The exhibition covers the theme of ‘zaffre blue’ earthenware, so called because of the shade of color of its glaze, produced at the Miragaia Factory in Porto and dating from 1775 to 1822.

The museological organization of the exhibition promotes the relationship between this collection and other decorative arts collections at the Soares dos Reis National Museum, which precede the modern concept of design, valuing its contextualization and interpretation with approaches to history and European plastic arts, namely Painting, Drawing and Engraving.

The exhibition and its guide are intended to increase the visibility and knowledge of the ceramics collection at the Soares dos Reis National Museum, one of the most important ceramics collections held by Portuguese national museums, establishing the relationship between the influences of English culture on the production of the Miragaia Factory.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum preserves a collection of around 180 pieces from the Miragaia Factory, resulting from different incorporations.

The exhibition will be open until June 23, 2024, with the patronage of AOF-Augusto Oliveira Ferreira and Lusitânia Seguros, as well as the support of Círculo Dr. José de Figueiredo – Amigos do Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis.

The Soares dos Reis National Museum has been sharing its collections with contemporary artists, challenging them to new perspectives and unexpected dialogues. This is the case with the exhibition of drawings by Teresa Gonçalves Lobo, which curator Bernardo Pinto de Almeida fits “into this programme, which focuses on a review of the objects in the Soares dos Reis National Museum’s collection, integrating Teresa Gonçalves Lobo’s drawings into a dialogue with works by Domingos Sequeira, the great Portuguese artist of the transition from the 18th to the 19th century.”

According to the curator, “the reason for choosing Sequeira to open a dialogue with Teresa Gonçalves Lobo’s works was that he found in both their works the same sense of the plastic and metamorphic invention of drawing which, clearly experienced in its expressive plane, accentuates the possibility of spreading out over surfaces, making the choreography of countless lines vibrate as a way of suggesting the presence of forms which, although unrecognisable in a figurative mode, nevertheless function as forms of a figuration.”

Teresa Gonçalves Lobo (Funchal, 1968), whose work began more than two decades ago, focused early on drawing as an expressive field where 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 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.

In the dialogue that is the basis of this exhibition, we can see how a similar approach to drawing and the way of scratching occurs in the works of both artists, despite the long distance in time that separates them, but whose purpose of giving birth to the form of this use of scratching brings them closer together.

Landscape is an exhibition made up of a selection of photographs from the family archive of José Zagalo Ilharco, an amateur photographer who left a significant oeuvre, few of which are known, in a valuable testimony to the landscapes of Portugal at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.

José Zagalo Ilharco (Lamego, 1860 – Porto, 1910), an amateur photographer who won an international award for his image of the Souza River, devoted himself primarily to landscape photography, but also to the anthropology of spaces, an example of which are the images now unveiled of Porto and Matosinhos.

The reproductions of the best images he produced were put together in an album by his son Norberto de Melo Zagalo Ilharco in two volumes (1947) and, being the property of his heirs, are being made public in recognition of his legacy.

The selection presented at the Soares dos Reis National Museum includes, among originals and reproductions, mainly landscapes of Matosinhos, Leça da Palmeira, Porto and the Douro.

Also noteworthy among the images presented is a group of photographs taken in 1893 of the Maria Amélia velodrome, produced before its inauguration at the back of the Royal Palace of Porto, where the Soares dos Reis National Museum is currently located.

The exhibition will also include a copy of the magazine O Tripeiro (May 1946), signed with a dedication by Vasco Valente, in which an article by the then Director of the Soares dos Reis National Museum is published about the Real Velo Club do Porto, of which José Zagalo Ilharco was a founding member.

The installation presents the nine infernal circles, each representing different stories and concepts in an eternal cycle of experiences and rebirth. A metaphor for human life, with a beginning, complexity and a point of arrival that is also a new beginning. The objective is to stimulate a unique moment of reflection and decision in the Lionesa Business Hub community.

This partnership between Soares dos Reis National Museum and the Lionesa Business Hub is the result of a patronage protocol that the Lionesa Group signed with the Museum and which went towards the requalification of rooms in the Palácio dos Carrancas. This initiative reinforces the orientation towards cultural democracy, awakening to the themes of well-being through art and culture.

The exhibition is free to access and will be open until Mars 2024. Everyday from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

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.

