CMF dedicates its permanent exhibition to four relevant artists and poets of the Portuguese Surrealist Movement. The works by these artists highlight the role of the unconscious and automatism in creative activity. The Mário Cesariny space pays tribute to the artist who presented Surrealism as a revolutionary way of seeing, understanding and living life. Due to a close relationship with Cesariny, FCM became the owner of the artist’ household effects. The Cruzeiro Seixas space allows us to get acquainted with the author who contributed to the enrichment of the Museum’s collection through his donations, his advice and his example as a collector of dreams and living fragments. The Julio space presents the artist who signed his plastic work only as Julio and used the pseudonym Saúl Dias in his literary work. In an overview going from Expressionism to Surrealism, his work is remembered as a fraternal dialogue between poetry and drawing. The Fernando Lemos space exhibits photographs that reveal mastery in the use of the camera and in which the images captured by the lens take us back more than 50 years and transport us to the esthetic imagery of surrealist photography.
Artists
Mário Cesariny
Mário Cesariny de Vasconcelos was born on 9 August 1923 and died on 26 November 2006 in Lisbon. A poet, painter and translator, Cesariny was considered one of the Masters of Portuguese Plastic and Literary Surrealism. He made it possible for a large part of his library and artistic collection to be sold, donated or bequeathed to FCM to be incorporated into the Foundation’s collection. As a result of a close relationship, the institution became the owner of the contents of the artist’s house and pays homage to him with a permanent exhibition space. Cesariny was co-founder of Grupo Surrealista de Lisboa [Surrealist Group of Lisbon] (1947) and Os Surrealistas [The Surrealists] (1948) and stood out in Surrealism for the revolutionary way of seeing, understanding and living life, and for his pioneering spirit in the introduction of new techniques, exploration of materials and impregnation of humor, irony, criticism, irreverence and drama.
Cruzeiro Seixas
(1920, Amadora-2020, Lisbon) was a painter and poet considered one of the main representatives of Portuguese Surrealism. He was a cultural programmer and collector and contributed to the enrichment of the Museum’s collection.
Julio
Júlio Maria dos Reis Pereira was born on 1 November 1902 and died on 17 January 1983 in Vila do Conde. He was a poet, painter and civil engineer. He attended the Painting course at the School of Fine Arts of Porto and was an illustrator for the magazine Presença directed by his brother and poet José Régio, who wrote and prefaced his exhibitions. He signed his plastic work as Julio and used the pseudonym of Saúl Dias in his literary work. He is considered one of the first artists to introduce the surrealist imagery in Portugal, still in the 1930s. In 1941, he married Maria Augusta da Silva Ventura and from this union his only son was born, José Alberto Ventura Reis Pereira, who bequeathed part of his father’s artistic work to the FCM.
Fernando Lemos
José Fernandes Lemos was born on 3 May 1926 in Lisbon, and died on 17 December 2019, in São Paulo. He was a photographer, illustrator, poet, designer, teacher and artistic director of several cultural institutions. On a trip to Berlengas, in the company of Marcelino Vespeira, he began to paint with oil. Despite having joined the surrealist adventure (1949), he left Portugal in opposition to the Salazar regime and settled in São Paulo (Brazil).
His photographic activity left a mark worthy of mention, particularly on the history of Surrealism and photography. In 2001 he was awarded the National Photography Prize. His work reveals his mastery in the use of the camera and the images captured by the lens take us back more than 50 years and transport us to the esthetic imagery of surrealist photography.