooden tribune for about 700 people (other sources say 400 people), housing the royal box in the centre. Underneath the tribune were around 50 cabins rented by members to store their clothes, bicycles, etc. A grandstand with three tiers of seats, with a capacity of 1,000, was located at the top of one of the ramps. There was also an open space for pedestrians. Opposite was a start-finish stand with a board identifying the laps to be travelled. In the same place, on the upper floor, was the jury box. Between the tribunes and the pedestrian seating, the Velodrome’s spectator capacity was approximately 2,500 to 3,000. The construction of the Velodrome and tribune was directed by partner José Isidoro de Campos.

Numerous reports of races and events taking place there can be found, such as a charity event in favour of a children’s dispensary, sponsored by Queen Amélia.

After the establishment of the Republic, the Velodrome was inactive. In 1915 it reappeared under the name Velo-Club do Porto and continued to operate there until the 1930s. With the setting up of the Soares dos Rei National Museum in 1940, the space was transformed into an archaeological garden. The refurbishment of the building in 2001 restored the memory of the old Velodrome, with the construction of the two semicircles on the tops that enclosed the track.

‘Descent from the Cross’, a sacred painting dating from 1827, is part of a group of four late paintings by Domingos Sequeira, executed in Rome, where the artist died in 1837.

Domingos Sequeira is considered to be the most talented and original Portuguese painter of his time, having played a fundamental role in the development of Portuguese art in the early 19th century.

The meeting will be used to present the ‘Case Study on the Luxury Footwear Sector’, by international consultancy Ernest&Young, and the study ‘New and Old Markets: a new approach’, by the Porto Catholic University Research Centre.

There will also be a debate on the perspectives of four different organisations. Ana Maria Vasconcelos, from Belcinto, Fátima Oliveira, from Mariano Shoes, João Esteves, from DiVERGE, and Paulo Martins, from Ambitious, will discuss the businesses of the future’.

The meeting is conceived in a context in which Cultural Heritage is taking on visibility as a tool and/or process for the defence, promotion and development of Human Rights, but also as an instrument for limiting, impeding or violating them. Through a programme that brings together heritage actors, researchers, international relations agents and members of civil society, the event aims to discuss the theme, its relevance and its emergence on the contemporary international scene.

Participation is free and open to the academic community, the heritage sector and civil society.

The 1st International Meeting on Cultural Heritage and Human Rights is part of Inês de Carvalho Costa’s PhD project in Heritage Studies – specialising in Art History.

The project is funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, 2021.07318.BD, https://doi.org/10.54499/2021.07318.BD) and the Transdisciplinary Research Centre “Culture, Space and Memory” (CITCEM, Porto, Portugal), with the collaboration of the Cultural Heritage Laboratory of the Juiz de Fora Federal University (LAPA/UFJF, MG, Brazil). The scientific supervision of the project is the responsibility of Professor Maria Leonor Botelho (CITCEM-FLUP/DCTP, Porto, Portugal) and Professor Rodrigo Christofoletti (Federal University of Juiz de Fora, UFJF, MG, Brazil).

In Paris, he continued his activity as a caricaturist, even exhibiting at the Salon des Humoristes and collaborating with specialised newspapers. He began painting around 1913, encouraged by friends who offered him canvases, paints and brushes. His first model was Diogo de Macedo and portraiture was one of the genres he practised most.

Armando de Basto is represented in the collection of the Soares dos Reis National Museum by nine paintings, some of which are on the long-term exhibition.

Image Credits: Oil on canvas Self-portrait by Armando Basto, 1917. @Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis

Bibliographic source

In the Camellia Garden, located in the centre of the building and accessed from the riding arena, you can see various species of Camellia.

In the Rainha D. Amélia Velodrome Garden, which is the result of a landscaping project by the architect Fernando Távora, you can see a significant part of the Lapidary collection, as well as material memories of the Rainha D. Amélia Velodrome, inaugurated in 1894.

The Carrancas Palace began to be built in 1795. Its design is attributed to the architect Joaquim da Costa Lima Sampaio, who worked on the construction of the Hospital de Santo António, by the Englishman John Carr, and the Feitoria Inglesa, by John Whitehead.