Aware of the demands of an increasingly proactive and knowledgeable society, it seeks to provide opportunities for new readings and new narratives, always valuing the cultural heritage it integrates and honoring the history of which it is heir.

This long-term exhibition thus allows a global view of the Soares dos Reis National Museum in a journey with two complementary narratives. The first reflects its history and the way in which the collections were integrated and the second values the artists and their works.

An invitation to appreciate the iconic works of all times and an opportunity to glimpse new discoveries in a unique space that belongs to everyone and for everyone.

What do we expect? To bring the Soares dos Reis National Museum closer to its history, assuming itself as a cultural and artistic institution of reference, with a collection of international dimension.

An essential place for knowledge, a special place for leisure, discovery, questioning, a place for people… come in, visit, see, observe, enjoy and… come back!

Sine Terra (variations in minor key) is a video installation by José Carlos Teixeira around the sculpture O Desterrado (The Exiled), by António Soares dos Reis, which explores concepts related to the falling, multiple and fragmented identity, exile and various types of displacement. The artist proposes a new gaze at the emotions that O Desterrado (The Exiled) conveys to visitors and simultaneously presents a poetic meditation and documentary piece around the sculpture produced in Rome 150 years ago by the Museum’s patron.

José Carlos Teixeira presents two tempi: a more objective and factual one in the framing of the sculpture in situ along with the research about Soares dos Reis, combined with a more subjective and essayistic tempo – of this project’s creation and composition, stemming from his own autobiographical motivations, as an author, visual artist, and emigrant/immigrant.

The soundtrack for the video installation is played on the harpsichord by Fernando Miguel Jalôto, with pieces by Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) and Vasco Negreiros (1965), and includes the recitation in Portuguese and English of poems by Portuguese and foreign authors such as Alexandre Herculano, author of the poem Tristezas do Desterro, which inspired Soares dos Reis to sculpt O Desterrado (The Exiled).

Aurélia’s houses, places where her painting lives, where, in the flow of days, looks, memories and idiosyncrasies intersect.Show a painting or photograph it. Appropriation. Distant reverence or passion, indifference or filial love, dilettantism or obsession, but always appropriation. Prolonging desire and restlessness, showing a painting, wherever and however we do it, requires a representation device, which, almost always by default, exposes and reveals us. In Aurélia’s homes there are many such “self-portraits”, insubmissive, indiscreet, treacherous at times, demanding the photographer’s attention and sensitivity at every step.

The photographic campaign carried out for Aurélia de Souza’s catalog raisonée, which will allow for a systematic inventory of all her work in public and private collections, was the starting point for Rui Pinheiro’s exhibition. The places where the pieces were photographed, in many cases the living rooms of private collectors, are revealed by the photographer and give a new context to the artist’s legacy. The visitor is confronted with more than 30 photographs of interior spaces that relate to paintings and drawings by Aurélia de Souza, as if proposing new stories.

The exhibition is sponsored by the BPI La Caixa Foundation and institutionally supported by Círculo Dr. José de Figueiredo – Friends of the Soares dos Reis National Museum.

Based on the project Chiado, Carmo, Paris / Arts in the Public Sphere, which aims to highlight the artistic production of Dordio Gomes and bring him closer to different spaces, the MNSR puts on the exhibition CHIADO, CARMO, PARIS THE PLACES OF DORDIO GOMES AND THE FORKS OF PAINTING in the cultural agenda of Porto, the city where the artist and pedagogue taught for 30 years. Its integration into the MNSR’s programming is also related to the presence of very relevant works by the modernist painter in its collection.

The result of a partnership with the Faculty of Fine Arts in Granada, Spain, the exhibition reflects the training of different generations. It includes contemporary plastic works by 24 Portuguese and foreign artists inspired by Manuel Ángeles Ortiz (1895-1984), one of the main representatives of the Spanish School of Paris, with a path parallel to that of Dórdio Gomes in the Parisian artistic world at the beginning of the 20th century. The artists’ appropriations, which present pieces of painting, drawing, sculpture and engraving, continue the artistic, pedagogical and aesthetic change, characteristics of Dórdio Gomes.

The exhibition’s parallel program includes a conference, at the MNSR, on April 20th around the journey and legacy of the painter and pedagogue Dordio Gomes.

With the presentation of Ana Cristina Jorge’s proposal – Scientific drawing and its pedagogical-cultural aspect in the imagery of Angolan artefacts in the museum context and as a factor in enhancing the collection and source of its own financing – we began a new way of disseminating it to the public research work on some of the museum’s collections. In this case, a group of Angolan artefacts that have been in reserve since 1940.

