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Júlio Artur da Silva Pomar, GOL, GCM (10 January 1926 – 22 May 2018) was a Portuguese painter and visual artist. He was often considered the greatest Portuguese painter of his generation.


Early life and career (1940s and 1950s)

Pomar first studied at the
Escola Secundária Artística António Arroio The ''Escola Artística António Arroio'' (António Arroio School of Arts) is a secondary school in Lisbon, Portugal that specializes in the applied arts. History The school was founded in 1919 as the ''Escola de Arte Aplicada de Lisboa'' (Applie ...
, in his native Lisbon. He entered the Superior School of Fine Arts of Lisbon in 1942. The same year, he organised his first exhibition with a group of former colleagues of the António Arroio School, which included painters like
Fernando de Azevedo Fernando is a Spanish and Portuguese given name and a surname common in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Africa, the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka. It is equivalent to the G ...
and Marcelino Vespeira. Amongst the notable visitors was Almada Negreiros, who bought Pomar the now lost painting "Saltimbancos". In 1944, he moved to the Superior School of Fine Arts of Porto, leaving two years later after a disciplinary process. During this time, he joined a group of artists called the Independents. He participated in their 1944 exhibitions in Porto and Coimbra, as well as one in 1945, in Lisbon. From June to October 1945, he was director of "A Tarde"'s art page, helping to promote the work of painters such as German Expressionist George Grosz, the Mexican muralists
José Clemente Orozco José Clemente Orozco (November 23, 1883 – September 7, 1949) was a Mexican caricaturist and painter, who specialized in political murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro ...
and
David Alfaro Siqueiros David Alfaro Siqueiros (born José de Jesús Alfaro Siqueiros; December 29, 1896 – January 6, 1974) was a Mexican social realist painter, best known for his large public murals using the latest in equipment, materials and technique. Along with ...
, and Brazilian
Candido Portinari Candido Portinari (December 29, 1903 – February 6, 1962) was a Brazilian painter. He is considered one of the most important Brazilian painters as well as a prominent and influential practitioner of the neo-realism style in painting. Portinar ...
. He was also involved with magazines such as "Seara Nova", 'Vértice'' and ''Mundo Literário''. He joined the Communist Youth of the
Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party ( pt, Partido Comunista Português, , PCP) is a communist, Marxist–Leninist political party in Portugal based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself patriotic and internationalist,Portug ...
in 1945. Pomar work became very politically and ideological engaged during his neo-realist phase, from 1945 to 1957. In 1946, he started a mural at the Cine Teatro Batalha, in Porto, which would be destroyed for political reasons in 1948. He was one of the main organizers and exhibiters of the General Exhibitions of Plastic Arts, from 1946 to 1956, that were the main exhibitions of Portuguese neo-realist painting during this time. One of his paintings, ''Resistência'' (''Resistance'') was apprehended by the Political Police in 1947, at the second exhibition, deemed as "political subversive". The same year he held his first individual exhibition at the Portugália Gallery, in Porto. He also would be arrested for four months, for being a member of the MUD. He did the official portrait of Democratic Opposition Presidential candidate, general José Norton de Matos, in 1948. In 1949, he lost his place of Drawing teacher at the technical education because of his political involvement in the campaign. His first truly neo-realist painting was ''Gadanheiro'' (''Mower''), from 1945, while his most emblematic work in this style would be ''O Almoço do Trolha'' (''The Lunch of the Trolley''), where he worked from 1946 to 1950, and was first exhibited in 1947. Portuguese art historian Rui Mário Gonçalves described it as one of "the most important milestones of Neo-realist painting, with its theme taken from the life of the proletariat, treated with rough material and with a Portinariesque anatomical accentuation of the feet and hands". During these youth years, he also worked on illustration and ceramics. He became less compromised with time with the neo-realist movement and his last important works in this style were the paintings that he did called ''Ciclo do Arroz'' (''Rice Cicle''), from 1952-1955, inspired by several travels to Ribatejo's rice fields in the company of writer
Alves Redol António Alves Redol (29December 191129November 1969) was an influential Portuguese neorealist writer. Life Redol was born in 1911 in Vila Franca de Xira to Antonio Redol da Cruz, a shopkeeper, and Inocência Alves Redol. When he was fifteen, his ...
. Like art historian Alexandre Pomar explained, "Around 1956, without a precise point of rupture in its pictorial production or an explicit departure from the previous political positions, the itinerary of Pomar begins to be oriented in other directions".


