Armanda Duarte

Learn about the artist's universe through a text accompanied by a selection of works from the exhibition “All I want – Portuguese women artists from 1900 to 2020”

By Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

Text by Lígia Afonso / Plano Nacional das Artes

fifth finger (2018) by Armanda DuarteOriginal Source: Collection of the Artist

Armanda Duarte's work is site-specific to such a degree that her proposals are actually determined by her observation and analysis of each given space. She observes the characteristics and details of each context in search of the essence which will lead the process of creation up to the work's final reception. Her spatial poetics, which involve drawing, sculpture, installation and architecture, provoke subtle and intimate experiences.

fifth finger (2018) by Armanda DuarteOriginal Source: Collection of the Artist

fifth finger, 2018
Leather (pair of shoes) and black crayon on the floor
10 x 23 x 10 cm
Collection of the Artist

two exhibitions (2010) by Armanda DuarteOriginal Source: Collection Luís Torgal Ferreira, Lisbon

Duarte's stripped down, austere and delicate stagings result from the manipulation and composition of everyday objects such as stones, cutlery or tin can lids according to precise objectives such as measurement, balancing and replication. In her work, objects and simple gestures are subjected to almost scientific processes of repetition and systematisation that imply their conceptualisation, the definition of research criteria, and the normalisation of rigorous collection and editing procedures.

two exhibitions (2010) by Armanda DuarteOriginal Source: Collection Luís Torgal Ferreira, Lisbon

two exhibitions, 2010
Two paper envelopes on MDF shelf
16 x 20,5 x 6 cm (envelopes)
16,6 x 21 x 2,6 cm (shelf)
Collection Luís Torgal Ferreira, Lisbon

head, torso and limbsOriginal Source: Collection of the Artist

Duarte's intense activity ultimately leads to an apparently unproductive, mute, discreet, at times almost imperceptible or even microscopic result, such as the foot and knee marks in saw dust that bear witness, on the ground and far from the public's gaze, to the slow disappearance of an object and the traces of the body that made it disappear.

head, torso and limbsOriginal Source: Collection of the Artist

head, torso and limbs, 2012
Balsa wood strip, sandpaper and small shelf
172 x ø 0,5 cm (balsa strip)
0,5 x 55 x 6,5 cm (shelf)
Collection of the Artist

head, torso and limbsOriginal Source: Collection of the Artist

head, torso and limbsOriginal Source: Collection of the Artist

Credits: Story

Selection of works presented at the exhibition All I want: Portuguese women artists from 1900 to 2020, in its first moment at Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, within the scope 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).

Curators:
Helena de Freitas and Bruno Marchand


Text by Lígia Afonso / Plano Nacional das Artes
Selection of online resources Maria de Brito Matias


Learn more about Armanda Duarte's works presented in the context of this exhibition:
All I want: The Place of the Artist
All I want: The House

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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All I Want
Over 240 artworks by more than 40 women: Explore the new exhibition celebrating Portuguese women artists from 1900 to 2020
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