Henrique Franco e a Condição do Ilhéu: Ser Artista Oriundo da Madeira

3 June 2016
FCSH/NOVA, Tower B, Auditorium 1
16h-18h30

The IHA’s cluster Photography and Film Studies will exhibit the documentary Henrique Franco e a Condição do Ilhéu: Ser Artista Oriundo da Madeira on the 3^rd of June.

This is the first documentary about the life and work of madeiran painter Henrique Franco and its exhibition will be followed by a roundtable. Its aim is to discuss issues such as the situation of one being an islander, the Modernist painting in Portugal, the endemic expatriation of Portuguese artists to Paris and the importance of publicizing the work of relevant artists that are still overlooked by academic institutions and museums.

Biography

Henrique Franco (painter, 1883-1961)
Henrique Franco was born at Funchal in 1883. He began his academic studies at Funchal’s António Augusto Aguiar Industrial School. Jointly with his brother Francisco Franco, he is admitted to the School of Fine Arts in Lisbon, where he studies under Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro. He excels in the course of Historic and Decorative Painting, being the recipient of several awards (Miguel Lupi and Tomás da Anunciação). He exhibits for the first time at the National Society of Fine Arts in 1910 and then again in 1911. The Museum of Contemporary Art of Lisbon acquires his painting Outros Tempos. He received a fellowship from the Portuguese State, within Legado Valmor, establishing first in Madrid and then in Paris. He returns to Funchal at 1914, and in 1921 he becomes one of the professors of the Funchal’s António Augusto Aguiar Industrial and Commercial School. He is one of the 5 Independents in the Exhibit at the National Society of Fine Arts, standing beside two other madeiran artists, his brother Francisco Franco and the painter Alfredo Miguéis. In 1934 he gains a teaching position at the School of Fine Arts in Lisbon, over Abel Manta. His work is closer to decorative painting in very important architectural projects, such as Church of Nossa Senhora de Fátima, in Lisbon, by Pardal Monteiro, where Almada Negreiros and his brother Francisco Franco also work.
Ultimately, he worked on painting a Fresco, in Church of São João de Brito and the Casa da Moeda in Lisbon. He died in 1961.