The project divided the property into three main areas: a residence, a garden inside the building and a cultivation area at the back. In 1861, the Carrancas Palace was acquired by King Pedro V to become the official residence of the royal family during their visits to the north of the country and was renovated.

In 1915, it was donated to Misericórdia through the will of King Manuel II, who wanted to build a hospital there, but this never materialised. Later, the State bought the palace to house the Soares dos Reis National Museum, which had been founded in 1833 and was housed in the Santo António Convent, now the Porto Municipal Public Library.

The Carrancas Palace was once again adapted for its new function and in 1940 the Soares dos Reis National Museum, the oldest public art museum in Portugal, was inaugurated here.

Between 1992 and 2001, the building underwent a series of major refurbishments by architect Fernando Távora. Outside there is a patio with pink walls and tiles that gives way to a garden sheltered by the building’s walls. The green space with lawns gives full prominence to the camellias.

The exhibition focuses on six periods of tension, namely 1383-85, 1640, 1820, 1836, 1910 and 1974, to tell stories of resistance and change, the reinvention of identity values, human rights and freedom.

Based on the stories of specific characters on the ground where the actions took place, the exhibition explores the transformations in the historical political, social and cultural landscape that have unfolded in Lisbon.

Curated by Daniel Alves, the exhibition features around 135 pieces from the Museum of Lisbon’s collection and more than 40 external institutions, including the Soares dos Reis National Museum, providing a Snuff-box, an engraving of Dom Miguel (pictured) and the oil on canvas ‘Prison of the Duchess of Mantua’.

‘Descent from the Cross’, a sacred painting dating from 1827, is part of a group of four late paintings by Domingos Sequeira, executed in Rome, where the artist died in 1837.

Domingos Sequeira is considered to be the most talented and original Portuguese painter of his time, having played a fundamental role in the development of Portuguese art in the early 19th century.

Photo credits: MMP/MNSR © Rui Pinheiro

As part of the International Museum Day programme, a public talk was held yesterday evening on the possible similarities between Portuguese and Spanish artists of Naturalism, focusing on the collections of each of the museums represented.

Moderated by António Ponte, Director of the Soares dos Reis National Museum, the conversation included the participation of the Director of the MUBAG, who presented the contents and exhibition programmes, and the technicians María José Gadea Capó and María Gazabat Barbado, who held a dialogue with Ana Paula Machado, Manager of the Soares dos Reis National Museum’s Painting Collection.

By the end of the year, a delegation from the Portuguese Museum will visit MUBAG to strengthen exchange commitments and co-operation projects.

Juan de Dios Navarro considered this trip to the Soares dos Reis National Museum to be “a fundamental action for culture to transcend borders, and to start collaborating and getting to know both museums, which from this meeting are twinned and committed to future projects”.

For António Ponte, Director of the Soares dos Reis National Museum, the exchange with MUBAG consolidates the museum’s internationalisation strategy, adding that there will be exhibitions and exchange initiatives based on the museums’ respective collections.

As the Romantic period was characterised by a focus on introspection and an appreciation of emotions, it proved to be a favourable time for renewed critical analysis in the arts, particularly in the pursuit of the Gothic, from which new ideas emerged that have continually evolved to the present day.

Maria Carolina da Silva Rocha, a 4th year Communication Design student at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, also collaborated in the exhibition.

The exhibition opens on 18 May and will be open to the public until 30 June.

According to the well-established principle of causality, we tend to believe that past events influence the present. Applied to Art History, this emphasizes the authority that past masters exert over later artists.

In this lecture we will argue that, on the contrary, it is the present that influences the past, acting retroactively on it. We will therefore try to reveal this interested retroactivity of art and architecture, particularly “modern” art and architecture, which, in order to assert – precisely – their paradoxical modernity, have invoked all kinds of memorable origins and built all kinds of genealogies. Origins as prestigious as they are uncertain – as apparently noble as they are conveniently imaginary – suspended in a Time without time and a History without history. The “theory of suspicion” will be our beginning. And Benjamin’s affirmation of modernity as “the epoch of hell” will be our motto.

