Bernardo Pinto de Almeida, «Nikias Skapinakis — Paisagens (2018-2020)»

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NIKIAS SKAPINAKIS paisagens [landscapes] -

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Bernardo Pinto de Almeida

N I K I A S S KA P I NA K I S paisagens [landscapes] -

D O C U M E N TA GALERIA FERNAND O SANTOS

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© Nikias Skapinakis, 2020 texto [text] © Bernardo Pinto de Almeida © Galeria Fernando Santos Rua Miguel Bombarda 526, 4050-379 Porto © Sistema Solar Crl (Documenta) Rua Passos Manuel 67 B, 1150-258 Lisboa ISBN: 978-989-9006-40-9 Junho [ June ] 2020 Fotografia [Photographs ]: Pedro Lobo Tradução [Translation]: José Gabriel Flores Revisão [Proofreading]: Helena Roldão Depósito legal [Legal deposit ]: 471124/20 Impressão e acabamento [Printing and binding ]: Gráfica Maiadouro SA Rua Padre Luís Campos 586 e 686 (Vermoim), 4471-909 Maia

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Nikias, o inacabamento – Bernardo Pinto de Almeida .....

Paisagens. O Preto no Branco da Tela – Nikias Skapinakis

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PAISAGENS OCULTAS [HIDDEN LANDSCAPES] Biografia [Biography] ................................................

Bibliografia [Bibliography]........................................

39 93 96

Landscapes. The Black on the White of the Screen – Nikias Skapinakis ................................................... 109 Nikias, The Unfinishing – Bernardo Pinto de Almeida ..... 111

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Nikias, o inacabamento Bernardo Pinto de Almeida A figuração é sempre nova porque a realidade é sempre outra.

N.S., 1967

1.

Não foram muitos, em números que se contem e vejam, os que fizeram da arte portuguesa do século XX coisa digna de figurar nos vastos e exigentes anais da arte europeia do mesmo período histórico. Entre os que, porém, se contam para esta arte, creio – e convictamente o afirmei ao longo das três últimas décadas, em que segui o desenvolvimento seguro do seu trabalho 1 –, figura, inelutavelmente, Nikias Skapinakis. Artista que, apesar do nome e da ascendência grega, como o outro de Toledo, é, decerto, desse século já fechado, mas ainda por estudar em múltiplos aspectos, um dos mais originais e inventivos. Surpreendentemente sendo, também, dos poucos de quem se pode dizer com segurança que – face ao refazer, na passagem histórica que se deu desde então até ao presente, dos paradigmas que redefinem a arte do tempo actual em relação à que a precedeu – foi um dos que ––––––– 1 De facto, para além de inúmeros ensaios que aqui não cabe citar, publicados desde 1986, em revistas e em catálogos de exposições individuais, ou retrospectivas e antológicas do Artista [Fundação de Serralves (2000), Museu Berardo (2012)] sobre a sua vasta obra publiquei, ainda, o livro Nikias Skapinakis – Uma Pintura Desalinhada, Campo das Letras, Porto, 2006.

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imediatamente figurou como precursor dos sinais trazidos pela arte nessa viragem secular, dos quais, afinal, estava já próximo, justamente antecipando-os. E mesmo se isso não podia ainda, então, ver-se.

Mas, assim, sem jamais perder nisso o fio condutor interno da obra, e antes dando-lhe, incansavelmente, elementos de constante e sucessiva reinvenção, numa coerência de que poucos terão sido capazes sobretudo durante tão largo período. Ao lado, pois, de outros como Dacosta, Cesariny, Ângelo, Alberto Carneiro, Siza, Manoel de Oliveira e poucos mais, nesse lapso de tempo. A essa luz poderá então dizer-se que, num plano interno, muitas das premissas que assistem hoje ao paradigma que designamos de contemporâneo (que passou não só pela desconstrução da matriz histórica do modernismo como, sobretudo, por uma revalorização da arkhé ) 2 se elaboravam já, e quase desde o início, na obra do Artista, muitas vezes a contrapelo dos gostos e modas que fizeram o habitus cultural do seu tempo 3.

Assim com a longa insistência na figuração, face à reconsideração do que seria uma essencial inactualidade da arte moderna, que, segundo o próprio, beberia sempre de outras tradições. Mas, também, no modo ágil como, desde cedo, soube incorporar na obra o que poderemos designar como da ordem ––––––– 2 Sobre estas questões ver o meu ensaio Arte e Infinitude – O Contemporâneo entre a Arkhé e o Tecnológico, Relógio D’Água, Lisboa, 2018.

3 Sobre estes aspectos vejam-se os textos e intervenções do artista reunidos em Pintura. Inactualidade e Perenidade. Episódios do Trabalho de um Pintor, edição do Instituto de História da Arte da Universidade Nova de Lisboa e Artistas Unidos, Lisboa, 2010.

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de uma lógica da imagem: fosse pela apropriação de signos do cartazismo, dos graffiti, ou do simples recorte dos objectos e das figuras (mesmo no caso dos retratos).

Finalmente, numa obra cujo meio por excelência foi a pintura, é necessário lembrar que a organização do seu espaço interno, bem como a própria ideação das figurações, releva, quase sempre, de uma construção que descola, sempre, dos artifícios do representativo para se reorganizar de um modo análogo ao das imagens. E, talvez por isso, muitas vezes já lhe chamaram Pop. Nos seus retratos das décadas de sessenta e setenta, tal como nas paisagens e naturezas-mortas, a pintura serve uma construção prévia, uma espécie de disegno interno, que obedece, sempre e em primeiro lugar ao que pertence a essa lógica da imagem, mais do que à da representação.

Mas o que melhor caracteriza, a meu ver, a obra de Nikias desde os longínquos inícios, nos idos da década de 50, quando começou, é justamente o modo como, sem jamais perder nisso o fio conceptual que fez dela um processo constantemente em aberto, nela se manifesta uma capacidade de incessantemente se renovar, de se reinventar e de, nesse movimento, se mostrar capaz de surpreender, senão mesmo de espantar, os seus espectadores. É assim que, no singular teatro da sua obra, tudo converge, sempre, para gerar a surpresa, o espanto. Como o próprio escreveu, «qualquer noção de viragem deve ser completada com a noção de continuidade. Só aparentemente se rompe na experiência artística» (1994).

Assim sendo, tudo o que Nikias foi mudando na obra e nos limites da arte do seu tempo histórico, e foi muito, fê-lo sem 9

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jamais romper com ela, ou desiludir, nessa experiência singular, os que se surpreenderam desde cedo com a sua forma de pensar e de praticar a pintura. Ao mesmo tempo que, desdenhando ironicamente de quantos, durante tão longo percurso, a julgaram chegada ao impasse ou ao beco de uma repetitiva academização, a soube renovar, fugindo à armadilha de se repetir. Indiferente a modas e juízos apressados, redefiniu, com a inteligência, elegância e precisão típicas da sua natureza, a lógica interna do seu percurso, alinhando-o quer com a obra precedente – cujos pressupostos, cedo explícitos, jamais traiu – quer com as inquietações do tempo novo que chegava, para as quais simplesmente soube olhar.

Seguindo, nesse percurso, o mesmo método, próprio, seu, de observação e de reflexão, ele soube, pois, fazer-se contemporâneo exacto dos vários tempos que atravessou, por ser capaz de procurar sempre entendê-lo, a esse tempo que inevitavelmente mudava, procurando chegar às chaves da sua compreensão. Ao contrário de outros, que teimosamente insistem em ter razão contra o tempo, quando este muda as regras antes reconhecíveis, ele soube conservar, na compreensão dessa lei de mudança que afecta desde sempre todos os tempos, as razões essenciais da própria obra, fazendo disso meio de invenção de uma plasticidade singular, típica afinal de toda ela. Assim cumprindo, afinal, a intuição cedo proclamada: «Acertando-se consigo mesmo, um artista sempre se acerta com o mundo em que existe. Não há outra modernidade que não seja a que se gera desses acertos» (1958). Porque, e como de facto o sabemos, a modernidade perde todo o sentido 10

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quando passa a fazer-se a partir de elementos extrínsecos às obras dos artistas, a partir de imposições de modas chegadas desde fora.

