All I want: The Gaze and the Mirror
Discover the selection of works that integrate this thematic section of the exhibition “All I want – Portuguese women artists from 1900 to 2020” followed by the curators' text.
By Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Curators: Helena de Freitas and Bruno Marchand
Section 4 – The Gaze and Mirror
The theme of the gaze is further explored in this section.
Les yeux (1953) by Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaOriginal Source: Galerie Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, Paris
Les yeux, 1953
Oil on concrete, silex, plaster, with stones or shells
38 x 54 x 6 cm
Galerie Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, Paris, inv. CR 1094-1115
In the self-portraits of Sarah Affonso and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, everything starts from the mirror and the image it offers back to the artists who look at it, recognising and inventing themselves in this act of looking.
My portrait (1927) by Sarah AffonsoOriginal Source: Private Collection
My portrait, 1927
Oil on canvas
50 x 40 cm
Private Collection
Autoportrait (1930) by Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaOriginal Source: Collection Comité Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva, Paris
Autoportrait, 1930
Oil on canvas
54 x 46 cm
Collection Comité Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva, Paris
The mirror not only fixes their image but provides a conduit to the artists' broader surroundings: their domestic space, their intimacy and sharing, but also their peers, such as the male artist colleagues that Affonso has portrayed, inverting the usual direction of the gaze in art.
Portrait of Tagarro and Waldemar da Costa (1929) by Sarah AffonsoCalouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Portrait of Tagarro and Waldemar da Costa, 1929
Oil on canvas
73 x 59 cm
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Moderna, inv. 83P1109
Little girls (1928) by Sarah AffonsoOriginal Source: Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea – Museu do Chiado
Little girls, 1928
Oil on canvas
92 x 77 cm
Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea – Museu do Chiado, inv. MNAC 1525
Portrait of Matilde (1932) by Sarah AffonsoCalouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Portrait of Matilde, 1932
Oil on canvas
83,5 x 58,5 cm
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Moderna, inv. 83P637
La saisie (1931) by Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaOriginal Source: Collection Fundação Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva
La saisie, 1931
Oil on canvas
16 x 27 cm
Collection Fundação Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva, inv. VO0272
La cheminée (1930) by Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaOriginal Source: Collection Fundação Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva
La cheminée, 1930
Oil on canvas
46 x 27 cm
Collection Fundação Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva, inv. VO0263
L'échelle (1935) by Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaOriginal Source: Galerie Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, Paris
L'échelle, 1935
Gouache and charcoal on paper on cardboard
65 x 23 cm
Galerie Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, Paris, inv. CR 173
A surface of reflections, the mirror is also a place of passage, a portal to the other side, to the world of fantasy, myth, and death, so masterfully present in Vieira da Silva's works.
Les noyés (1938) by Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaOriginal Source: Collection Fundação Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva
Les noyés, 1938
Oil on canvas
60 x 73 cm
Collection Fundação Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva, inv. VO0299
Tragic History of the Sea or Shipwreck (1944) by Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaCalouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Tragic History of the Sea or Shipwreck, 1944
Oil on canvas
81,5 x 100 cm
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Moderna, inv. 78PE97
Finally, the mirror can be the essential instrument for the metaphorical construction of the self, as in the work of Maria José Oliveira, who uses it to imagine her body as an anodyne mass topped by a heart.
Self-portrait (1980) by Maria José OliveiraCalouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Self-portrait, 1980
Unbaked clay polished with pebble, enamel paint and three wooden bases used in old potteries for drying wet clay pieces
49 x 20 x 25 cm
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Moderna, inv. 17E1845
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Cover of the exhibition catalogueCalouste Gulbenkian Foundation
This exhibition brings together about two hundred works by forty female Portuguese artists. Its primary objective is to assist in rectifying the systematic erasure that works by these artists – like so of their sisters elsewhere in the world – have suffered since time immemorial.
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Continue the visit to the exhibition by accessing the following section:
The exhibition All I want: Portuguese women artists from 1900 to 2020, in its first moment at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, is part of the cultural program that takes place in parallel to the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2021.
Exhibition organized by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture, Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage (DGPC) and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in co-production with the Center of Contemporary Creation Olivier Debré, Tours, and with the collaboration of the Plano Nacional das Artes (Portugal).
Curatorship and text:
Helena de Freitas and Bruno Marchand
Get to know in detail the universe of artists presented in this section through a text by Lígia Afonso / Plano Nacional das Artes:
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva
Sarah Affonso
Maria José Oliveira
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