Confidencial / Desclassificado | Confidential / Declassified An exhibition by Manuel Botelho

Synopsis

Confidential/Declassified, a project Manuel Botelho has been developing since 2007, is based on both the political sphere and the Portuguese colonial war. For most artists, an interest in conflict is rooted in identity traits, either through personal experience or family affiliation.

This is not the case for Botelho, who was born in Portugal in 1950 and, unlike many men of his generation, escaped mobilisation for the colonial war. The reason why Botelho undertook this project lies in the profile of his work. A recognised painter, he has always been characterised by a figurative language with an expressionist matrix, in which narrative plays a fundamental role. Both figuration and narrative are reminiscent of “historical painting”, a genre that is well suited to dealing with political themes.

This tradition is defined by its reference to reality under an allegorical impulse, and this characteristic has been present in the artist’s practice since the beginning of his career, along with a subjective reading of the social world, characterised by psychological defects, as dictated by Expressionism.

Curator

Miguel Amado