2.

Agora, com esta nova série, Preto e Branco – que julgo, sem qualquer reserva, ser a mais radical e extrema a que o artista chegou, na incansável busca de levar sempre mais longe e adiante os pressupostos da obra, esclarecendo através de cada uma o sentido profundo de quanto a precedeu – aquele que, porventura, foi um dos mais fulgurantes e ricos coloristas da arte portuguesa do passado século, surpreende-nos de novo, e muito, ao trazer-nos, inesperadamente, uma pintura cujas cores repousam, já, todas secretamente ocultas, fechadas dentro do seu espesso e inexorável negro. Um negro que, diremos ainda, se adensa como se para anunciar a obscuridade destes novos tempos que enfrentamos, e no qual se dissolve, como se numa noite escura, tudo quanto julgávamos saber.

Um negro (que aqui se mostra, enfim, na evidência de ser a síntese extrema de todas as demais cores) que se expande vorazmente pela tela, que a risca, invade, mancha, a povoa tal qual as cores mais vivas o fariam, mas sem que por isso jamais se deixe cair na tentação de servir como desenho, ou como ser gráfico, portador, como tal, de uma qualquer forma de escrita ou de sinal, nem de um qualquer desejo de se prender no plano do esboço, sequer no que seria da ordem de uma síntese poderosa manifestada num esquisso.

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Bem ao contrário do que seria uma presença, discreta fosse ela, do desenho, ou ao menos de um seu vestígio subtil, que dele restasse, qual memória, este negro é, antes, o que densifica essa pintura que dele renasce, agora, quase surpreendida, invadindo-a, graças às suas misteriosas e carregadas tonalidades, de uma nova espécie de atmosfera pictórica.

O negro destas pinturas é então, ele mesmo, pintura ou, dito de outro modo, carne de uma pintura que, de certo modo, se mostra agora entregue ao trágico. Inquietante e vasta na atmosfera ampla no seu ritmo, denso e carregado, quase respiratório. Atmosferas análogas daquelas que, por vezes, nos assaltam e surpreendem quando, diante de certas reproduções a preto-e-branco de uma certa obra, que antes apenas conhecíamos a cores, nos apercebemos nela do que jamais havíamos percepcionado. Mas cuja reprodução, na economia estrita dessa redução ao preto e ao branco da tela, de súbito revela outros planos, porventura secretos, qual infografia, segredo apenas revelado na sua radiografia.

Uma nova atmosfera, então, de uma raiz secreta, ou inconsciente, que, justamente por ser privada a pintura das cores habituais, nos conduz de modo a sentir-lhe ou a adivinhar-lhe novas texturas e vibrações sob o enigma impenetrável que o negro aos poucos vai gerando sobre o branco. Mas fê-lo assim Nikias sem, todavia, se deixar prender, com isso, em zonas de repetição, retórica ou formal, relativamente à sua obra anterior, de cujas formas reconhecíveis se afasta de novo, uma vez mais percorrendo, ousada e radicalmente, e sempre sem qualquer melancolia, novas 12

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possibilidades expressivas através das quais coloca igualmente novas e mesmo inquietantes interrogações.

A arte de Nikias, sempre distanciada e grave, irónica por vezes na sua distância, nada tem de melancólico. E tal como esses animais que, com leveza, por sucessivas mutações vão deixando para trás a pele que os identificava, e assim se transfiguram, também esta pintura uma vez mais se transfigura diante dos nossos olhos, e se faz outra do que foi, sem por isso deixar de se ligar com toda a sua memória. Já que este negro serve agora ao artista para defender ou anunciar outros e novos propósitos, que devemos procurar compreender nos pormenores mais escondidos de cada uma das obras, numa série que opera como se, de facto, radiografasse a própria natureza e memória arcaica da pintura.

Propósitos que, na verdade, e por isso mesmo, consistem afinal em reforçar aspectos talvez menos evidentes na obra anterior, aquela que lembramos ainda a cores, e já que toda a pintura deste artista foi, desde sempre, uma densa meditação sobre o tempo e a sua condição, no que a sua é, propriamente, obra de teor filosófico, ou moral. Mas devemos também entendê-los, a esses novos caminhos agora abertos, sem perder de vista que é deste modo que esta obra subtilmente regressa, sem, no entanto, o explicitar demasiado, a algumas das suas questões de sempre. A saber, a um secreto desejo de paisagem, que esteve sempre lá e, também, à misteriosa presença de figuras e de muros, isto é, de planos que se multiplicam para gerar uma verdadeira metafísica espacial.

Uma metafísica que o pintor identificou, no tempo largo que lhe interessa da pintura de todas as épocas – e uma vez que 13

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não se sente refém de tradições recentes – desde logo em Greco ou, pouco depois, nas densas, graves atmosferas de Zurbarán, em que o espaço parece repercutir de um eco, reverberado no meio do silêncio das grandes catedrais provinciais espanholas.

Reinventando, assim, essa possibilidade de trazer à presença, através da pintura, uma espécie de sentimento de ordem metafísica – que consiste, afinal, na captação de uma outra ideia do tempo – mas, agora, com nova densidade e, também, com outro e inesperado dramatismo.

Ou, como poderemos talvez dizer, acentuando assim essa sempre perseguida e também sempre presente dimensão metafísica que, mesmo se discretamente, lhe atravessou toda a obra como uma enigmática chave que, mais do que todas, nos permite aceder-lhe, entendendo-a pelo que é: uma chave de tempo, em que se fazem sentir, num mesmo plano de tempo, múltiplas formas deste. Assim acontecia, também na admirável Homenagem a Carpaccio, vista de Lisboa deserta em que, graças à densificação do espaço, se fazia sentir um tempo congelado, um tempo capaz de conter em si, indistintamente, vários tempos.

3.

Sabemos como, opondo-se, ainda que silenciosamente, ao domínio dinâmico e inquieto (ou seja, revolucionário e modernista) do futurismo, do cubismo e, mais em geral, das chamadas vanguardas históricas, italianas e europeias do início do século XX, aquilo a que se chamou «pintura metafísica» no contexto 14

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vasto da arte italiana moderna, assumiu na verdade uma necessidade estética «correctiva», também ela típica da tradição cultural italiana. Acto que consistiu em recuperar e preservar a riqueza estática daquela grandiosa tradição vinda desde a primeira Renascença, procurando actualizá-la agora nessa nova era da reprodutibilidade técnica.

Poderíamos dizer, então, abreviadamente, que a pintura metafísica procurava surpreender o elo misterioso que se esconde no coração do real, mas sem, todavia, fugir ao próprio real, que de certo modo apreendia agora numa dimensão quase abstracta, movendo-se embora sobre o concreto das coisas. Ou seja, sobre o mundo dos objectos.

Conseguia ela um tão diverso acercamento ao real, ao isolar espaço e tempo, quase congelando-os e fundindo-os, como se o espaço fosse mera expressão do tempo, e revertendo-os ambos num puro imaginário de pintura. Ou seja, suspendendo, nesta, o que antes fora feito em benefício exclusivo da representação, e libertando-a, assim, de qualquer necessidade de significação ou de sentido.

A pintura metafísica – poderemos dizer em síntese muito abreviada – procurou, assim, ir ao encontro dos elementos do real, figurando-os, mas sem procurar articular, a partir deles, uma qualquer chave de sentido ou uma significação identificável. Como se, ao mesmo tempo que assumia a necessidade de atender ao real, de que jamais prescindiu, paradoxalmente o isolasse e o libertasse de todo o realismo. O real tornou-se, deste modo, nela, mero pretexto para anunciar o misterioso. Fugindo 15

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às armadilhas do surrealismo, cuja fuga ao real os desinteressou, os metafísicos encontravam no próprio real a chave imaginária do misterioso e da indecifrável secretude do mundo.

