On the Pier – Porto

The painting of Abel Salazar, inscribed in a nineteenth-century understanding with his reduced palette of numb and earthy browns, was sensitive to a thematic attentive to the work of the people, with a declared realistic penchant, which the Portuguese nineteenth century never knew. The oils painted about the docks of Ribeira do Porto are a good example of this socially engaged painting. The figures, freely outlined, present characteristics of an emotionally committed observation with its referent and benefits from its expressive specificities. Younger artists linked to Neo-Realism, like Júlio Pomar, would come to value this work as an antecedent of their concerns.