The work of designing and building object prototypes, for sale in the museum store, is an opportunity to reflect on the potential contained in the works we preserve, beyond the issues of historical representation or aesthetic meaning that we usually reveal.

This exhibition was part of the project, “Materials and Techniques of Painters from the North of Portugal developed by the Catholic University School of Arts’ Centre for Research on the Science and Technology of the Arts.

This exhibition presents 200 works from a universe of several hundred that the painter created. It is structured in groups, organized, initially, according to a chronological criterion and throughout the rest of the presentation according to a thematic criterion.

Artur Loureiro attended the Academy of Fine Arts between 1870 and 1875 and had the opportunity to visit European centers with a great artistic tradition, as well as closely following the aesthetic renewal movements of the late 19th century.

When Artur Loureiro arrived in Porto in 1901, he settled in the studio-school he opened in the Palácio de Cristal to continue his activity as a painter and teacher.

He held annual exhibitions to present and sell his paintings, as well as one to present his students’ work.

The exhibition is born from an attempt to test new understandings of drawing in the field of architectural practice, valuing above all the multiplicity of authorial expressions and the experimental nature of the sketched solutions.

It brings together around 200 drawings. The selection of the works presented came from the commissioners’ visits to ateliers, municipal archives and documentation centers, seeking to inventory a significant sample of the practice of drawing as an instrument of thought in resolving realized or merely projected architectural programs.

This initiative, which Cooperativa Árvore promotes every year among its members, invites the participation of all creative partners in all forms of expression. This year the exhibition brings together at MNSR a set of 169 original works – painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, tapestry, drawing, graphic work, among others.

The exhibition is presented as the highlight of the “Space, Body and Wellbeing” cycle, promoted by the University of Porto (U.Porto) and the MNSR, and the result of a joint venture between the U.Porto, the MNSR and the Serralves Foundation. In a unique circuit, it presents paintings by Paula Rego, from the Serralves collection, and pieces from the Anatomy museums of the Faculty of Medicine of the U.Porto and the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences. The cycle also features conferences, installations and performances with the common objective of debating the body and its surroundings.

The exhibition is the result of the work developed in the new Curricular Unit of the University of Porto Culture, Art and Heritage: the museum as a place of enjoyment, which brings together undergraduate and master’s students from different areas such as Management, Law, Veterinary Science, Architecture or Fine Arts.
Reflecting the focus on collaborative projects and unlikely curations, the exhibition reinforces interaction with the MNSR’s audiences. In the third edition of the DEPOSITORIUM cycle, the pieces were selected from the painting, sculpture, jewelry, ceramics and textile reserves.
The proposal that the commissioners make to visitors is in line with the concept of a blind date with a work of art. At the entrance, a questionnaire is provided that suggests a match with one of the 15 works of art present and the visitor will have to find it, being confronted on the circuit by other pieces.

Magellan and the Peoples of Fire and Sea, designed by the Chilean agency AL SUR.REAL, documented how the native peoples of southern Chile welcomed Ferdinand Magellan’s fleet during the first circumnavigation.
From a free application available for mobile devices, visitors made their way through an augmented reality circuit of images displayed in watercolours and showing how these transhumant peoples lived; particularly how they navigated, hunted and what rituals they performed.

Renato Ferrão presents new works in a site-specific exhibition-installation. The visitor is confronted with a set of projection machines that claim an appropriate iconographic imagery, related to the alchemy of the image and its phantasmagoria.
The exhibition is part of the Orbital project program, a co-production between Cooperativa Árvore and MNSR that reinforces the concept of movement, of orbit between places, and that covers several disciplinary areas, from visual arts to cinema.

The exhibition is constructed from pieces from the 19th century and early 20th century belonging to the collection of the Science Museum of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto. This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to revisit the history of teaching and scientific research in the city of Porto. To bring together the assets that the University of Porto now brings to the entire community, the dedication of teachers who, over time, have preserved and conserved the instruments, allowing them to reach the present day. Only in this way is it possible to have a historical perspective of the technical education that was taught in the institutions that preceded the Faculty of Sciences and what took place in the first decades of this school’s life. It will also be possible to evaluate some modern objects, enabling a comparison exercise.

