New Paths of Figuration: The Migration of Portuguese Artists to London and Paris in the Post-War Period

Abstract

their creative experiences in London and Paris. The point of departure is the Portuguese context and the new artistic challenges of the post-Second World War period. Subsequently, this analysis explores the distinct contributions of the artists in London and in Paris to the formulation of a new aesthetic current, the new figuration, and to a critical approach to contemporaneity, from a political point of view or from a perspective centered on mass culture and consumerism. This article pays special attention to the reception of the works produced by the migrant artists by Portuguese art criticism. Those works were interpreted as being specifically Portuguese and, consequently, as the result of previous creative movements and of the political, economic and social environment of the country. The “nationalization” of the new figuration is confronted, in this article, with the Portuguese artists’ critical attitude towards the new international creative currents, such as the “modernist realism”, pop art and nouveau réalisme. It finally proposes that the migrant artists were defining in the international stage authorial lines of work which suggested a more complex picture of the European artistic landscape by intersecting a specific reality, marked by totalitarianism and repression, and new forms of expression.