Deste modo os objectos apareciam nela como se tivessem sido previamente recortados, suspensos, quais colagens de elementos convocados de vários tempos e lugares, sob um silencioso e grave manto de mistério, que já nada devia, de facto, ao encantatório e ao sentido onírico do surrealismo. Conservavam-se, assim, as figuras exemplares do real, colhidas de uma nobre e longa tradição pictórica, ao mesmo tempo que se lhes retirava o sentido primeiro, objectivo, da representação e do representativo, e até mesmo o contexto e a função cultural das suas ocorrências anteriores, deixando-os agora como se suspensos numa esfera de tempo congelado. Foi esse o elemento que trouxe por excelência à pintura dos metafísicos o seu quid de enigmático silêncio e estranheza. O mesmo, afinal, que tanta perplexidade e mesmo inquietação haveria de gerar em quantos a viram emergir.

De facto, a pintura metafísica deslocava inesperadamente o problema da abstracção para uma camada por assim dizer interior, ou muito mais profunda, da pintura. Já que, em vez de o resolver, simplesmente, na superfície, como ocorria com a maioria da arte abstracta – que se limitava a opor, formalmente, uma receita a outra –, ela integrava a abstracção no próprio conceito e no processo de construção das imagens, separando-as do mero representativo.

Nisso se entendem os limites internos da querela que opôs figurativos e abstractos, e que, em Portugal, Nikias foi dos pou16

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Paisagens. O Preto no Branco da Tela Nikias Skapinakis

Desenvolvidas entre 2018 e o presente, as Paisagens a Preto e Branco pertencem à série Paisagens Ocultas, das quais conservam os sete planos que estruturam a composição e a sinuosidade da linha; substituem, porém, o cromatismo (que identifica a maioria dos períodos do meu trabalho) por um monocromatismo que utiliza o preto (ivory black), aplicado sobre a tela em sucessivas camadas de diferentes densidades.

O branco mais luminoso é, assim, o próprio branco da tela, onde as nuances substituem as cores lisas que caracterizam as Paisagens Ocultas.

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O PRETO NO BRANCO DA TELA [THE BLACK ON THE WHITE OF THE SCREEN]

A exposição desta série de trabalhos teve lugar na Galeria do Teatro dos Artistas Unidos (Lisboa, 11-2019) e na Galeria Fernando Santos (Porto, 11-2019 > 01-2020) [The exhibition of this series of works took place at Galeria do Teatro dos Artistas Unidos (Lisbon, 11-2019) and at Galeria Fernando Santos (Porto, 11-2019 > 01-2020)]

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P.B. I-18, 2018 Óleo sobre tela [Oil on canvas], 65 × 50 cm

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P.B. II-18, 2018 Óleo sobre tela [Oil on canvas], 65 × 50 cm

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P.B. III-18, 2018 Óleo sobre tela [Oil on canvas], 65 × 50 cm

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P.B. IV-18, 2018 Óleo sobre tela [Oil on canvas], 65 × 50 cm

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P.B. V-18, 2018 Óleo sobre tela [Oil on canvas], 65 × 50 cm

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P.B. VI-18, 2018 Óleo sobre tela [Oil on canvas], 50 × 65 cm

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P.B. VII-18, 2018 Óleo sobre tela [Oil on canvas], 65 × 50 cm

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P.B. VIII-18, 2018 Óleo sobre tela [Oil on canvas], 50 × 65 cm

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P.B. IX-18, 2018 Óleo sobre tela [Oil on canvas], 50 × 65 cm

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Biografia [Biography]

Nikias Skapinakis, de ascendência grega, nasceu em Lisboa em 1931.

Frequentou o curso de Arquitectura, que abandonou para se dedicar à pintura, actividade que manteve regularmente até ao presente.

Começou por expor em 1948, nas Exposições Gerais de Artes Plásticas e, desde então, realizou diversas exposições individuais e participou em diversas colectivas, em Portugal e no estrangeiro.

Além da pintura a óleo, como actividade dominante, dedicou-se à litografia, serigrafia e ilustração de livros. Entre outras obras, ilustrou Quando os Lobos Uivam, de Aquilino Ribeiro (Livraria Bertrand, 1958) e Andamento Holandês, de Vitorino Nemésio (Imprensa Nacional, 1983). Executou litografias para o Congresso de Psicanálise de Línguas Românicas (1968) e para o Cinquentenário do Banco Português do Atlântico (1969). Executou serigrafias para Kompass (1973). É autor de um dos painéis do café A Brasileira do Chiado (1971) e participou na execução do painel comemorativo do 10 de Junho de 1974.

Em 1963, obteve a Bolsa Malhoa da Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes.

Em 1976-77, foi-lhe concedido um subsídio para investigação pela Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.

Em 1985, o Centro de Arte Moderna da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian mostrou uma exposição antológica da sua pintura, completada com uma retrospectiva da obra gráfica e guaches na Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes.

Em 1990, foi-lhe atribuído o prémio da crítica A.I.C.A. – S.E.C. Em 1993, apresentou no Palácio Galveias (C.M.L.) uma antologia de desenhos realizados entre 1985 e 1993.

Em 1996, o Museu do Chiado realizou uma retrospectiva de retratos seus (1955-1974).

Em 2000, o Museu de Arte Moderna da Fundação de Serralves apresentou a exposição antológica «Prospectiva 1966-2000».

Em 2005, foi-lhe atribuído o Grande Prémio Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso e realizou um painel em cerâmica para o Metropolitano de Lisboa.

Em 2006, a Fundação Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva apresentou a série de pinturas Quartos Imaginários, relativa a quartos de dormir e a ateliers de diversos pintores e poetas e foi-lhe atribuído o Prémio de Arte Casino da Póvoa.

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Em 2007, foi realizado para a televisão um filme documental sobre o conjunto da sua obra.

Em 2009, realizou no Centro Cultural de Cascais a exposição «Desenho a Preto e Branco e a Cores», abrangendo a obra gráfica entre 1958 e 2009. Realizou também a pintura Paisagem – Bandeira Portuguesa, alusiva à Bandeira Nacional e integrada nas Comemorações do Centenário da República.

Em 2012, o Museu Colecção Berardo apresentou a exposição antológica «Presente e Passado, 2012-1950».

Em 2013, foi-lhe atribuído pela Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores o Prémio de Artes Visuais.

Em 2014, apresentou na Casa Fernando Pessoa a série de guaches Lago de Cobre e a série de desenhos Estudos de Intenção Transcendente. Ilustrou a revista Colóquio Letras dedicada a Almada Negreiros.

Em 2017, apresentou na Fundação Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva a série desenvolvida a partir de 2014, Paisagens Ocultas – Apologia da Pintura Pura.

Tem publicado textos de intervenção crítica em diversos jornais e revistas.

Vive e trabalha em Lisboa.

Nikias Skapinakis, a Portuguese artist of Greek descent, was born in Lisbon in 1931.

He abandoned his architecture studies to work in painting, which has since been his life’s pursuit.

The first public presentation of his work took place in the 1948 General Exhibition of Visual Arts; since then, he has presented several solo exhibitions and taken part in various group shows, in Portugal and abroad.

Most of his work focuses on oil painting, but he has also produced lithographs, silkscreen prints and book illustrations. The latter include editions of Aquilino Ribeiro’s Quando os Lobos Uivam (Livraria Bertrand, 1958) and Vitorino Nemésio’s Andamento Holandês (Imprensa Nacional, 1983). He also created lithographs for the Congress of Romance Language Psychoanalysts (1968) and for the 50th Anniversary of Banco Português do Atlântico (1969), as well as a number of silkscreen prints for the Kompass gallery (1973).

He created one of the paintings that decorate the “A Brasileira do Chiado” Café (1971), and was among the artists who collaborated on the creation of a panel commemorating the 10th June (Portugal Day) 1974.

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In 1963, he received a Malhoa Grant from Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes.

Between 1976 and 1977, he held a research grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

In 1985, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Modern Art Centre held an anthological exhibition of his paintings, complemented by a retrospective of his graphic work and gouache pieces at Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes.

In 1990, he was awarded the A.I.C.A. – S.E.C. critics’ prize.

In 1993, Palácio Galveias (a Lisbon City Council venue) hosted a selection of drawings created between 1985 and 1993.

In 1996, Museu do Chiado presented a retrospective exhibition of his portraits (1955-1974).

