Portuguese abstract art is historically linked to the Portuguese artist group Independents' exhibitions. The exhibitions' main organizer and coordinator, painter and architect Fernando Lanhas, coincidentally is the central figure of Portuguese abstractionism. After the I Exhibition in April 1943 in the Fine Arts School of

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, with sculptures by Altino Maia, Mário Truta, Arlindo Rocha, Serafim Teixeira, Augusto Tavares and

Manuel Pereira da Silva image:Auto-retrato.jpg, 200px, Manuel Pereira da Silva Manuel Pereira da Silva (7 December 1920 – 2003) was a Portugal, Portuguese sculptor. He was born in Avintes, Portugal. The workmanship of Manuel Pereira da Silva has an abstract formal ...

, the Independents exhibitions were started when the sculptures were placed outside the school and several times outside Oporto. A first effort towards decentralization, this did not avoid a certain marginalization of the Oporto artists in events and initiatives of greater visibility and impact in the capital. Then the II Independents Exhibition shows were held in February 1944 at the Atheneum Commercial of Oporto, with sculptures by Altino Maia, Arlindo Rocha, Eduardo Tavares, Joaquim Meireles, Manuel da Cunha Monteiro, Maria Graciosa de Carvalho, Mário Truta, M. Félix de Brito,

and Serafim Teixeira. It would be from there that the action of Fernando Lanhas was felt in the consistent quality of the catalogue and the exhibitions, as well as in his persistence in keeping alive the initiatives. The III Independents Exhibition took place in the same year, in the hall of the Coliseum of Oporto, with sculptures by Abel Salazar, Altino Maia, António Azevedo, Arlindo Rocha, Eduardo Tavares, Henrique Moreira,

, Mário Truta and Sousa Caldas. In the catalogue of the exhibition that toured

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest cit ...

, Leiria and

Lisboa Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits w ...

in 1945, it was stated that the name of "Independents" is not a name at random but involves the awareness that art is a heritage of humanity and hence that "Our presence is varied, but should be understood that this enables us to build the future, as it also cannot deny us the right to remember the past." ''Escultura em Portugal no século XX (1910-69)'', 2007 For Fernando Lanhas, the "Independents Exhibition" of Oporto was a significant historical moment in Portuguese painting and sculpture. First, because, together, painters and sculptors of different training (the reason for the word "Independents" had no affiliation with any "ism" in particular) also engaged in a collective action and immersed themselves in the same enthusiasm. Second, because there appeared, without pre-concepts or complexes, original and fruitful abstraction, and, thirdly, because the artists escaped from the centralized voracity of the capital. Between 1946 and 1950, there were four more independent exhibitions in Bookstore Gallery Portugála, in Oporto in '46, '48 and '50, and in Braga in '49. From 1943 to 1950, exhibited in almost all expositions were the Independents painters Fernando Lanhas,

Júlio Resende Júlio Resende ( Faro, 10 June 1982) is a Portuguese pianist and composer. He is a pioneer of a unique and new genre called "Fado-Jazz". His improvisation techniques are transversal to his aesthetics, and articulate different musical genres, from ...

Júlio Pomar Júlio Artur da Silva Pomar, GOL, GCM (10 January 1926 – 22 May 2018) was a Portuguese painter and visual artist. He was often considered the greatest Portuguese painter of his generation. Early life and career (1940s and 1950s) Pomar first ...

Nadir Afonso Nadir Afonso, GOSE (4 December 1920 – 11 December 2013) was a Portuguese geometric abstractionist painter. Formally trained in architecture, which he practiced early in his career with Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, Nadir Afonso later stud ...

, Rui Pimentel, Dordio Gomes,

Carlos João Chambers Ramos Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewher ...

, Amândio Silva, António Lino,

Aníbal Alcino Aníbal is the Spanish and Portuguese masculine given name equivalent of Hannibal (q.v.), itself a latinization of the Greek name Hanníbas (Ἀννίβας), derived from “ḥnbʿl” in the Carthaginian language (Carthaginian Punic script, � ...

and

Vítor Palla Vítor is a Portuguese and Brazilian masculine given name, equivalent to Victor in English and Víctor in Spanish. Football athletes * Vítor Gonçalves (footballer, born 1896) (1896–1965), Portuguese * Vítor Silva (1909–1982), Portuguese ...

Exhibitions

*I Independents Exhibition, in the Escola Superior de Belas-Artes do Porto (1943). *II Independents Exhibition, in the Ateneu Comercial do Porto (1944). *III Independents Exhibition, in the

Coliseu do Porto The Coliseum of Porto ( pt, Coliseu do Porto) is a Portuguese theatre and concert venue in the municipality of Porto, in northern Portugal, with a capacity for a standing audience of 4000. A leading venue for music and cultural events in Porto, t ...

(1945).

References

MATOS, Lúcia Almeida. ''Escultura em Portugal no século XX (1910–69)'', 2007. Edição: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. {{DEFAULTSORT:Independents (Oporto Artist Group) 20th-century sculptors Abstract artists Portuguese painters Modern painters European artist groups and collectives Culture in Porto