Carlos Calvet

Carlos Calvet (1928-2014) was a Portuguese architect, painter and artist born in Lisbon. Trained in architecture at the Escola Superior de Belas-Artes do Porto, he developed a many-sided artistic career that included painting, printmaking, lithography, screenprinting, photography and experiments in the field of cinema.

He began working as an artist as early as the 1940s and joined the Portuguese surrealist group alongside figures such as Mário Cesariny, Cruzeiro Seixas and António Maria Lisboa. From the 1960s onwards he established himself as one of the most original personalities in Portuguese contemporary art, developing a language of his own marked by the combination of geometric elements, imaginary architectures, symbolism and dreamlike references.

In 1966 he began the phase he called “metaphysical pop”, characterised by enigmatic settings, improbable perspectives and everyday objects transformed into images charged with mystery and meaning. His work moves between irony, existential reflection and the evocation of imaginary worlds, and is recognised today as one of the most singular in twentieth-century Portuguese art.

Over more than five decades of activity he held numerous exhibitions in Portugal and abroad, in cities such as Paris, Tokyo, Rome, São Paulo, Chicago, Frankfurt and Madrid. In 1983 he was honoured by the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, consolidating the recognition of his work on the national and international art scene. He died in 2014, leaving behind a career marked by constant experimentation and by the construction of a unique visual universe.