Juan José Lahuerta is Professor of Art History at the Barcelona School of Architecture. He has taught at universities such as the IUAV in Venice and New York University, among others. He was curator of the Picasso Museum in Barcelona and head of collections at the National Art Museum of Catalonia. His latest books include Religious Painting. Picasso and Max Von Moos (2015); Marginalia. Aby Warburg, Carl Einstein (2015); Photography or Life: Popular Mies (2015); On Loos, Ornament, and Crime (2015); Antoni Gaudí. Fuego y cenizas (2016) and Arte en la época del infierno (2022). He has curated exhibitions such as Picasso. Románico (MNAC, Barcelona, in collaboration with the Musée Picasso, Paris, 2015); Gaudí (MNAC, Barcelona and Musée d’Orsay, Paris, 2022) and Julio González. Being an Artist (IVAM, Valencia, 2023). He is a member of the scientific board of Casabella (Milan) and founding director of the Mudito & Co publishing house (Barcelona, New York, Venice).

Scientific Research and Technological Development Project on the Architecture of Álvaro Siza Vieira FCT: SIZA/CPT/0021/2019

Funded by:

Foundation for Science and Technology, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education; Ministry of Culture; Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto; Centre for Architecture and Urbanism Studies.

Supported by:

Soares dos Reis National Museum; Serralves Foundation; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation; CCA; Drawing Matter; Casa da Arquitectura; Marques da Silva Foundation, Irmandade dos Clérigos and Conservatório de Música do Porto.

Francisco Vieira settled in London from 1789, where he met the famous painter Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) and the engraver Francesco Bartolozzi (1725-1815). During his stay in London, he took part in the 1798 and 1799 editions of the Royal Academy of Arts Exhibition, was commissioned to paint the new church of the Venerable Third Order of St Francis of Porto and presented Bodoni with the project of publishing a work on Camões.

In 1800, after his return to Portugal, he was hired by the Board of Directors of the Companhia Geral de Agricultura e das Vinhas do Alto Douro to teach drawing at the Royal Academy of Marine and Commerce in Porto.

Between 1801 and 1802 he worked in Lisbon on the illustrations for an edition of “Os Lusíadas”, promoted by Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho (1801-1802). On 1 July 1803, Francisco Vieira was appointed director of the Royal Academy of Marine and Commerce in Porto.

Vieira Portuense, as Francisco Vieira became known to distinguish himself from Vieira Lusitano, was the most travelled of the Portuguese artists of his time, studying in Europe where he experienced masterpieces of great masters and the most important artists and patrons. A cultured and multilingual man, Francisco Vieira returned to Portugal to share with Domingos Sequeira the status of painter to Regent João VI.

He is represented in the long-term exhibition at the Soares dos Reis National Museum, where we highlight the Escape of Margaret of Anjou (pictured), painted by Francisco Vieira Portuense during the time he lived in London. It was presented at the Royal Academy of Arts exhibition in 1798 and was inspired by David Hume’s History of England, published between 1754 and 1762.

The episode depicted took place during the War of the Two Roses (1455 – 1485), which pitted the families of Lancaster and York against each other in the dispute for the throne of England. The scene depicts a moment when Queen Margaret of Anjou fled with her son Edward to Scotland. This is perhaps the most emotional moment in the entire plot, reinforced here by the positioning of the figures at the mercy of a monumental landscape.

Bibliographic source

The painting was bought on 10 March as part of the TEFAF art and antiques fair in Maastricht, in close cooperation with the public company Museus e Monumentos de Portugal, with which the Livraria Lello Foundation has signed a commitment for the public enjoyment of the artwork.

‘Descent from the Cross’, a sacred painting dating from 1827, is part of a group of four late paintings by Domingos Sequeira, painted in Rome, where the artist died in 1837.

Domingos Sequeira is considered to be the most talented and original Portuguese painter of his time, having played a fundamental role in the development of Portuguese art at the beginning of the 19th century.

The son of a boatman and born into a poor family in 1768, Domingos Sequeira was educated at Casa Pia, where he attended the Drawing and Figure course.

