SERRALVES COLLECTION: 1960-1980

SERRALVES COLLECTION: 1960-1980
08.05.2017 - 21.01.2018

"Serralves Collection: 1960-1980” marks the visible and permanent presence of the Serralves Collection in the Serralves Museum as part of a dynamic programme of changing displays. The inaugural display presents works by Portuguese and international artists. This narrative presentation surveys the art produced in the decades considered foundational to the history and development of contemporary art and the place of Portuguese art in that history. As well as iconic art works made between 1960 and 1980, the new displays also include a selection of more contemporary pieces that highlight the continued relevance of these earlier artistic positions and attitudes. The works on view reflect a diversity of artistic production from the 1960s to the present day, while highlighting the unique characteristics of the Serralves Collection, distinguished for its relation of Portuguese and international art from around the globe. With a visually dynamic and rich presentation of paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, films and videos, the Collection display surveys various themes central to the artistic practice of the post-art period and influential on the artistic practices of the 21st century, including: materials and process, abstraction and figuration, language and concept, and the body and performativity. The decades surveyed in the exhibition are marked by profound social and cultural changes as well as radical developments in art making. The art of this period reflects a redefinition of artistic forms, media and production, influenced by profound transformations in technology.

The Serralves Collection is a collection of reference that offers a uniquely international context in which to understand contemporary art in Portugal. The Serralves Collection is comprised of works acquired by the Serralves Foundation since its creation in 1989, together with long-term deposits from private and public collections. Deposits that have served as points of reference for the development of the collection include the Collection of the Portuguese Secretariat of State for Culture and the Collection of the Luso-American Development Foundation (FLAD).

The focus of the Serralves Collection is contemporary art produced from the 1960s to the present day. The inaugural exhibition of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in 1999, ‘Circa 1968’, served to highlight the 1960s and 70s, a historic period of political, social and cultural change that took place around the world, as seminal decades out of which emerged new paradigms in art making and the beginning of the post-modern era. As part of a continued research and development of the Collection in the twenty-first century, the Serralves Collection aspires to further distinguish itself through its focus on contemporary art's relationship to performance, archi¬tecture and contemporaneity in relation to a post-colonial and globalized present. While resonating with the art and ideas of our recent past, the Collection aims to reflect on how the art of today also anti¬cipates its future.

"Serralves Collection: 1960-1980” is organized by Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art and curated by Suzanne Cotter, Museum Director, with João Ribas, Senior Curator and Deputy Director and Ricardo Nicolau, Deputy to the Director and Curator.