In 2000, the Serralves Foundation’s Modern Art Museum presented “Prospectiva 1966-2000”, an anthological exhibition.

In 2005, he was awarded the Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso Grand Prize and created a tile panel for the Lisbon Metro.

In 2006, the Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva Foundation exhibited Quartos Imaginários, a series of paintings inspired by the bedrooms and studios of several painters and poets, and he was awarded the Casino da Póvoa Art Prize.

In 2007, a TV documentary on the whole of his work was produced.

In 2009, the Cascais Cultural Centre presented “Desenho a Preto e Branco e a Cores”, a retrospective of his graphic work between 1958 and 2009. In the same year, he created Paisagem – Bandeira Portuguesa, a painting inspired by the Portuguese Flag, for the Centenary Celebration of the Republic.

In 2012, the Berardo Collection Museum hosted “Presente e Passado, 2012-1950”, an anthological exhibition.

In 2013, he was awarded the Portuguese Society of Authors’ Visual Arts Prize.

In 2014, the Fernando Pessoa House Museum exhibited Lago de Cobre, a gouache series, and Estudos de Intenção Transcendente, a drawing series. In the same year, he illustrated the Almada Negreiros issue of Colóquio Letras magazine.

In 2017, the Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva Foundation displayed Paisagens Ocultas – Apologia da Pintura Pura, a series that had been in development since 2014.

He has also published critical intervention texts in various newspapers and magazines.

He lives and works in Lisbon.

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Bibliografia [Bibliography]

A bibliografia de Nikias Skapinakis foi organizada por Leonor Oliveira para a exposição antológica no Museu Colecção Berardo em 2012 e actualizada no livro publicado pela Documenta / Fundação Carmona e Costa, em 2018. A presente publicação actualiza as referências relativas a 2017, 2018 e 2019.

[This Nikias Skapinakis bibliography was put together by Leonor Oliveira for the 2012 Berardo Collection Museum anthological exhibition, and updated in the book that was published by Documenta / Fundação Carmona e Costa in 2018. The present version comprises new references for 2017, 2018 and 2019.]

M onog rafias [Monog raphs]

Figuração e parafiguração na pintura de Nikias Skapinakis, 1950-1985: exposi1968 ção antológica. Lisboa: Fundação CaNikias Skapinakis, pintura 1968. Lisboa: louste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Galeria 111. Cat. da exposição [ExhibiModerna. Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.] tion cat.]

CORREIA, Natália – «As três graças: FRANÇA, José-Augusto – «As três faComo as pintou Nikias Skapinakis» ses da pintura de Nikias Skapinakis» FERREIRA, José Gomes – «Poema para 1987 Nikias» FRANÇA, José-Augusto – «Nikias» Algumas perguntas a Nikias Skapinakis.

Lisboa: IN-CM 1972 ACCIAIUOLI, Margarida, p. 15 PERNES, Fernando – Nikias SkapinaAZEVEDO, Fernando, pp. 13-14 BORGES, Kukas Moura, p. 17 kis. Lisboa: Artis. Col. Arte ContemPERNES, Fernando, pp. 19-20 porânea

1993 1985 Figuração e parafiguração na pintura de Nikias Skapinakis: desenhos 1985-1993.

Lisboa: Câmara Municipal de Lisboa.

Nikias Skapinakis, 1950-1985: exposiFRANÇA, José-Augusto – «Do desenho ção antológica. Lisboa: SNBA AZEVEDO, Fernando – «Apresentação» sendo, em Nikias Skapinakis»

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alguns retratos e naturezas-mortas», Nikias Skapinakis: desenhos 1985-1993. pp. 35-44 Lisboa: Galeria Gilde. Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

TAVARES, Cristina Azevedo – «Nikias 2002 Nikias Skapinakis: retratos de ausência Skapinakis: desenhos 1985-1993» [1999-2002]. Porto: Galeria Fernando 1996 Santos. Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

Para o estudo da melancolia em Portugal, MOURA, Vasco Graça – «Nikias e os Nikias Skapinakis, retrospectiva de remanequins», pp. 9-17 tratos, 1955-1974. Lisboa: Museu do PERNES, Fernando – «Imagens do deChiado (Nikias Skapinakis: desenhos sassossego – pós-humano», p. 19 1985-1993) BOTELHO, Fernanda – «As melancó2005 licas», pp. 20-23 FRANÇA, José-Augusto – «De retratos RODRIGUES, António – Nikias Skapinase trata», pp. 14-19 kis: a pintura mirabolante. Lisboa: EdiSILVA, Raquel Henriques da – «Áltorial Caminho bum de retratos organizado pelo seu 2006 autor», pp. 24-31 ALMEIDA, Bernardo Pinto de – Nikias Skapinakis: uma pintura desalinhada.

2000 Porto: Campo das Letras Nikias Skapinakis, prospectiva 1966-2000.

Porto: Museu de Serralves. Cat. da ex- Nikias Skapinakis: quartos imaginários.

Lisboa: Fundação Arpad Szenes-Vieira posição [Exhibition cat.]

FERNANDES, João – «Nikias Skapinada Silva. Porto: Edições Gémeo BUTOR, Michel – «L’atelier, la chambre» kis: a metapintura como consciência ALMEIDA, Bernardo Pinto de – «Quarto crítica da imagem», pp. 31-33 FRANÇA, José-Augusto – «Nikias Skacom vista para a pintura de Nikias» MOURA, Vasco Graça – «A view with a pinakis: sua situação na pintura porturoom» guesa da 2.ª metade do século XX», pp.

57-63 MOURA, Vasco Graça – «A nave dos 2010 CANDEIAS, Ana Filipa – Nikias Skapimelancólicos», pp. 45-55 nakis: a pintura como vontade de coPERNES, Fernando – «Nikias Skapinhecer. Edições Proteína-Artforum nakis – realidade da arte, arte da realiQuartos imaginários II. Porto: Galeria dade», pp. 13-29 SILVA, Raquel Henriques da – «Nikias, Fernando Santos. Cat. da exposição 1950-1965. Paisagens da pintura com [Exhibition cat.]

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DIAS, Fernando Rosa – «O acolhi- 1993 TAVARES, Cristina Azevedo – «A pintura, mento da ilusão» a política e a vida», JL. Jornal de Letras, OLIVEIRA, Leonor de – Nikias SkapinaArtes e Ideias, n.º 580 (17-23 Agosto kis. Porto: QuidNovi, Col. Pintores 1993) Portugueses, Vol. 16

2012 Nikias Skapinakis. Presente e passado.

2012-1950. Lisboa: Museu Colecção Berardo. Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

SILVA, Raquel Henriques da – «Nikias 60 anos depois. A pintura como vocação, ofício e reflexão», pp. 17-30 ALMEIDA, Bernardo Pinto de – «Tempo feito de muitos tempos», pp. 59-66 2017 SILVA, Raquel Henriques, SARDO, Del-

1996 PINHARANDA, João – «A figuração é

sempre nova», Público (29 Maio) MELO, Filipa – «À espera de Nikias», Vi-

são, n.º 169 (12 Junho) 2004 Arte y Naturaleza. Revista | Magazine 2005 DUARTE, Ricardo – «A precisão do pin-

tor», JL. Jornal de Letras, Artes e Ideias (14 Setembro)

fim – Figuração e parafiguração na pin- 2009 tura de Nikias Skapinakis 1950-2017. RIBEIRO, Anabela Mota – «Nikias SkaLisboa: Imprensa Nacional pinakis, o pintor que vive dentro da tela», Público, Ípsilon (30 Dezembro 2018 2009).

Nikias Skapinakis. Antologia de guaches.

