Africa-Press – Angola. A collection of paintings by the plastic artist António Domingues, which is part of a special edition of trilingual illustrations (Portuguese, English – French), from the book “Sagrada Esperança”, opens today at 6:00 pm, and will remain open until 10 November of the year in progress, at the Dr. António Agostinho Neto, at Praia do Bispo, in Luanda, with free entry.
The collection comprises ten paintings, in which the artist used the oil on canvas technique with warm colors and was first exhibited when the body of the Founder of the Nation was transferred to the Mausoleum where it lies. The special exhibition, to celebrate the centenary of the Poeta Maior, is open to the public until the 10th of November of the current year, with free access
According to the professor, researcher and former director of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage (INPC), Óscar Guimarães, one of the promoters of the initiative, explained yesterday to Jornal de Angola that the drawings date back to the 1989, in an edition of Union of Angolan Writers (UEA).
The collection, he said, was acquired by the Angolan State to be part of the decoration of the Mausoleum, long before the construction of the current Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto.
At the time, in the Mausoleum, he revealed, the works were under the control of the then Secretary of State for Culture, and only later did it pass into the custody of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage (INPC). Óscar Guimarães regretted the fact that most of the Angolan population was unaware of the existence of the collection that illustrates the special edition of “Sagrada Esperança”, which was exhibited very few times.
He recalled that the collection of surrealist paintings was exhibited for the first time, when the body of the First President of Angola was deposited, for the first time, in the Mausoleum, in the 1991s, later removed, due to the continuation of the construction works of the now Memorial.
As it could not be permanently and exposed due to the works, he commented, it had to be removed and taken to the INPC deposit, where it remained for several years. The same collection of drawings has already been exhibited in Huíla and Benguela, according to their memorial records.
Now recovered, he underlined, each painting of the ten paintings that illustrate the work “Sagrada Esperança”, represent an equal number of poems by Agostinho Neto, whose aesthetic and cultural importance has universal value, based on realism and the need for liberation, as well as origins and traditions.
In conversations, he said, there was the idea of making a permanent exhibition of the drawings, with a duration of five years, fulfilling a cultural cooperation agreement between INPC, Memorial Dr. António Agostinho Neto and the support of the Goethe Institut Angola.
Visitors, he guaranteed, will be able to appreciate the aesthetic and surreal value of António Domingues’ works, which seek to give another dimension and value to the book “Sagrada Esperança”. and work of Neto”.
The brilliant path of the plastic artist
António Domingues lived and worked in Angola between (1977 and 1983), having created the collection currently on display to illustrate the trilingual edition (Portuguese, English – French) of the work “Sagrada Esperança” that today embodies this exhibition.
Outstanding plastic artist with major intervention in the opposition to the fascist regime. In 1947 he was linked to the foundation of the Grupo Surrealista de Lisboa. From 1977 to 1983, he developed an intense artistic activity in Angola. He has participated in dozens of individual and collective exhibitions in Portugal and abroad, including the SNBA General Exhibitions of Visual Arts. Solidarity man, of great character and enormous talent. He was a member of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP).
António Pimentel Domingues was born on November 1, 1921, in Lisbon, and was the son of São Tomé artist Mário Domingues. He studied at the António Arroio School of Decorative Arts, where he later taught. While studying at night, António Domingues was a blacksmith and model maker in a lithograph, where he specialized in graphic arts. In 1942, he attended the artistic gatherings at Café Hermínius, on Avenida Almirante Reis, in Lisbon.
Initially linked to neorealism, he would become one of the founding members of the Grupo Surrealista de Lisboa, in 1947, together with his longtime companions (Leonel Rodrigues, Moniz Pereira, Marcelino Vespeira, Alexandre O’Neill, Mário Cesariny and others). , influenced by the French movement, which extended to different arts, from painting to literature.
In 1949, he left, even before the group’s first and only exhibition, in which he participated only through a collective work, “Cadavre Exquis”, in partnership with Fernando Azevedo, António Pedro, Vespeira and Moniz Pereira (CAM Collection, Fundação Ca-louste Gulbenkian, Lisbon).
Although his participation in this movement was brief, he also left some poems. Then, he will experiment with abstraction to return, in 1953, to neo-realism.
Passage through Angola
He lived for a few years in Angola, where he illustrated several works by Angolan authors, namely “A Sagrada Esperança”, by Agostinho Neto, and children’s books by Eugénia Neto. He taught and worked as a graphic designer and illustrator, and finally returned to He exhibited individually and participated in numerous collective exhibitions, namely in the General Exhibitions of Plastic Arts (SNBA, Lisbon), between 1946 and 1956. He worked as an illustrator.
Among the individual exhibitions he held, we highlight: 1977, Retrospective Exhibition, National Museum of Nature, Luanda, Angola; 1986, Union of Angolan Writers (UEA), in 1988, SNBA, Lisbon, in 1994, Camões Municipal Library, Lisbon, in 1996.
He was a member of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) since 1946 and, after the 25th of April, he belonged to the Célula das Artes Plásticas do Sector Intelectual de Lisboa. Committed collaborator in PCP initiatives, with emphasis on the Festa do Avante! and its Visual Arts Biennial. He passed away on August 14, 2004, aged 84. He left an autobiography, published in 1986 by the newspaper “Diário”.
For More News And Analysis About Angola Follow Africa-Press
