Project: PIM – Iberian Modernisms
Full title: Iberian Modernisms and the Primitivist imaginary

 

Reference: PTDC/ART-HIS/29837/2017

Starting date: 01 September, 2018

Ending date: 31 August, 2022

 

Website: iberianmodernisms.weebly.com

 

Description:

This projects aims to explore the expressions of primitivism in Iberian modernisms and their political, historical and aesthetic implications. The manifold and contradictory manifestations of primitivism in modern art and visual culture in the Iberian countries are observed considering both their protagonism in the anti-illusionistic quest of modern art, and the means by which this “primitivist fantasy” incorporated preconceptions on race, gender and class, either confirming or transforming them. The investigation comprises: the ties Spain and Portugal kept with their imperial past; the promotion of nationalist and folk aesthetics by conservative state cultural policies, and the avant-garde manifestations that opposed them; local, material and everyday life worlds of reference; nationalist ideologies and other political determinants; transnational artistic circulations; main ideas about modern art in the production of primitivist imagery, and the modernist artworks associated to it.

 

Main scientific domain: Humanities – Arts

Scientific sub-domain: Art History

 

Key-words: Iberian Modernisms; Primitivism; Art History; Visual Culture

 

Funding: 216 279,76€

 

Main research Unit: Art History Institute (IHA/NOVA FCSH)

Main contractor: Universidade NOVA de Lisboa – School of Social Sciences and Humanities (NOVA FCSH)

 

TEAM

Joana Cunha Leal, IR (IHA/NOVA FCSH)

Mariana Pinto dos Santos, Co-IR (IHA/NOVA FCSH)

Begoña Farré Torras (IHA/NOVA FCSH)

Antonio Saez Delgado (Universidade de Évora)

Joana Brites (Universidade de Coimbra)

Carlos Bártholo (Universidade Lusíada deLisboa)

Maria Lluïsa Faxedas (Universitat de Girona)

Paulo Henrique Duarte Feitoza (Universitat de Girona)

Mariana Viterbo Brandão (CIEBA-FBAUL)

Marta Loução Soares (IHA/NOVA FCSH)

Research Fellows:

Margarida Moura (BI Licenciado/a)

João Barriga Martins (BI Doutorando/a)

 

OUTPUTS and OUTREACH

The Primitivist Imaginary in Iberian and Transatlantic Modernisms (2024) Edited by Joana Cunha Leal & Mariana Pinto dos Santos DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003355519

Ernesto de Sousa 1921-2021: uma criação consciente de situações / uma situação consciente de criações (2023) Edited by Mariana Pinto dos Santos & Afonso Dias Ramos DOI: https://doi.org/10.34619/mwt5-z2la

The trouble with ‘primitivism’ in Iberian, Latin American and other semi-peripheral contexts (2025) Edited by Joana Cunha Leal, Mariana Pinto dos Santos, Noemi de Haro García & Petra Šarin DOI: https://doi.org/10.34619/yzur-78hf

See other publications here

 

António Areal, O Fantasma de Avignon 5, 1967. 100 x 170 cm, tinta de esmalte s/ platex. Col. CAM – Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. Fotografia: Paulo Costa	PIM final conference The trouble with “primitivism”. Uses of the past in iberian and transatlantic modernisms 26-28 May 2022
	Seminar “Art and cultural diplomacy: the Catalan art exhibition in Lisbon in 1921” 8 Oct. 2021
c. 1964, Ernesto de Sousa e escultura de Franklin © Isabel Alves	Congress on the Centenary of Ernesto de Sousa co-organized by IHA/NOVA FCSH within the scope of the PIM project 2 June 2021
	Midway workshop of the project 12-13 Oct. 2020
John Mateer © Daniel Terkl	Invisible Genres: Making an Indian Ocean Exhibition Open lecture with John Mateer, independent curator 07 March 2019

See other results here