With a royal grant from King Maria I, he received painting and drawing lessons from Antonio Cavallucci in Rome. On his return to Lisbon, he was appointed court painter by the future King João VI and was co-responsible for the painting of the Ajuda Palace. He also taught drawing and painting to the Royal Family and, in 1806, directed the class at the Marine Academy in Porto.

In the context of the French invasions, Domingos Sequeira established friendships with Napoleonic army officers, such as the Count of Forbin, an officer and amateur painter. This approach earned him a commission for an allegorical representation of General Junot’s protective action over Lisbon. The oil on canvas Junot protecting the city of Lisbon dates from 1808 and is in the collection of the Soares dos Reis National Museum.

Thanks to this activity, Sequeira was seen as a collaborator of the occupying enemy and was therefore the target of persecution and condemnation proceedings from which he was only rehabilitated at great cost. The last years of his life were spent in Rome, where he devoted himself mainly to religious painting.

Long-term Exhibition

With a history spanning almost 200 years, this exhibition begins a new era in the museum’s history. It is taking on a distinctive and critical repositioning that is manifested in a new look at its collections.

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Temporary Exbitions

Zaffre Blue Tin-Glazed Earthenware From the Miragaia Factory

Sound installation ECO ( ) LAPSO

In addition to the sound material from various audio recordings of 25 April 1974, Sonoscopia and a wide range of artists made field recordings throughout Portugal 50 years later, in order to create a sound map, making a temporal counterpoint.

ECO ( ) LAPSO is the result of an invitation from the Soares dos Reis National Museum to Sonoscopia to create an exhibition on the theme of ‘Freedom and Transgressions’, which will run through the Museum’s entire programme in 2024.

Henrique Fernandes is a founding member of Sonoscopia, an association for the creation, production and promotion of artistic and educational projects, centred on experimental music, sound research and its transdisciplinary intersections.

Curated by Rui Pinheiro, this project has the patronage support of Millennium bcp and Lusitânia Seguros.

Opening 11 May | 6 pm | Free admission

Parallel programme

27 June (Thursday), 18h00
Meeting with artists from the ECO ( ) LAPSO project

27 July (Saturday), 18h00
Concert/Performance with artists from the ECO ( ) LAPSO project

The bequest includes artworks by Abel Salazar, Alvarez, Ana Jotta, Ana Vidigal, António Carneiro, António Palolo, Artur Loureiro, Ayres de Gouveia, Cargaleiro, Cruzeiro Seixas, Eduardo Luiz, Ernesto Condeixa, Francisco José de Resende, Fernanda Fragateiro, Francisco Smith, Jorge Queirós, Júlio, Júlio Resende, Mário Botas, Marques de Oliveira, Nikias Skapinakis, Paula Rego, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Pedro Portugal, Sá Nogueira, Sousa Pinto, etc.

Hundreds of objects have now been incorporated into the Museum’s collection and, after a period of study and technical treatment, will be available in the long-term exhibitions and temporary exhibitions of various kinds.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum is deeply grateful to the donators, believing that this gesture of generosity in favour of the community may also stimulate other donations from private collections.

In the first edition, in 2024, under the theme Contemporary Jewellery and curated by Inês Nunes, the artistic community is challenged to develop creative and innovative proposals for contemporary jewellery in close relation to selected works from the Museum’s collection. The result of these participations will then be presented in an annual exhibition that will demonstrate the affinities between the Museum’s piece and the creations of the various artists.

Rui Lopes Ferreira, CEO of the Super Bock Group, said: “Supporting culture and the arts is a strong commitment of the Super Bock Group, one that we have had for many years, certain of its importance for the development of stronger and more prosperous societies. We do this by favouring close relationships that benefit the communities in which we operate, the quality of the projects themselves and the credibility of the institutions responsible for them.”

For António Ponte, Director of the Soares dos Reis National Museum, this project consolidates the strategic action of activating the Museum’s relationship with its ‘Neighbours’, closing the proximity perimeter: “After the partnership actions already carried out with the Centro Hospitalar Universitário de Santo António (Santo António Hospital, Centro Materno Infantil do Norte Albino Aroso and Centro Integrado de Cirurgia de Ambulatório), as well as with ICBAS – Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar, the ‘Affinities’ project will make it possible to strengthen the connection to the Bombarda Quarter, energising and stimulating the creativity of the artists installed there around the collections that make up the Soares dos Reis National Museum’s holdings.”

