Jaime Isidoro

Jaime Isidoro was born in Porto in 1924 and died in the same city in 2009. A painter, gallerist, collector and cultural promoter, he combined artistic creation with a sustained involvement in the dissemination of modern and contemporary art in Portugal.

He studied drawing and painting at the Escola Soares dos Reis in Porto and held his first solo exhibition in 1945. In 1950 he undertook a period of study in Paris on a scholarship. Over the course of his career he took part in numerous solo and group exhibitions, in Portugal and abroad.

Landscape, the figure and an attentiveness to atmospheric effects occupy a central place in his painting, which is linked to the modernist renewal of Portuguese art. Watercolour is particularly prominent in his output, which includes depictions of the landscape of Vila Nova de Cerveira and the river Minho.

In 1954, together with António Sampaio, he founded the Academia Dominguez Alvarez in Porto and created Galeria Alvarez. Through his exhibition activity and his support for artists of different generations, he contributed to the dissemination of Portuguese modernism, the affirmation of new artistic proposals and the development of collecting. The gallery became an important space for the presentation and discussion of contemporary art, particularly in the context of Porto.

In the 1970s he promoted, with Egídio Álvaro, the Encontros Internacionais de Arte and published the "Revista de Artes Plásticas". These initiatives fostered debate, experimentation and contact between artists, critics and audiences, also hosting actions and performances. In 1978 he was the main driving force behind the creation of the Bienal Internacional de Arte de Cerveira, giving concrete form to his interest in cultural decentralisation and in bringing art closer to communities.

His career was revisited in the exhibition "Jaime Isidoro: divulgador, colecionador e artista", presented at the Museu Bienal de Cerveira and the Museu Municipal de Espinho. The Museu Bienal de Cerveira also devotes a room to him in the permanent exhibition of its founders, alongside José Rodrigues and Henrique Silva.