After leaving the Superior School of Fine Arts in Lisbon in 1931, João Hogan (Lisbon, 1914 - Lisbon, 1988) dedicated himself to painting in a self-taught way. He also attended the night classes of the National Society of Fine Arts (NSFA) where, in 1937, he would be a student of Mário Augusto and Frederico Ayres. He practiced painting in parallel with carpentry, a profession he exercised sensibly between the 30s and 50s. He debuted at the Exhibition of Modern Art of the Secretariat of National Propaganda in 1942 and started to exhibit individually in 1951, namely, at the NSFA. The landscape is the almost exclusive theme of his work, punctually creating self-portraits. His first works are marked by the naturalism of Silva Porto and Malhoa, having also elected Cézanne as his master in 1940. The landscapes he painted outdoors in Lisbon and later in Beira Baixa, are marked by the absence of the human figure and by an interest in the immensity of the land, with the occasional presence of architectural elements. The treatment of color, planes and shapes would progressively gain more prominence in his work. Between 1957 and 1975 he developed the technique of engraving, creating a repertoire completely autonomous of his painting, of enormous imagination and diversity. He was one of the founding members of the Portuguese Engravers Cooperative Society [Sociedade Cooperativa de Gravadores Portugueses]. In 1958 he received a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and left for Paris, being awarded the same scholarship in Portugal in 1961. He abandoned the method of painting in loco, moving away from the naturalism and figurativism of the early years, producing more imaginative and simplified compositions, almost abstract. In 1976 he started as a painting teacher at Ar. Co and together with Teresa Magalhães, Júlio Pereira, Sérgio Pombo, Guilherme Parente and Virgílio Domingues, formed the 5 + 1 group. He received the 1st Prize for Painting at the II Exposição de Artes Plásticas da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (1961) and, in 1964, the Silva Porto Prize. In 1990, the João Hogan Plastic Arts Award was instituted. Internationally, highlights include the presence at the II Bienal de S. Paulo (1953, Brazil). He is represented in several public and private collections.
FMV, October 2020