After 1960

Pomar had already left neo-realism when he settled in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
in June 1963. He would return several times to
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...
for the next twenty years. In Paris, he will not join any artistic groups nor practice the artistic languages in vogue, maintaining a position of critical distance to the contemporary arts movements. This defence of autonomy leads him to remain faithful to the expression of the gesture, to the exploration of the line, to the opening of composition to an informal pictorial language. In 1967 he made the first assemblages with found materials and in the following year he began two parallel series, one of which was about the convulsions of May 1968. He exhibited once again in Lisbon and, beginning in 1969, he began a regular collaboration with the Gallery 111 of Manuel de Brito, who from now on would represent him in Portugal. Pomar was in Lisbon when the April 1974 revolution took place. Throughout the 1970s he published a collection of poems, participated in important international exhibitions, most notably at the Bienal de S. Paulo,
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, in 1976, and held important solo exhibitions, from which one can highlight the first retrospective of his work, at the
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation ( pt, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. On ...
, in Lisbon, and at the Soares dos Reis National Museum, in
Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropo ...
, both in 1978. Characterised by a type of figuration that crosses the surprise of the process of association of images learned with surrealism and the heritage of abstract expressionism, the painting of Pomar over the last decades results from an intense activity and a permanent desire for thematic diversification. In their combinations we will find tigers and rain hats, monkeys, portraits, more or less explicit; sometimes it seems clear his will to seek its roots, like in his famous painting ''Lusitânia no Bairro Alto'' (1985), with portraits of Mário de Sá Carneiro, Santa-Rita Pintor and
Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (14 November 1887 – 25 October 1918) was a Portuguese painter. Belonging to the first generation of Portuguese modernist painters, Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso stands out among all of them for the exceptional quality of h ...
.


Essays and poetry

He published three books of essays on painting, ''Discours sur la Cécité des Peintres'' (1985), ''Da Cegueira dos Pintores'' (1986), and ''Então e a Pintura?'' (2003). He published two books of poetry, ''Alguns Eventos'' (1992) and ''TRATAdoDITOeFeito'' (2003).


Atelier-Museum Júlio Pomar

The Atelier-Museum Júlio Pomar was inaugurated in Lisbon, in 2013, in a building bought by the Municipality of Lisbon in 2000, and refurbished in a project by Álvaro Siza Vieira. The Atelier-Museum has several hundreds of works by the artist, including paintings, drawings and sculptures, donated by himself to the Júlio Pomar Foundation.Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar, Público, 6 February 2013 (Portuguese)
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Public collections

Pomar is represented in several museums across
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...
and abroad, including the Chiado Museum, Modern Art Center José de Azeredo Perdigão, Berardo Collection Museum, in Lisbon, Museum of Contemporary Art of Serralves,
Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropo ...
,
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (french: Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They include six museums: the Oldmasters Mus ...
,
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
,
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...
,
Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...
,
São Paulo Museum of Art The São Paulo Museum of Art ( pt, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, or ') is an art museum located on Paulista Avenue in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It is well known for its headquarters, a 1968 concrete and glass structure designed by Lina Bo ...
,
São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
, among others.


References


External links


Júlio Pomar at the Modern Art Center (In Portuguese)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pomar, Julio 1926 births 2018 deaths Portuguese male painters University of Porto alumni People from Lisbon