Nikias Skapinakis honored at congress

The Museum Nacional de Arte Contemporânea (MNAC) and the Faculdade de Belas Artes, Universidade de Lisboa (FBAUL) organize, between the 26th and 27th of October, a congress dedicated to the artwork of the portuguese painter Nikias Skapinakis (1931-2020).

This initiative, which will count on the presence of art historians, curators and researchers, aims to honor the portuguese artist with a “very particular path, whose richness is not limited to portraiture, but rather comes from a deep analysis of history, the literature and everyday life”, says a source from MNAC. Among the guest speakers are the names of Raquel Henriques da Silva, Bernardo Pinto de Almeida and Cristina Azevedo Tavares. The congress will address topics present in the work of Nikias Skapinakis, such as the importance of color and design, landscape, melancholy, memory…

In addition to the congress, the MNAC organizes an exhibition of the artist’s works from his personal collection.

Nikias Skapinakis was born in Lisbon in 1931, attended the architecture course, but it was painting that he devoted himself entirely to. In addition to oil painting, he turned to lithography, serigraphy and book illustration, including “Quando os Lobos Uivam”, by Aquilino Ribeiro (Livraria Bertrand, 1958), and “Andamento Holandês”, by Vitorino Nemésio (Imprensa Nacional, 1983).

He created the panels for the café “A Brasileira do Chiado” (1971), in Lisbon, and the “Cortina Mirabolante” that he designed in 2005 for the Arroios station, on the Lisbon metro. In 2012, the Museu Colecção Berardo dedicated to the artist the anthological exhibition “Presente e Passado, 2012-1950” at the Centro Cultural de Belém, in Lisbon. In 2013 the artist received the Visual Arts Prize awarded by the Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores and in 2014 he presented at Casa Fernando Pessoa the series of gouaches “Lago de Cobre”, as well as the drawings “Studies of Transcendent Intention”. In 2017, the Museu Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva held the series developed from 2014 onwards, “Hidden Landscapes – Apology for Pure Painting”.