Abstract
This article addresses the creative experience of Paula Rego, Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos, João Cutileiro e Jorge Vieira in London, during the 1950s. Their journeys between Portugal and the United Kingdom evidence the complex political map of post-war Western Europe, which encompassed two distinct realities, democracy and dictatorship. Although these artists' departure from Portugal was not motivated by political concerns, their work incorporated a critical attitude against Portuguese dictatorship and its colonial politics. The creative experimentalism that the contact with new artistic references brought up became, then, associated with an attitude of resistance against the Portuguese regime and its promotion of a politically-oriented image of Portugal's history and identity, thus formulating a new iconography of dissent. The works produced by these artists must, therefore, be understood both at the national and international level, as expressions of contemporaneity and of its multiple experiences.
Translated title of the contribution | Iconographies of resistance: The case of four Portuguese artists in London in the 1950s |
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Original language | Portuguese |
Pages (from-to) | 187-212 |
Number of pages | 26 |
Journal | Ler História |
Issue number | 74 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2019 |
Keywords
- British art
- Emigration
- Identity
- Political resistance
- Portuguese dictatorship