1950-2018. Lisboa: Documenta / Fun- 2010 dação Carmona e Costa. Cat. da expo- VIEIRA, Fátima – «O ilusionismo de Nisição [Exhibition cat.] kias», Artes & Leilões (Março/Abril)

Entrev istas [Inter v iew s]

Bibliog rafia [Bibliog raphy]

1967

1954

MAGGIO, Nelson di – Entrevista [Inter- SANTOS, José Júlio Andrade dos – Nikias

view]. Flama: revista semanal de actualidades, n.º 1032 (Dezembro)

98

Skapinakis. Lisboa: Faculdade de Ciências – Associação de Estudantes. Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

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1960 peintures. Paris: Fondation Calouste «Nikias Skapinakis», Grande EnciclopéGulbenkian, Centre Culturel Portugais dia Portuguesa e Brasileira, vol. 40. Lis- LEVÊQUE, Jean-Jacques – «Nikias Skapinakis: un peintre de l’attente e du siboa; Rio de Janeiro: Editorial Enciclolence», Colóquio/Artes, n.º 7 (Abril), pédia, p. 605 pp. 13-18 1963 MIGUÉIS, José Rodrigues – «Pintura de 1975 Skapinakis», Diário de Lisboa (21 No- FRANÇA, José-Augusto – Colóquio/Artes vembro) 1977 AZEVEDO, Fernando – «Desocultação 1967 PERNES, Fernando – Pintura de Nikias da pintura de Nikias Skapinakis». LisSkapinakis. Lisboa: Galeria Divulgaboa: Galeria 111. Cat. da exposição ção, Público (23 Agosto) [Exhibition cat.]

1968 1980 Situação da arte: inquérito junto de artis- FRANÇA, José-Augusto – «A arte moderna contemporânea portuguesa de tas e intelectuais portugueses. Lisboa: Europa-América 1900 a 1970», As Belas-Artes: encicloSOUSA, Rocha de – «Nikias Skapinakis pédia ilustrada de pintura, desenho, e na Galeria Divulgação», & etc…, n.º 13 escultura, vol. 8: A Arte Moderna. New (10 Março) York: Grolier Inc. FERNANDES, Maria João – «O ouro da terra e os sorrisos do dia», Diário Po1970 FRANÇA, José-Augusto – «Votos na Expopular (12 de Junho) sição Mobil», Diário de Lisboa (12 Novembro) 1981 AZEVEDO, Fernando – «Em tempo de não-paisagem», Paisagens do Vale dos 1971 FRANÇA, José-Augusto – «Skapinakis, Reis e outros quadros. Porto: Galeria Zen Nikias», Dicionário da Pintura Univer- FRANÇA, José-Augusto – O retrato na arte portuguesa. Lisboa: Livros Horisal, vol. 3. zonte SOUSA, Rocha de – «Os onze da Brasileira», Diário de Lisboa (22 Julho) 1984 FRANÇA, José-Augusto – A arte em Por1972 FRANÇA, José-Augusto – «Skapinakis ou tugal no século XX (1911-1961). Lisboa: les images froides», Nikias Skapinakis: Bertrand

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PARINAUD, André – Les strates de Skapi- ALMEIDA, Bernardo Pinto de – «Nikias

nakis. Paris: Galerie Bellechasse. Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

POMAR, Alexandre – «Nikias Skapinakis», Diário de Notícias (8 Março)

Skapinakis: visitação ao Vale dos Reis com escala nas paisagens internas».

Colóquio/Artes, pp. 14-21

1991 «Skapinakis, Nikias», Dictionnaire de 1985 peinture et de sculpture: l’art du XX siè«Special Report – Portugal», The Times cle. Paris: Larousse, p. 772 (26 March) O Grande Livro dos Portugueses. Lisboa: Círculo de Leitores 1986 GONÇALVES, Rui Mário – «Nikias Skapinakis», 100 pintores portugueses do sé- 1992-1993 «Nikias Skapinakis», Arte portuguesa nos culo XX. Lisboa: Alfa, pp. 158-159 anos 50. Beja: Câmara Municipal de PORFÍRIO, José Luís – «As paisagens da Beja; Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulimaginação», Expresso, Revista (21 Jubenkian, pp. 76-77 + pp. 246-249. Cat. nho) da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

1987 Azares da expressão ou a teatralidade na pintura portuguesa: algumas obras do CAM. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Centro de Arte Moderna. Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

SILVA, Rodrigues da – «Nikias por ele mesmo», Diário Popular

1993 ALMEIDA, Bernardo Pinto de – Pintura

portuguesa no século XX. Porto: Lello CARDOSO, António – Tendências da arte

contemporânea em Portugal. Santa Maria da Feira: Museu de Santa Maria da Feira FRANÇA, José-Augusto – «Pintura-escultura, anos 60 & 70», Colóquio/ 1988 Artes Greek artists abroad. Athens: Ministry of PORFÍRIO, José Luís – «A explosão do Foreign Affairs desenho», Expresso, Cartaz (29 Maio)

1989 1994 The New York Art Review. Les Kantz (ed.) ALMEIDA, Bernardo Pinto de – «Nikias Skapinakis: Galeria Quadrum», 1990 Lapiz: revista internacional de arte, n.º TAVARES, Cristina Azevedo – Nikias 104 (Junio) Skapinakis na galeria Gilde: pinturas ALMEIDA, Bernardo Pinto de – «Nikias Skapinakis: cartazes», Artes & Leilões recentes. S. Torcato: Galeria Gilde

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POMAR, Alexandre – Nota [Note], Ex-

presso (14 Maio) 1995 ALMEIDA, Bernardo Pinto de – Nikias

Skapinakis: heteronimias, 1994-1995.

Porto: Galeria Fernando Santos PINHARANDA, João – «O declínio das vanguardas, dos anos 50 ao fim do milénio», História da Arte Portuguesa, Paulo Pereira (ed.), vol. 3, pp. 593-649 PINHARANDA, João – «Anos 60: a multiplicação das possibilidades», História da Arte Portuguesa, Paulo Pereira (ed.), vol. 3. Lisboa: Temas e Debates, pp.

602-611 POMAR, Alexandre – Nota [Note], Expresso (22 Abril) 1996 PINHARANDA, João – «Retrato, paisa-

gem, melancolia, ironia», Público (10 Maio) MARTINS, Celso – «Melancólicos manifestos», Expresso (11 Maio) NEVES, Pedro Teixeira – «Os amigos de Nikias», Semanário (11 Maio) RAPOSO, Luís – «Retratos 1955-1974», Diário de Notícias (27 Junho)

pinakis: cartazes 1993-1998. Porto: Galeria Fernando Santos 1999 Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres sculpteurs dessinateurs et graveurs : de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, E. Bénézit (ed.). Paris: Gründ (4ème éd.)

FRANÇA, José-Augusto – Leituras da carta de Pero Vaz de Caminha. Lisboa: Comissão Portuguesa dos Descobrimentos Panorama da arte portuguesa no século XX. Porto: Fundação Serralves / Campo das Letras ALMEIDA, Bernardo Pinto de – «Anos 60: os anos sessenta ou o princípio do fim do processo da modernidade», pp.

213-249 CHICÓ, Sílvia – «Anos 70: antes e após o 25 de Abril de 1974», pp. 255-279 Vanguardias del arte portugués de los años 60 y 70 en la colección de la Fundación de Serralves: antes y después de la revolución. Madrid: Fundación ICO. Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

2000

1997

LEMAIRE, Gérard-Georges – Cafés d’au-

FRANÇA, José-Augusto – Transferência de-

trefois. Paris: Flammarion senho pintura. Guimarães: Galeria Gilde. TAVARES, Cristina Azevedo – «SkapinaCat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.] kis, Nikias», Dicionário de História de Portugal, vol. 9, suplemento P/Z. Porto: 1998 Livraria Editora Figueirinhas ALMEIDA, Bernardo Pinto de – «Nikias, «Arte portuguesa no século XX», Arte Ibé1998: a nudez da pintura», Nikias Skarica, n.º 32, Edição especial (Fevereiro)

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FARIA, Óscar – «Pintura resistente», Pú- 2004 ALMEIDA, Bernardo Pinto de – «Do mublico, Artes (16 Junho) MARQUES, Lúcia – «Sedução da figura», seu dos pobres», Nikias Skapinakis: jar-

Expresso (8 Julho) dins da América, pintura 2003. Porto: SANTOS, Rui Afonso – «A pintura no Galeria Fernando Santos, pp. 13-27. singular», Arte Ibérica Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

FERNANDES, Maria João – «Ofício de Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des pintor», JL. Jornal de Letras, Artes e peintres sculpteurs dessinateurs et graIdeias (23 Agosto) veurs : de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, E. Bénézit (ed.).

