Carlos Calvet (Lisbon, 1928 – Lisbon, 2014), a notorious figure of the Portuguese Surrealism, studied architecture at the School of Fine Arts in Lisbon and in Porto’s, where he graduated in 1957. However, he dedicated himself more diligently to painting, also demonstrating an interest in cinema and photography. In 1947 he exhibited for the first time at the II General Exhibition of Plastic Arts at the National Society of Fine Arts (NSFA). The works he presented revealed a modernist character, as well as a look at Braque's aesthetic Cubism. He dedicated himself to photography more actively between 1956 and 1975, presenting his production for the first time in the 1989’s exhibition at the Galeria Ether. Despite the briefness, his photographic career became a reference. In 1949 he took part in the exhibition The Surrealists, at Salão Pathé Baby. From these years onwards he would become close to the surrealist movement, alongside Cruzeiro Seixas, Isabel Meyrelles and Mário Cesariny. He participated in several cinema projects, namely in the making of a short film with António Areal and Cesariny. Between 1948 and 1950 he traveled to Paris for the first time, returning confident of his aptitude as a painter. The allegories of time begin to appear in his work, in the form of clocks. After a lyrical abstract period (1963-1964), that opposed to one of greater geometrization of objects (1964-1965), he announced himself in the Portuguese artistic nucleus in 1966, through the fixation of a language distinctive in all his future work - a stylization in the way of pop, combined with a dreamlike and metaphysical aspect, similar to that of Giorgio de Chirico. He was also concerned with issues of symbolic geometry and numerology, addressing them in his painting and in texts such as “Mitogeometria de Portugal e Outras Histórias” (2001). He exhibited regularly in Portugal and abroad (Tokyo, Paris, São Paulo, Rome, Chicago, among other cities). Highlights in his career include the “Crítica Prize” (Soquil, 1968), the honorable mention at the Mobil Art Exhibition (NSFA, 1970) and the 1st prize at the Modern Art Salon, in Luanda (1973). His painting is present in several institutional and private collections.
FMV, October 2020
