Nadir Afonso

Nadir Afonso (Chaves, 1920 - Cascais, 2013) was a painter, architect and theorist, internationally recognised as one of the central figures of Portuguese geometric abstraction and one of the most singular personalities in twentieth-century European art. Trained in Architecture at the Escola Superior de Belas-Artes do Porto, he developed an autonomous artistic practice early on, built upon the conviction that art obeys universal laws of harmony, proportion and movement.

In Paris he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and worked with Le Corbusier, collaborating on projects such as the Unité d’Habitation in Marseille. Between 1952 and 1954 he also worked with Oscar Niemeyer in Brazil. These experiences were decisive for the development of an aesthetic enquiry in which architecture, mathematics and painting continually intersect. In 1965 he abandoned architecture for good in order to devote himself exclusively to artistic creation.

His work evolved from expressionist, surrealist and baroque experiments towards the construction of a profoundly original abstract language centred on geometric structures, urban rhythms and spatial relationships. Concepts such as Espacillimité, movement, kineticism and the city became fundamental elements of a visual enquiry that sought to demonstrate the existence of objective laws of artistic creation. His imagined cities, geometric compositions and dynamic structures became inescapable images of Portuguese modernity.

Throughout his career he exhibited regularly in Paris, Lisbon, São Paulo, Rome, New York and other international cities, taking part in events such as the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles and the São Paulo Biennial. Alongside this he pursued an intense theoretical activity, publishing a number of essays devoted to aesthetics, mathematics and artistic creation, among them La Sensibilité Plastique, Mécanismes de la Création Artistique, O Sentido da Arte and Universo e o Pensamento.

His work is today held in important international collections, including the Centre Pompidou, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea - Museu do Chiado, Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo and various European and American institutions. His legacy remains particularly visible through the Centro de Artes Nadir Afonso, in Chaves, and through the lasting influence he exerted on the relationship between art, architecture and visual thought.