'Elective Affinities. Julião Sarmento, Collector'
16 October 2015 to 3 January 2016
Power Station building
EDP Foundation presents the exhibition 'Elective Affinities. Julião Sarmento, Collector' between 16 October 2015 and 3 January 2016, at the Electricity Museum.
In partnership with Carmona e Costa Foundation and commissioned by Delfim Sardo, this collective exhibition in two locations – Electricity Museum and gallery of the Carmona e Costa Foundation – presents over 300 works by around 100 artists from the private collection of artist Julião Sarmento. Gathered during three decades, they represent, in an intimate way, his network of contacts, artistic collaborations, friendships and affinities.
This significant collection includes paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography, video and installations, with particular emphasis on the period between the 1960s and 2010, but also including works from earlier periods.
The exhibit at the Electricity Museum presents important names of the international modern art scene such as Nan Goldin, Cristina Iglesias, Andy Warhol, Rita McBride, Cindy Sherman, Bruce Nauman, Marina Abramovic, or Joseph Beuys, and Portuguese artists such as Eduardo Batarda, Fernando Calhau, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Jorge Molder, or António Palolo.
At the gallery of the Carmona e Costa Foundation, from 18 October 2015 to 3 January 2016 there will be an exhibition of drawings and engravings by artists such as Pierre Bonnard or Marcel Duchamp.
“The Sarmento collection is not a collector’s collection but an artist’s collection, in the sense that through it we have not only access to the transformations happening in the art scene of that period, but also a mirror image of the artist, his aesthetic choices, obsessions, interests and vision about what art can be at any given moment, thus reflecting the work of the artist turned gatherer”, writes Delfim Sardo.
What is truly defining in this collection are the connections to artists with whom Sarmento has been sharing his life journey, according to the commissioner. This is the case with Fernando Calhau, born on the same year as Julião Sarmento and with whom the artist also shared his first years at the School of Fine Arts; of the Spanish artist Juan Muñoz, with whom Sarmento interacted extensively since the 1980s; of Michael Biberstein, with whom he shared a workshop in Sintra; or Lawrence Weiner and John Baldessari, with whom Sarmento maintains a close friendship and works together.
“The Sarmento collection is also a tribute to the most defining moments of art mediation in Portugal, form the Alternativa Zero exhibition in 1977 […] to the opening of galleries such as Quadrum and Cómicos”, writes Delfim Sardo.
