When sculpture sought to be only sculpture

Arlindo Rocha Sculptures

When sculpture sought to be only sculpture

Ana Luísa Oliveira

MASTER IN PUBLIC SCULPTURE

Dissertation oriented by Professor Doctor José Carlos Pereira

2011

LISBON UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF FINE ART

Arlindo Gonçalves da Rocha, sculptor born in Oporto, was in conjunction with Fernando Fernandes and Manuel Pereira da Silva, one of the pioneers of abstract sculpture in Portugal. A study trip to Oporto in 2008 was the starting point of the research on the work of Arlindo Rocha, which proved to be a great artistic estate in rich and diverse materials and styles. His work raised some initial issues, in particular by the presence of two distinct artistic languages, one founded on neo-figurative values and another, more solid and innovative for its time, pioneer of a neoplastic language, in the register of Portuguese sculpture. For a better understanding of this issue, this dissertation starts an attempt to understand the time in which the sculptor lived. By knowing more about his time we can understand the reason why his first experiences of an abstractive art emerged timidly, which was intended to be modern and abstract, but remained neo-figurative. As such, this work will also look into the analysis of some sculptures by Arlindo Rocha, where we recognize a pioneer landmark, especially in the exploration of new artistic languages, which help us in understanding the overall work of this sculptor.

Sculptor Fernando Fernandes

Bust of the sculptor Fernando Fernandes by the sculptor Manuel Pereira da Silva.

Bust of Fernando Fernandes made by Manuel Pereira da Silva

1946 Bust of Fernando Fernandes made by Manuel Pereira da Silva.

Born on 11 April 1924, in Braga. In 1949, concluded the Course of Sculpture in the Oporto Academy of Fine Arts.


In 1952, participated in the exhibition at Modern Art of the National Intelligence with the work Piet. The logic and syllogism, in 1953, the first abstract sculptures presented in a school, getting the classification of 19 values.

The logic and syllogism.

After finished the course, Fernando Fernandes attends the School of Fine Arts in Paris and the Slade School of Art in London. It had a fellowship of the Institute of High Culture and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Represented Portugal in the II and V Biennial of Modern Art of São Paulo in 1953 and 1959

Fernando Fernandes was colleague and fiend of Manuel Pereira da Silva in adventurous stay in Paris in 1946 and 1947, along with the Painter Júlio Resende and the Sculptor Eduardo Tavares who came to be user of the Manuel Pereira da Silva studio, which also occurred later, with the Sculptor Aureliano Lima and the Painter Reis Teixeira.