The Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar (Atelier-Museum) will celebrate its 8th anniversary on 5 April by reopening to the public with the exhibition “Flora”. This exhibition will be displaying some of the pieces acquired by the Lisbon City Council (CML) and the Júlio Pomar Atelier-Museum for their respective collections during the years 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Taking its name from André Romão’s piece, “Flora”, this exhibition aims to raise awareness of the diversity and coexistence of epistemological themes and explorations in contemporary Portuguese art. It invites visitors to interact directly with the pieces, embracing the problems and questions they raise through three-dimensional, two-dimensional and sound materialisations.
FLORA, like the exhibition held three years ago at Torreão Nascente da Cordoaria, is organised, where possible, according to aesthetic connectedness and also by taking into account the qualities of the space provided by the Júlio Pomar Atelier-Museum.
The collection on display reflects the acquisitions made over the last three years and reaffirms the commitment of the CML to building and developing its collection, with a view to involving other artists in future and increasing the representativeness of those it consists of. It also serves to encourage art collections, both public and private. Building collections, whether publicly or privately owned, is a commitment that organisations forge with the history or art and its artists, allowing present and future generations to discover the foundations of their cultural roots as well as aesthetic, political and social choices, concerns and transformations.
Over recent years, the Júlio Pomar Atelier-Museum has also acquired a number of works by Júlio Pomar that have enriched the museum. This has allowed this monographic institution to develop new avenues of research, increasing its importance in the fabric of contemporary art.
It is also important to remember that, before any exhibition can take place, the works/collections must be catalogued, cared for, conserved, studied and organised; a whole raft of often-overlooked tasks which are completed by the institutions. In this case, they were taken care of by the Museum of Lisbon/EGEAC. By continuing to grow, take care of and display their collections, institutions play an essential role in solidifying artistic development, creating audiences and cultural aspirations and ambitions. 2020 and 2021 might not have been the most spectacular years in terms of dynamics, but they will probably come to be seen as fruitful, fallow years; the flowers then sown might blossom in coming years, showing us how everything moves in cycles and twists and turns, ups and downs, comings and goings, sinking and widening, shadow and light.
Acquiring works for the CML collection was resumed when the municipality appointed a commission in 2016, consisting of Sérgio Mah, Manuel Costa Cabral, José Luís Porfírio, Sara Antónia Matos (Júlio Pomar Atelier-Museum) and Joana Sousa Monteiro (Museum of Lisbon). Together they defined the acquisition criteria with the first purchases taking place during the 1st and 2nd editions of the contemporary art fair ARCOLisboa. They also served to encourage the initiative and acted as a stimulus to the market, with works by the following artists added to the CML collection: Alexandre Conefrey, Ana Manso, António Júlio Duarte, Armanda Duarte, Ângela Ferreira, Carlos Nogueira, Eduardo Batarda, Fernanda Fragateiro, João Jacinto, João Marçal, João Queiroz, José Loureiro, Luisa Cunha, Manuela Marques, Paulo Brighenti, Pedro Calhau, Paulo Nozolino, Rui Toscano, Sara Chang Yan, Susanne Themlitz and Vasco Araújo.
The second phase of purchases, which are on display currently, took place during the 3rd and 4th editions of ARCOLisboa and added more than 30 works to the initial collection. For the 4th edition, the commission for the 2019-2021 period was made up of Isabel Carlos, Miguel von Hafe Peréz, Sérgio Mah, Sara Antónia Matos (Júlio Pomar Atelier-Museum) and Joana Sousa Monteiro (Museum of Lisbon). The 5th edition took place in 2020, in the middle of the new coronavirus pandemic. The selections and acquisitions were made online and added another group of significant works to the nucleus that now amounts to more than a hundred pieces.
The collection is made up of artists at different stages in their careers, with their own artistic languages: whether reinventing methods and widening the scope of artistic disciplines, or remaining faithful to them and their fields of operativity. They were deemed essential by the two commissions who, when selecting, took into account different genders and generations, the more or less well-known journey of the artists, the need for stimulus according to the production phases they found themselves in, as well as the diversity of the galleries which represented them.
Curatorship: Sara Antónia Matos e Pedro Faro
Works by: Ana Santos, André Cepeda, André Romão, Augusto Alves da Silva, Bruno Cidra, Bruno Pacheco, Carla Filipe, Catarina Dias, Cecília Costa, Dalila Gonçalves, Dealmeida Esilva, Francisco Tropa, Henrique Pavão, Hugo Canoilas, Igor Jesus, Isabel Madeira Andrade, Isabel Simões, João Onofre, Joana Escoval, João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva, João Pedro Vale & Nuno Alexandre Ferreira, Jorge Queiroz, Júlio Pomar, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Mafalda Santos, Maria Capelo, Maria José Cavaco, Mariana Silva, Marta Soares, Mattia Denisse, Miguel Branco, Miguel Palma, Noé Sendas, Nuno Henrique, Nuno Nunes-Ferreira, Patrícia Garrido, Pedro Casqueiro, Pedro Tropa, Ricardo Jacinto, Rita Ferreira, Rui Calçada Bastos, Sara Bichão, Tatiana Macedo, Teresa Carepo, Tiago Alexandre e Tiago Baptista.