The Siza Baroque programme will run throughout the year with the participation of the project’s researchers and their consultants. It also includes an exhibition at the Soares dos Reis National Museum and a closing concert, with a ‘baroque-contemporary’ composition (like Siza’s work), at the Clérigos Church in Porto.

For Álvaro Siza, “architecture is continuity and transformation. Starting with thought and gaze, with the material that comes from the pencil, it combines an attempt to understand our universe from a small partial order, in order to improve it later.

The idea of the project as continuity calls for an understanding that the project is linked to events that took place before and will continue long afterwards. The architect designs between times, merges his gestures with the environment, accommodating them, always aspiring for his projects to qualify places.

This continuity between the project and the place, which is born when the drawing begins to decipher its keys, can be extended to the continuity of the drawing itself, from the first visit to the place to the construction process, to this continuous drawing and, in reciprocity, to the hand that moves as the earth would like to move with the projects. In a reflection written about Aalto, Siza indicated that we should “include everything in the drawing”, “take everything as a stimulus”, alluding to the desire for everything to eventually find its place in the project”.

“Siza and Picasso” @Photography by Fernando Guerra

Scientific Research and Technological Development Project on the Architecture of Álvaro Siza Vieira FCT: SIZA/CPT/0021/2019

Funded by:

Foundation for Science and Technology, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education; Ministry of Culture; Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto; Centre for Architecture and Urbanism Studies.

Supported by:

Soares dos Reis National Museum; Serralves Foundation; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation; CCA; Drawing Matter; Casa da Arquitectura; Marques da Silva Foundation, Irmandade dos Clérigos and Conservatório de Música do Porto.

José Malhoa divided his life between Lisbon and Figueiró dos Vinhos, where he lived in a house better known as cocoon of Malhoa.

Disapproved twice for the State scholarship in Paris, he temporarily abandoned painting until, in 1881, the painting A Seara Invadida em Madrid (The Invaded Harvest in Madrid) gained him critical appreciation.

As one of the founders of Grupo do Leão, he joined the Naturalist movement generated around Silva Porto. He exhibited at the Sociedade Promotora de Belas-Artes (1880, 1884, 1887), the Grupo do Leão (1881 to 1889), the Grémio Artístico (1891 to 1899) and, since 1901, he was a regular presence in the salons of the National Society of Fine Arts. He received the Medal of Honor (1903) and several First Medals from this Society and was elected its President in 1918.

Image
Self-portrait of José Malhoa (1928) @Museu José Malhoa

This group included the art critic Fernando Pernes and the curator Etheline Rosas who, from 1976, directed the activities of the Contemporary Art Centre.

In four years, various cultural activities were organised and around 100 exhibitions were presented, including important retrospective exhibitions by artists such as António Pedro, Júlio dos Reis Pereira, Augusto Gomes, Júlio Resende, Alberto Carneiro and Ângelo de Sousa.

Photo credits @Manuel Magalhães

In Paris, until 1870, he attended the Imperial School of Fine Arts and the lessons of Professor François Jouffroy (1806-1882). In 1872, he returned to Portugal because of the Franco-Prussian War, after joining a student battalion. From Lisbon he travelled to Rome, where he came into contact with various sculpture collections and met António Soares dos Reis.

Soares dos Reis is also the author of the Portrait of Simões de Almeida (pictured), which belongs to the collection of the Soares dos Reis National Museum. This medallion was cast in bronze in 1940 by the Centenary Executive Committee, reproducing the original plaster model dated 1884.

Simões de Almeida taught drawing and sculpture at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts for 31 years, where he trained several generations of artists. He was also acting director of the National Museum of Ancient Art between 9 March and 5 July 1905.

Source: PEREIRA, José Fernandes (dir.) – Dicionário de escultura portuguesa. Lisbon : Caminho, 2005.