Today, the Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva, visited the Soares dos Reis National Museum, where he had the opportunity to visit the recently opened temporary exhibition Teresa Gonçalves Lobo and Domingos Sequeira: a dialogue in time, as well as Landscape, a temporary photography exhibition by José Zagalo Ilharco.
Accompanied by Pedro Sobrado, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Museus e Monumentos de Portugal, EPE, the Minister of Culture was received by Paula Oliveira, representing the Soares dos Reis National Museum.
The visit was also attended by the exhibition’s curator Bernardo Pinto de Almeida and the artist Teresa Gonçalves Lobo.
Pedro Adão e Silva said that the visit was motivated by his “interest and curiosity in seeing this particular exhibition [“Teresa Gonçalves Lobo and Domingos Sequeira: a dialogue in time”], because it corresponds to what a museum should stand for. In other words, the possibility of opening up and crossing paths between the collections that belong to the museum and the dialogue with what is currently being done on an artistic level.”
Considering that museums should not be seen as a kind of ‘dead archive’, where various pieces of historical interest are deposited, the Minister of Culture stressed the need to “stimulate the capacity for openness and dialogue [of museum collections] with contemporary art, in this particular case, the visual arts”, adding that “this dialogue and crossover is fundamental for museums to open up to society”, thus winning over new audiences.
Teresa Gonçalves Lobo (Funchal, 1968), whose career began more than two decades ago, focused from the outset on drawing as an expressive field in which she has developed remarkable research. She is represented in various private and institutional collections in Portugal and abroad.
Domingos Sequeira (Lisbon, 1768 – Rome, 1837), considered by some to be the most talented and original Portuguese painter of his time, played a fundamental role in the development of Portuguese art in the early 19th century.
The temporary exhibitions “Teresa Gonçalves Lobo and Domingos Sequeira: a dialogue in time” and “Landscape” will be open to the public at the Soares dos Reis National Museum until 28 April.