Graça D'Abril

This screenprint is inspired by the work «Graça d’Abril» (acrylic painting on canvas, 1974). Although Júlio Pomar was in Paris during May ’68, he was in Portugal on 25 April 1974, thus witnessing the Portuguese revolution as well.

At a moment when he was abandoning oil painting and a more gestural line in favour of acrylic paint and a visual language increasingly close to Pop Art - marked by areas of flat colour - Pomar created this work during the height of the Carnation Revolution. In it appears a carnation, a direct reference to the revolution, as well as several allusions to the actress Graça Lobo - from the title to her representation within the image - with whom the artist was then involved in both a romantic and creative relationship.