Sarah Afonso exhibition: start the visit at the hotel…

Start the visit to the Sarah Afonso exhibition from the hotel, then head to Gulbenkian Foundation.

Coincidence – or not - at the heart of the Hotel’s Art collection, the As Quatro Estações (Four Seasons) tapestry designed by Sarah Afonso (1959) honours the name of the Hotel today. This unique tapestry shows the four seasons of the year in feminine forms.

The artist was the wife of another featured artist at the hotel, José de Almada Negreiros, considered one of the pivotal figures of the Modernist movement in Portugal.

At Gulbenkian, the exhibition displays the relationship between the work of Sarah Afonso and the popular art of Minho (Portugal’s northern region), which had a deep influence on Sarah since her childhood and adolescence.

Despite portraiture was Sarah’s predominant topic for expressing her art, Sarah abandoned this way of expression to blend in her artworks some specific aspects of Minho’s vernacular crafts.

Thus, the exhibition combines both universes: Sarah's works, together with examples of the ceramics, textiles and silver work that were part of the visual lexicon that influenced her.

With this exhibition, the Gulbenkian Museum marks Sarah Afonso’s 120th anniversary, alongside the National Museum of Contemporary Art, which will feature an exhibition about the artist from September.