This exhibition is part of the celebrations of the centenary of the University of Porto.

The exhibition with photographs by António Menéres marks the 50th anniversary of the first edition of popular architecture in Portugal, the result of the Survey of Portuguese regional architecture (1955-1961), a pioneering work in the study and dissemination of the most forgotten architectural heritage.

MNSR accepted the challenge that one of the newest architects involved in this remarkable project posed to us. Architect António Menéres was one of the collaborators of the national team, coordinated by architect Keil do Amaral. The architect Carvalho Dias promptly joined the group.

The exhibition presents a representative sample of cultural buildings from Spain’s recent history, some with a new plan and others that recover the architecture of other times. Among the authors of the projects are some of the masters of contemporary Spanish architecture, as well as authors from a younger generation who ensure the renewed continuity of this commitment to quality.

This exhibition teaches the techniques of animation cinema through the collection of Casa da Animação and films made in Portugal.

It is a historical and technical journey through animated cinema aimed at people of all ages who want to experience it. Volume animation, sand animation, cutout animation and animated painting are some of the animation cinema techniques that will be taught in the interactive exhibition.

The presentation of Portuguese animation film production materials is organized according to a pedagogical logic and equipment and workstations are installed in the workroom that will allow visitors to experience the production of their own animation exercises.

This is the largest and most valuable drawing collection ever assembled by a Portuguese school. In total, around 250 pieces belonging to the collection of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (FBAUP), some of which were specially acquired for this purpose, will be exhibited in the college’s galleries and rooms at the MNSR. The proposal is to make known, through drawing, the entire history of thought and establish a timeline for artistic education in the undefeated city.

The exhibition is divided into 3 sections, divided between MNSR and FBAUP. The MNSR hosts the third nucleus and is made up of more than 150 donated works from the 20th and 21st centuries. All the artists represented are linked to the Porto School of Fine Arts, such as Júlio Resende, Fernando Lanhas, Siza Vieira and Nadir Afonso. This exhibition concludes the centenary celebrations of the University of Porto.

This exhibition was part of the Millennium BCP Shared Art initiative. It brought together 13 tapestries from the Manufatura de Tapeçarias de Portalegre based on works by renowned Portuguese artists, such as Almada Negreiros, António Charrua, Costa Pinheiro, Cruzeiro Seixas, Graça Morais, José Guimarães, Júlio Pomar, Júlio Resende, Lourdes Castro, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva and Nadir Afonso belonging to the Millennium BCP art collection. The exhibition opened in Luxembourg, at the headquarters of the European Investment Bank.

The David Usborne collection, a collection created at the flea market and other street markets, testifies to the ancestral taste for collecting. Bringing together artifacts as diverse as tweezers and clamps, rotary machines, knives, agricultural instruments or surgical utensils, Usborne appears attentive and sensitive to the way in which Man has always been in search of unity between beauty and functionality.

The exhibition presents around 250 artefacts in 9 major categories, which correspond to the main actions and needs of Man, such as hitting, grabbing, cutting, shaping, spreading, protecting. Side by side, there are artisanal tools and industrially manufactured utensils, completely different in their technical formulation, but very similar in terms of their use and shape. Nothing is extra or superfluous.

Patrícia Garrido brought together furniture from different sources, such as the António Arroio Secondary School, the houses of unknown people and her parents’ apartment where she herself grew up. He sawed all the furniture into pieces of more or less identical size, glued them with Pattex glue and formed compact cubes weighing hundreds of kilos, one for each source. The artist transformed each set with the identity of whoever used it and sought to reflect the memories that each piece would have.

From a work that covers more than 70 years of activity by Ventura Porfírio, a relatively small set of drawings were chosen, all close in time, produced during a period of intense activity by the artist, between 1958 and 1967.

This drawing territory seeks to show the variety and unity of work based on long practice and a desire to experiment. Between speed and delay, between form and the boundaries of the formless, between similarity and contrast, these 13 drawings invite us on a journey that is both real and imaginary in that territory always full of surprises and new things that is the design.

The 50th anniversary of the Arrábida Bridge was the pretext for a retrospective of the representation of bridges in Portuguese art, featuring great names in 19th and 20th century painting. An exhibition co-organized by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto and MNSR, bringing together works by 64 of the main Portuguese artists of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, selected by Manuel Matos Fernandes and Bernardo Pinto de Almeida.