On 25 November, at 4pm, the Soares dos Reis National Museum will host the conference “Sculpture and the Artwork of Delfim Maya”, which will include a round table discussion, a book launch and the presentation of the Delfim Maya Prize.
Delfim Maya’s work raises several issues that are unequivocally in sync with the modernity of Portuguese and European sculpture, and these aspects will be addressed by Fátima Lambert and Samuel Rama. Maria Maya, the sculptor’s granddaughter, will present her latest book “The Modernism of Delfim Maya”, followed by a brief presentation of the Delfim Maya prize.
The Delfim Maya Sculptor Award aims to publicise the work of the sculptor Delfim Maya (Porto, 1886 – Lisbon, 1978), the first to introduce cut sheet metal sculpture to Portugal in 1934.
Maria José Maya
Maria José Maya has a Master’s degree in Art History from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of Universidade Nova de Lisboa, which she completed in 2022.
Delfim Maya’s granddaughter, she has been researching and writing about him for many years.
She is the promoter of the Delfim Maya sculptor prize, which runs until the end of December 2023, in collaboration with ESAD.CR – Caldas da Rainha School of Arts and Design, the League of Friends of the José Malhoa Museum and some Higher Education Institutions.
He organised the conference and exhibition “A self-taught modernist: Delfim Maya (1886- 1978)” at the National Library.
She took part in the digital catalogue of the “History of the Art Exhibitions of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation”, writing about Delfim Maia, Hein Semke, Canto da Maia and Emmerico Nunes, in 2019.
Fátima Lambert
Graduated in Philosophy (1982), Master in Philosophy/Aesthetics (1986) and PhD in Aesthetics/Philosophy – Faculty of Philosophy Braga/U. Católica Portuguesa (1998). She is a Coordinating Professor – Aesthetics and Education – at the Escola Superior Educação/Politécnico do Porto, where she coordinates the Heritage Management degree and the Heritage, Arts and Cultural Tourism Master’s programme.
She coordinates the research line on Culture, Art and Education – InED (FCT)/ESE-P.Porto, of which she was director. She is a member of various scientific and editorial committees for scientific journals in Portugal, Spain and Brazil. She is an art critic (member of AICA) and independent curator. Her main lines of research are: Aesthetic Education and Contemporary Art; [In]visibility of women in history: thought, work and action; Travellers: writers and artists in the 19th century; Landscape, Journey and Utopia; Writing, Image and Performance – intermediality. She publishes regularly in scientific journals, and is the author of books and monographs.
Samuel Rama
Graduated in Visual Arts from the Caldas da Rainha School of Arts and Design, where he has taught since 2003. Doctorate in Visual Arts in 2013. Researcher at LIDA – Laboratório de Investigação em Design e Artes.
His work focuses on researching the intricate and complex relationship between the mediums of sculpture, drawing and photography and notions of landscape. His solo exhibitions include: Inhabit the Penumbra (2005), Módulo – Centro Difusor de Arte, Porto; MAGMA (2008), Galeria 111 – Lisbon and Porto, SCANNING (2010) Arquivo Fotográfico de Lisboa, Lisbon; MEGAPARSECS (2012) Teatro da Politécnica, Lisbon.
Finalist in the IV International Expanded Painting Prize (2007), Museo de Bellas Artes de Castellón, Spain and the X Mostra Internacional UNION FENOSA (2008), Museo de Arte Contemporâneo União Fenosa, Coruña, Spain.