Serralves – Collection Series
A Cosmopolitan Realism: The KWY Group (from the Collection series)
In 2014, the Serralves Museum began a series of books dedicated to the research and presentation of its collection. These publications are intended as guides to both singular artworks works and representative conceptual and thematic tendencies not only of the institution's collection, but also of Portuguese contemporary art after the 1960s. The collection is defined by a pocket book format, in which the cover shows an image partially hidden by a white strip where the title is placed – only when you open the volume, or unfold the flaps, it becomes possible to read the entire image and text.
The volume “A Cosmopolitan Realism: The KWY Group” was published on the occasion of the homonymous exhibition curated by Catarina Rosendo, who also wrote the text for the book. Established towards the end of the 1950’s, the KWY group was comprised of an international network of artists who were looking to define innovative forms and a fresh language for art amid the social, cultural and economic transformation of post-war Europe. Bringing together the Portuguese artists René Bertholo, Lourdes Castro, António Costa Pinheiro, Gonçalo Duarte, José Escada and João Vieira, with Bulgarian artist Christo and the German Jan Voss, the group gathered in Paris around the KWY magazine, published between 1958 and 1964. Reproductions of pages of the 12 numbers of this magazine, characterized by a great plastic experimentation, are included in the book.
Can the Museum be a Garden? (from the Collection series)
In 2014, the Serralves Museum began a series of books dedicated to the research and presentation of its collection. These publications are intended as guides to both singular artworks works and representative conceptual and thematic tendencies not only of the institution's collection, but also of Portuguese contemporary art after the 1960s. The collection is defined by a pocket book format, in which the cover shows an image partially hidden by a white strip where the title is placed – only when you open the volume, or unfold the flaps, it becomes possible to read the entire image and text.
The volume "Can the museum be a garden" accompanied the homonymous exhibition, curated by João Ribas, which proposed a reflection on the museum as a place for wandering and wondering, thus selecting works that address the relationship with the concept of landscape or with nature. More than an exhibition catalogue, the book brings together texts by authors from different eras, from Francis Bacon to Charles Darwin, Henry David Thoreau, Siza Vieira or Sophia de Mello Breyner. The layout of these pages resembles that of a novel. The images’ sections follow a more fluid graphic structure, clearly distinct from the previous ones.
Que sais-je? Artists’ Books and Editions
In 2014, the Serralves Museum began a series of books dedicated to the research and presentation of its collection. These publications are intended as guides to both singular artworks works and representative conceptual and thematic tendencies not only of the institution's collection, but also of Portuguese contemporary art after the 1960s. The collection is defined by a pocket book format, in which the cover shows an image partially hidden by a white strip where the title is placed – only when you open the volume, or unfold the flaps, it becomes possible to read the entire image and text.
The fourth volume of the series "from the Collection" focuses on a selection of artist's books and publications, which were part of the exhibition "Que sais-je?", curated by Ricardo Nicolau for the Contemporary Art Museum of Bordeaux, later also presented at Serralves. Not being an exhibition catalogue, the book includes images of the several works organized by thematic sections, which are interspersed with essays by Ricardo Nicolau, Chuz Martínez and Clive Phillpot. These texts are presented in a more stable layout, contrasting with the fluidity of the images’ sections, also printed in a different paper stock.
Conversations: Recent Portuguese Art
In 2014, the Serralves Museum began a series of books dedicated to the research and presentation of its collection. These publications are intended as guides to both singular artworks works and representative conceptual and thematic tendencies not only of the institution's collection, but also of Portuguese contemporary art after the 1960s. The collection is defined by a pocket book format, in which the cover shows an image partially hidden by a white strip where the title is placed – only when you open the volume, or unfold the flaps, it becomes possible to read the entire image and text.
This fifth volume “from the collection” accompanied the exhibition with the same title, held at the museum. Conceived as a series of overlapping dialogues between some of Portugal’s most influential artists from the generations of the 1960s until now, both the book and the exhibition were presented according to four loosely thematic groupings relating to gesture and the everyday, excavations of modernism, surrealist realities and the expansion of painting.
Serralves: The History of the Collection
In 2014, the Serralves Museum began a series of books dedicated to the research and presentation of its collection. These publications are intended as guides to both singular artworks works and representative conceptual and thematic tendencies not only of the institution's collection, but also of Portuguese contemporary art after the 1960s. The collection is defined by a pocket book format, in which the cover shows an image partially hidden by a white strip where the title is placed – only when you open the volume, or unfold the flaps, it becomes possible to read the entire image and text.
The sixth volume of the series reconstructs the history of the Serralves Foundation Collection in a text and research project by Catarina Rosendo. It is generously illustrated with many of its emblematic works which in the book are accompanied by the list of exhibitions where they were shown.
