Manuel d’Assumpção (Lisboa, 1926 – Lisboa, 1969) lived his childhood and adolescence in Portalegre, where his father, Luís d’Assumpção, with a degree in Fine Arts, had his photography business, and from whom his son received the first technical teachings in painting and photography. He also studied with painter Miguel Barrias and, in 1947, he went to Paris to complement his training, where he was a disciple of Fernand Léger and Jean Cassou in Art History, at the Louvre. Upon his return to Portugal, he spent some time in the capital, where he interacted with the surrealist artistic groups, an aesthetic that marked the first period of his work. In 1953, the death of his friend António Maria Lisboa was the cause of his sudden return to Portalegre, where, isolated, he continued his pictorial production. Five years later, he was once again in Lisbon, presenting works at the Autumn Salon of the Fine Arts National Society, and those works elicited a positive critique by historian José-Augusto França. Also in 1958, he received a prize in Vila Real, and one of his paintings was bought for the National Museum of Contemporary Art. Meanwhile, his work had acquired the abstract character, which, in various aspects, brought it closer to the tendencies of the Paris School. Great abstract architectures, constructing the space through the play of chromatic and luminous contrasts, together with a constant concern with spiritual questions, hermetic, and sometimes catholic, frequent in his work. In 1959 and 1960, he participated, respectively, at the 1st and 2nd Salão dos Novíssimos. He was part of the Paris 16th Realités Nouvelles Salon, in 1961, and the following year he was present in the 6th São Paulo Biennial. At 43 years old, he decided to end his life, committing suicide. In 1985, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation presented a retrospective exhibition of his work. In Portugal, he is represented at the Portalegre Municipal Museum, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), Contemporary Art National Museum (Lisbon), Soares dos Reis National Museum (Oporto), Albano Sardoeira Municipal Library-Museum (Amarante), among others.
FMV, October 2020