2001 FRANÇA, José-Augusto – 100 quadros Paris: Gründ (4ème éd.) portugueses no século XX. Lisboa: FRANÇA, José-Augusto – O modernismo.

Lisboa: Presença Quetzal GONÇALVES, Rui Mário – Vontade de mudança: cinco décadas de artes plásti2001 FERREIRA, José Gomes – «Uma gravura cas. Lisboa: Caminho do Nikias», in FERREIRA, Raúl Hes- PORFÍRIO, José Luís – Expresso tnes – José Gomes Ferreira: Fotobiogra- RUIVO, Ana – «Nikias Skapinakis», Expresso (7 Fevereiro) fia. Lisboa: D. Quixote 2002

2006

MARTINS, Celso – «Nikias Skapinakis», O poder da arte. Porto; Lisboa: Fundação

de Serralves / Assembleia da República ALMEIDA, Bernardo Pinto de – «Cuarto con vistas para la pintura de Nikias», Arte y parte FRANÇA, José-Augusto – Lisboetas no século XX. Lisboa: Livros Horizonte MELO, Jorge Silva – «Já não uivam», Público (3 Novembro) PORFÍRIO, José Luís – «Uma iconografia sem ícones», Expresso (27 Maio) ROSA, Tomás – «Quartos com vista para 2003 dentro», Magazine-Artes PINHARANDA, João – Público (11 Ja- SOUSA, Rocha de – «Quartos imagináneiro) rios», JL. Jornal de Letras, Artes e Ideias, n.º 932 crítica de exposição [exhibition review], Arte y parte, n.º 38 (Abril-Mayo), p. 152 FERNANDES, Maria João – «Retratos de ausência», JL. Jornal de Letras, Artes e Ideias (15 Maio) MARTINS, Celso – «Nikias Skapinakis», Expresso, Cartaz, n.º 1550 PINHARANDA, João – «Autor à procura de personagens», Público (29 Junho) RUIVO, Ana – Expresso (28 Dezembro)

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2007

2010

SILVA, Raquel Henriques da – 50 anos de DIAS, Fernando Rosa – «O Chiado na

pintura», Chiado: efervescência urbana, arte portuguesa. Lisboa: Fundação Caartística e literária de um lugar, José louste Gulbenkian, Serviço de BelasQuaresma; Fernando Rosa Dias (ed.).

-Artes, Centro de Arte Moderna José Lisboa: Centro de Investigação e de Esde Azeredo Perdigão, p. 41 tudos em Belas-Artes; FFBAUL SILVA, Raquel Henriques da – «Imagens», LAPA , Pedro – Linguagem e experiência.

Nikias Skapinakis: imagens 2007, óleo, Obras da Colecção da Caixa Geral de reconstrução, guache. Lisboa: Galeria Depósitos.

Lisboa: Caixa Geral de DeFernando Santos pósitos OLIVEIRA, Luísa Soares de – «A indepen2008 dência do desenho», Público (8 Janeiro) CASTRO, Laura – «Sinais de arte ibérica no século XX», Exposição colectiva de 2011 artes plásticas de artistas flavienses: BieN.M. – «Nikias Skapinakis». Crítica de nal de Artes de Chaves. Chaves: B.A. exposição [Exhibition review], Arte y DIAS, Fernando Rosa – A nova-figuração parte, n.º 90 (Enero 2011), p. 109 nas artes plásticas em Portugal (1958DIAS, Fernando Rosa – «Cafés e pintura», -1975), 3 vols. Lisboa: Universidade de Reviver o Chiado – Repensar o Chiado.

Lisboa, Faculdade de Belas-Artes. Tese de Lisboa: FBAUL; Centro de Investigação doutoramento [Doctorate Thesis] e de Estudos em Belas-Artes; Academia Nacional de Belas-Artes.

2009 SARDO, Delfim – Obras-primas da arte DIAS, Fernando Rosa – «Imagens do eróportuguesa: século XX – artes visuais. tico na nova figuração portuguesa», Lisboa: Athena Arte & Eros. Lisboa: FBAUL MELO, Jorge Silva Melo – Século passado. 2016 Lisboa: Livros Cotovia ALMEIDA, Bernardo Pinto de – A arte MEXIA, Pedro – O teatro dos outros de portuguesa no séc. XX. Matosinhos: Jorge Silva Melo. Lisboa: Cinemateca Cardume Editores Portuguesa. Folheto da projecção ROSENDO, Catarina – Escritos de artista em Portugal. Lisboa: Documenta [Leaflet] PORFÍRIO, José Luís – «Obra gráfica», ROSENDO, Catarina – Serralves, história da coleção. Porto: Serralves Expresso (24 Dezembro) SARDO, Delfim – «Imagem e reconhecimento», Abrir a caixa: obras da colecção 2017 da Caixa Geral de Depósitos. Lisboa: SILVA, Raquel Henriques – «Nikias sob a figura da heterotopia», Figuração e Culturgest

103

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parafiguração na pintura de Nikias Skapinakis. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional SARDO, Delfim – «Notas sobre a intenção não descritiva», Figuração e parafiguração na pintura de Nikias Skapinakis. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional PORFÍRIO, José Luís – «Paisagens ocultas», Expresso (1 Dezembro)

Audiov isuais [Audiov isual mater ials]

1992 Zebra: programa de artes plásticas. RTP2 1995 COELHO, Carlos Pinto – Acontece. RTP2

1996 COELHO, Carlos Pinto – Acontece. RTP2 SILVA, Raquel Henriques da – «Entre-

vista a propósito da retrospectiva de retratos no Museu do Chiado» [«Interview concerning the portraits retrospective at the Chiado Museum»]. Antena 2

1997 Arte ibero-americana (1900-1990).

CAEIRO, Francisco Igrejas – Perfil do arCD-ROM tista. Rádio Clube Português. Lisboa COELHO, Carlos Pinto – Acontece. RTP2 RIBEIRO, Fernando Curado – Leitura: semanário radiofónico. Rádio Clube Por1998 tuguês. Lisboa, Porto Arte portuguesa do século XX. Docu-

1960

1968 ESCUDEIRO, António – Documentário

cinematográfico [Film documentary]

mento electrónico [Electronic document]. Lisboa: Instituto de Arte Contemporânea

1999 Artists of this decade. Instituto de Arte SOUSA, Rocha de – Radiotelevisão PorContemporânea tuguesa 2000 1978 MELO, Alexandre – Dias da arte. RTP2 O’NEILL, Alexandre – Perfil. Radiotelevi- COELHO, Carlos Pinto – Acontece. RTP2 são Portuguesa PERNES, Fernando, FERNANDES, João – Entrevista [Interview]. Antena 1 1980 FERNANDES, Maria João – Quotidiano 2002 das Artes e das Letras. Radiotelevisão PERNES, Fernando – Pintura portuguesa do século XX. RTP1 Portuguesa COELHO, Carlos Pinto – Acontece. RTP2 1974

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2004 Entrevista a [Interview with] Nikias Skapinakis]. Jornal Entrevista a [Interview with] Nikias Skapinakis]. TSF Entrevista a [Interview with] Nikias Skapinakis]. RTP1 Entrevista a [Interview with] Nikias Skapinakis]. Magazine das artes. RTP2 Entrevista a [Interview with] Nikias Skapinakis]. TVI a-z. Anamnese.

