Panel with repeated ceramic relief. Seven Proposals for Architecture Series

Manuel Cargaleiro, painter and ceramicist, studied geography and natural science and later devoted himself to the arts, mainly painting and ceramics. In 1957 he moved to Paris where he was close to Arpad Szenes and Vieira da Silva. Here he produced a large number of ceramic works which were shown at several exhibitions and also used as architectural revetments. Having always been interested in ceramics technology he visited many production centres such as Gien in France and Faenza in Italy. More recently, in 1999, he visited Vietri sul Mare, Salerno, also in Italy, where he helped create the Fondazione Museo Artistico-Industriale Manuel Cargaleiro. In this place he devised the series Seven Proposals for Architecture, to which this panel belongs. It presents applied three-dimensional forms, two geometric motifs with the volumetry accentuated by the alternating masses and voids. The use of spheres alternating with calottes, on a contrasting white background, taking advantage of the virtualities of the azulejo as a repeat element, accentuates the fascination for geometrisation that has been part of the artist’s artistic career and that was previously expressed in the use of trompe l’oeil, here abandoned in favour of the effective volumetry of these elements.