Joaquim Rodrigo - from Modern Affinities to a Dialog
Guest lecture by portuguese art historian Pedro Lapa in the context of the lecture Kunst der Moderne I (Sabeth Buchmann/ Guilherme Mata) at the Institute for Art Theory and Cultural Studies.
The work of the Portuguese artist Joaquim Rodrigo claimed a dialogue with the artistic practices of Lunda (Angola) starting in 1961, when colonizer and colonized went to war. This dialogue arises from an aesthetic affinity but also acknowledges the political situation in which this relationship occurs in a narrative and critical way. With this perspective, Joaquim Rodrigo altered the terms of the relationship between modern art and the practices of other cultures.
Pedro Lapa is a professor of art history and theory at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon. He was the artistic director of the Berardo Collection Museum between 2011 and 2017 and director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art - Museu do Chiado, between 1998 and 2009. He was also a curator at the Ellipse Foundation. He holds a PhD in Art History from the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon.
He is the author of many publications on modern and contemporary art, including André Romão. Fauna (2019); Joaquim Rodrigo, a contínua reinvenção da pintura (2016); History and Interregnum. Three works by Stan Douglas (2015); Portuguese 20th Century Art (1910-1960), Mediospectrologies, James Coleman (2005).