Pr incipais textos de inter venção [Main inter vention texts] 1955 Lisboa: SNBA. Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

1956 Lisboa: SNBA. Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

1958 Lisboa: SNBA. Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

2005 GUIMARÃES, Bárbara – Entrevista a Inactualidade da arte moderna. Lisboa: [Interview with] Nikias Skapinakis.

Seara Nova. Conferência proferida na Páginas soltas. SIC [Conference held at] SNBA Entrevista a [Interview with] Nikias Ska- «A angústia irremediável do pintor Mápinakis]. Magazine das artes. RTP2 rio Eloy», O Comércio do Porto (8 Abril) 2007 GOMES, Isabel – Entrevista a [Interview 1959 «Modernos figurativos portugueses: with] Nikias Skapinakis. RTPN conferência pronunciada para a Juven2009 tude Musical Portuguesa em 29 de JaPanorama documental português. Videoneiro de 1959 na SNBA», Arquitecteca Municipal de Lisboa tura, n.º 65 (Junho), pp. 46-52 «L’art abstrait est-il condamné?», O Co2010 mércio do Porto (28 Maio) ISIDRO, Júlio – Entrevista com [Inter- «Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso: retrospecview with] Jorge Silva Melo. Quarto tiva», O Comércio do Porto (9 Junho) crescente. RTP1 «Morandi, Prémio da Bienal», O ComérMELO, Jorge Silva – Nikias Skapinakis: o cio do Porto teatro dos outros. RTP2, prod. Artistas Unidos, Midas (DVD) 1960 «Histórias de retratos», Gazeta Musical e de Todas as Artes, n.º 109 (Abril)

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1962 «Resposta ao teste de Proust», Jornal de Letras e Artes, n.º 54 (10 Outubro)

dros. Évora: Museu de Évora, pp. 12-15.

Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

1985 1967 «Da arte moderna ao academismo», Exposição de Nikias Skapinakis. Lisboa: Diário de Notícias (11 Agosto) Galeria 111. Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

1987 «As respostas possíveis», Algumas per1971 guntas a Nikias Skapinakis. Lisboa: IN«Apologia do artista», Diário de Lisboa -CM, pp. 21-64 (8 Abril) «Arte e Mercado», Diário de Lisboa (15 1990 Julho) Nikias Skapinakis: as paisagens internas.

Lisboa: SNBA. Cat. da exposição [Ex1973 hibition cat.]

2.ª Exposição de Design Português. [S.l.]: Instituto Nacional de Investigação Industrial e Interforma. Cat. da exposi- 1991 Nikias Skapinakis: as naturezas metafísição [Exhibition cat.] cas. Porto: Cooperativa Árvore. Cat. da 1974 exposição [Exhibition cat.]

Para o estudo da melancolia em Portugal, Nikias Skapinakis expõe na Gale- 1995 ria 111. Lisboa: Galeria 111. Cat. da ex- «Reflexão sobre águas passadas», Colóposição [Exhibition cat.] quio/Artes, n.º 105 (Abril-Junho), pp.

Resposta a inquérito [Reply to query], 53-56 Expresso (13 Julho) «Antecipação estética em Balzac», Coló1996 quio/Artes, pp. 46-49 «Pro-memoria», Para o estudo da melancolia em Portugal. Nikias Skapinakis.

1980 Retrospectiva de retratos, 1955-1974.

«Em torno da expressão do artista, aproLisboa: Museu do Chiado / Instituto ximando-se o final do século», Diário Português de Museus, pp. 12-13. Cat. de Notícias (9 Outubro) da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

«Picasso e a verosimilhança», Expresso 1981 (28 Setembro) «Prévia memória», Nikias Skapinakis: paisagens do Vale dos Reis e outros qua-

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1998 2004 «Nota sobre uma breve antologia», Nikias «O desfalecimento da pintura», JL. Jornal de Letras, Artes e Ideias, n.º 886 (OutuSkapinakis: breve antologia 1950-60-70bro) -80-90. Lisboa: Cesar Galeria. Cat. da «Nota do Autor», Nikias Skapinakis: jarexposição [Exhibition cat.] dins da América, pintura 2003. Porto: Galeria Fernando Santos. Cat. da expo2000 sição [Exhibition cat.]

«Nota sobre o futuro próximo», Nikias Skapinakis, prospectiva 1966-2000.

Porto: Museu de Serralves, p. 64. Cat. 2005 Nikias Skapinakis: antologia breve, 1950da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

-2005. Amarante: Museu Municipal Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso. Cat. da 2002 exposição [Exhibition cat.]

Nikias Skapinakis: Série TAG. Lisboa: Prémio Vespeira: VIII Bienal de Artes Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art. Plásticas «Cidade do Montijo». MonCat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.] tijo: Câmara Municipal do Montijo Na paisagem: colecção da Fundação de Serralves. Porto: Fundação de Serral2006 ves, pp. 66-67. Cat. da exposição [Exhi«Reconstruções», Nikias Skapinakis: rebition cat.] construções. Porto; Lisboa: Galeria Fer«Retratos de ausência», Nikias Skapinanando Santos. Cat. da exposição [Exhikis: retratos de ausência [1999-2002]. bition cat.]

Porto: Galeria Fernando Santos, p. 7.

Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

2007 2003 Depoimento sobre a Fundação de Serralves [Statement on the Serralves Foundation]. Porto: Fundação de Serralves Sobre o Sentido da Globalização [On the Meaning of Globalisation], XII Bienal Internacional de Arte de Vila Nova de Cerveira: o artista e a globalização, o seu papel como actor social. Vila Nova de Cerveira: Projecto – Núcleo de Desenvolvimento Cultural, p. 129. Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

«Fernando Azevedo». Lisboa: SNBA

«Nota prévia», Nikias Skapinakis: imagens 2007: óleo reconstruções, guache.

Lisboa; Porto: Galeria Fernando Santos. Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

«Memória resumida», JL. Jornal de Letras, Artes e Ideias, n.º 960 2009 O desenho a preto e branco e a cores. Cascais: Centro Cultural de Cascais. Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

O teatro dos outros de Jorge Silva Melo.

Nota sobre o filme [Note on the film].

Lisboa: Cinemateca Portuguesa

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«A perenidade da pintura», Nikias Skapinakis: imaginações, 2008-2009. Lisboa; Porto: Galeria Fernando Santos. Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

Pintura: inactualidade ou perenidade: episódios do trabalho de um pintor. Lisboa: Artistas Unidos; Instituto de História da Arte – Estudos de Arte Contemporânea, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Conferência | Conference)

2014 Depoimento sobre [Statement on] Vieira da Silva. Lisboa: Fundação Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva.

«Nuno Gonçalves, Gil Vicente, Eça de Queirós», XXI personalidades do milénio. Porto: Modo de Ler. «Nota sobre o retrato na pintura», JL. Jornal de Letras, Artes e Ideias (05-08) 2016 «Paisagens ocultas», Porto: Galeria Fernando Santos

2010 «O Museu da Brasileira», Chiado: efer- 2019 vescência urbana, artística e literária «Paisagens – o preto no branco da tela», de um lugar, José Quaresma; FerPorto: Galeria Fernando Santos nando Rosa Dias (ed.). Lisboa: Centro de Investigação e de Estudos em Belas-Artes; FBAUL «Notas sobre paisagem-bandeira portuguesa», 2009. JL. Jornal de Letras, Artes e Ideias, n.º 1027 (09-02) «Um foragido na embaixada do Brasil», JL. Jornal de Letras, Artes e Ideias, n.º 1050 (29-12) 2011 «Lembrando Fernando Pernes», Intervenção na [Intervention at] Fundação de Serralves, Porto.

2012 «Introdução», Nikias Skapinakis. Presente e passado. 2012-1950. Lisboa: Museu Colecção Berardo, pp. 15-16.

Cat. da exposição [Exhibition cat.]

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Landscapes. The Black on the White of the Screen Nikias Skapinakis

Developed between 2018 and the present, the Black and White Landscapes belong to the series Hidden Landscapes, of which they preserve the seven planes that structure the composition and the sinuosity of the line; however, they replace chromatism (which characterises most periods of my work) with a monochromatism that makes use of ivory black, applied on the canvas in successive layers of different densities.

The brightest white is thus the white of the canvas itself, where nuances replace the smooth colors that characterize the Hidden Landscapes.

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Nikias, The Unfinishing Bernardo Pinto de Almeida

Figuration is always new because reality is always changing.

N. S., 1967

1.

