As part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the elevation of Póvoa de Varzim to a City, the Painting Exhibition by Nadir Afonso “It hasn’t been time yet” opened to the public, on April 20th, at Galeria Diana Bar. The exhibition of thirty-two canvases and twenty-six gouaches that traveled from Chaves, the city where the painter and architect was born, is promoted by the Póvoa de Varzim International Museum of Contemporary Art (MIAC) in collaboration with the City Council.
At the inauguration, the director of the Nadir Afonso Foundation explained the title of the exhibition “It’s not yet time” because that’s how ‘O Marinheiro’ by Fernando Pessoa, a play written in 1913, begins. And how “we’re here by the sea , it seemed to us that it would be a good option.” If we look carefully, the vast majority of the works give color to human figures, the sea and the beach.
For Nadir Afonso’s wife, “it’s like a return to childhood, because Póvoa de Varzim was the beach of choice for most people in Chaves”, which included Nadir, as can be seen in a photo with the family published in the exhibition catalog offered to those present.
In turn, the curator, Tomás Carneiro, recalled the painter, architect and thinker’s last visit to the city of Cego do Maio, which took place in 1976, at the Póvoa de Varzim Arts Meetings. In this artistic event, Nadir Afonso spoke at the Diana Bar café with a group of artists – Graça Morais, Albuquerque Mendes and João Bicho. The fate of the work is unknown, only that it would have been delivered to the company Sopete, the concessionaire, at the time, of the Casino da Póvoa.
Aires Pereira praised the importance of exhibiting Nadir Afonso’s work in Póvoa, highlighting the recovery of a building that was born among sands in 1940: “We have had a difficulty for a long time, which is having a place in Póvoa de Varzim to hold exhibitions, and Diana Bar has a lot of light, sometimes there is too much light and in that sense it also makes it difficult.” However, conditions were created for other exhibitions to occupy the first floor of the historic building, where the person honored and perpetuated by the municipality with a sculpture next to the old auction market, Professor João Marques, joined in conversation with figures such as the filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira, Professor Flávio Gonçalves, José Régio or Agustina Bessa-Luís.
According to the Mayor, other sculptural tributes will follow. Soon and in due time, a work by José Nobre will honor the memory of Susana Peixeira, “a woman in arms, who said so much to the Portuguese fishing class”. The person who will also be honored by the municipality with a statue is José de Azevedo, “a person who says a lot to Pove popular culture”, the sculpture is by Margarida Campos. There is also a sculpture measuring more than five meters to be inaugurated in Parque da Cidade representing a bird that came from the hands of Guilherme Fonseca.
Aires Pereira concluded his intervention with a revelation “the acquisition by the Municipality of Palacete Villa Georgette”, a romantic style building from the 20s of the last century, designed by the architect Gonçalo Arthur Cruz, located on Av. Mouzinho de Albuquerque, and which will be a new cultural space.
Also present was Macedo Vieira, President of the Honor Committee for the city’s fiftieth anniversary celebrations. As for the exhibition “It’s still no time” it can be visited until the 20th of July.
José Peixoto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
To go back