They are not many, in numbers that can be counted and seen, the ones who made 20th-century Portuguese art something worthy of inclusion in the vast and demanding annals of European art from the same historical period. One of such artists, I think – and I have staunchly declared it over the past three decades, during which I have followed the sure-footed development of his work 1 – is, without a doubt, Nikias Skapinakis. This artist, in spite of his Greek name and descent, like the man from Toledo, is certainly one of the most original and inventive figures from that century that, though already finished, remains unstudied in many of its aspects. Surprisingly, he was also one of the few of which it could safely be said – considering the reformulation, in the historic passage that occurred from then to the present time, of the paradigms that redefine the art of the present time in relation to the one that preceded it – that he immediately became a harbinger of the signs of art during that secular turning point, signs to which, in fact, he was already close, and thus anticipated. Even if that could not yet be seen at that time.

And he did so, without ever losing the thread that runs through his work, and instead tirelessly providing it with elements of constant and successive reinvention, with a coherence few could have displayed, especially for so long a period.

He stands alongside, then, of such others as Dacosta, Cesariny, Ângelo, Alberto Carneiro, Siza, Manoel de Oliveira and few more, during that stretch of time. In that light, it can be said that, on an internal level, many of the premises that today ––––––– 1 In fact, besides countless essays that will not be detailed here, published since 1986 in magazines and catalogues for the artist’s solo exhibitions or retrospectives [Fundação de Serralves (2000), Museu Berardo (2012)], I have also written one book on his vast body of work: Nikias Skapinakis – Uma Pintura Desalinhada, Campo das Letras, Porto, 2006.

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attend the paradigm we call contemporary (which comprised not just the deconstruction of the historical source of Modernism but also, and especially, a revaluation of the arkhé )2 were already being elaborated, and almost from the beginning, in this artist’s work, often against the grain as regards the tastes and fashions that made up the cultural habitus of his time3.

So it was with his long insistence on figuration, in the face of the reconsideration of what would be an essential untopicality of modern art, which, according the artist, always fed on other traditions. But there was also the way he agilely incorporated into his work something we can describe as part of a logic of the image, by appropriating elements from posters and graffiti art, or simple cut-outs of objects and figures (even in portraits).

Finally, when considering a work whose medium par excellence has been painting, it should be kept in mind that both the organisation of its internal space and the very ideation of the figurations come nearly every time from a construction that always uses the artifices of the representational as a springboard to reorganise itself in a way similar to the images. Perhaps because of that, his work has often been called Pop art. In his portraits from the 1960s and 1970s, like in landscapes and still-lifes, painting serves a previous construction, a sort of internal disegno that first and foremost obeys whatever belongs to that logic of the image, rather than the logic of representation.

But what is, in my opinion, most characteristic of Nikias’ work ever since its beginning, in the distant 1950s, is precisely how, without ever losing in the process the conceptual thread that made his work a constantly open process, it displays an ability to ceaselessly renew and reinvent itself, always surprising and even amazing its viewers. In the unique theatre of his work, everything constantly combines to generate surprise and amazement. As the artist himself wrote, “any notion of a turning must be completed with the notion of continuity. Breaks in artistic experience are only apparent” (1994).

Therefore, the many changes that Nikias operated in his work and in the limits of art during his historical time were accomplished without ever breaking ––––––– 2 On these subjects, see my book Arte e Infinitude – O Contemporâneo entre a Arkhé e o Tecnológico, Relógio D’Água, Lisbon, 2018.

3 Regarding this, see the artist’s texts and speeches, assembled in Pintura. Inactualidade e Perenidade. Episódios do Trabalho de um Pintor, Instituto de História da Arte da Universidade Nova de Lisboa / Artistas Unidos, Lisbon, 2010.

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with it, without disappointing, within the scope of that unique experience, the ones who from very early on felt surprise at his way of thinking and creating painting. At the same time, while ironically disparaging all those who, during his very long career, had thought that his art had reached a standstill or the dead end of repetitive academisation, he knew how to renew it, avoiding the trap of repeating himself. Indifferent to fashions and rushed judgements, he redefined, with the intelligence, elegance and precision that typify his nature, the internal logic of his artistic path, aligning it not only with the preceding body of work – whose postulates, which quickly became explicit, he never betrayed – but also with the concerns of the coming times, which he simply knew how to understand.

Making use, in that path, of his personal method of observation and reflection, he knew how to become the exact contemporary of the various times he lived through by always attempting to understand that inevitably changing time, trying to find the keys to comprehending it. Unlike others, who stubbornly insist on being right against time itself, whenever it changes the rules that were once in place, he knew how to preserve, thanks to his understanding of that law of change that has always affected all times, the essential reasons of his work, using it as a means to invent a unique plasticity that is typical of all his oeuvre. Thus he eventually fulfilled an intuition that was announced very early on: “By being in tune with himself, an artist can always be in tune with the world in which he exists. The only modernity is the one that comes out of those tunings” (1958). Because, as we indeed know, modernity loses all meaning when it becomes the product of elements that are extrinsic to the artists’ works, of fashions imposed from outside.

2.

Now, with this new series, Black and White – which I consider, without any reservation, to be the most radical and extreme of all this artist’s creations in his tireless search to advance the postulates of his work, where every piece clarifies the deep meaning of what preceded it –, Nikias, who was probably one of the most dazzling and rich colourists of Portuguese art during the past century, surprises us anew, by unexpectedly offering us a painting whose colours repose, all secretly concealed, locked inside its thick, inexorable black. A black that, we will further add, thickens as if to announce the obscurity of these new times we face; all that we thought we knew dissolves itself in it, like in a dark night.

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A black (which finally displays itself here as the extreme synthesis of all other colours) that expands voraciously across the canvas, scratching, invading, staining, peopling it as brighter colours would, but without ever falling into the temptation of acting as a drawing, or as a graphic entity, the carrier of any sort of writing or sign, or of any desire of tying itself to the plane of the sketch, or even of belonging to some powerful synthesis manifested as a draft.

Quite unlike what would be a presence, discreet though it might be, of drawing, or at least of a subtle vestige of it, left behind as a memory, this black is, to the contrary, what lends density to this painting that now is reborn out of it, almost surprised, filling it, thanks to its mysterious and deep shades, with a new sort of pictorial atmosphere.

The black in these paintings is then itself painting or, to put it another way, the flesh of a painting that somehow presents itself in the sphere of the tragic.

Troubling and vast in its ample atmosphere, in its dense and heavy, almost respiratory cadence. Their ambiance is analogous to the feeling that sometimes overwhelms and surprises us when, as we look at certain black-and-white reproductions of a certain piece, which we had so far known only in colour, we find in it something we had never perceived until then, but whose reproduction, in the strict economy of that reduction to the black and white of the canvas, suddenly discloses other plans, perhaps secret, like an infographic, a secret only revealed through radiography.

A new atmosphere, then, with a secret or unconscious root, that, precisely because the painting has been deprived of its usual colours, leads us to feel or guess in it new textures and vibrations, beneath the impenetrable enigma that the black slowly generates over the white. But Nikias did this without, however, becoming stuck in rhetoric or formal repetitions of his previous work, from whose recognisable forms he distances himself anew, once again exploring, boldly, thoroughly and always without a trace of melancholy, new expressive possibilities, through which he makes a number of equally new (and even troubling) inquiries.

Nikias’ art, always detached and grave, sometimes ironic in its distancing, contains nothing that is melancholic. And, like those animals that through a series of graceful mutations leave behind the skin that used to identify them, and thus transfigure themselves, this painting, too, once again transfigures itself before our eyes, making itself other than what it was, while remaining connected to all its memory. This black, in fact, is now used by the artist to uphold or announce new

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purposes, which we should try to grasp in the most hidden details of each piece, in a series that operates as if it were actually X-raying the very nature and archaic memory of painting.

Purposes that actually, and precisely for that reason, consist in reinforcing aspects that were perhaps less evident in the preceding body of work, the one, we remember, that was still in colour, and, since all the painting work of this artist has always been a profound meditation on time and its condition, could be more properly described as having a philosophical or moral nature. But we must also understand them, these new paths now open, without forgetting that it is in this manner that this work subtly returns, without, however, making it too explicit, to some of its constant concerns. Namely, to a secret longing for landscape, which has always been there, and also to the mysterious presence of figures and walls, that is, of planes that multiply themselves to generate a veritable spatial metaphysics.

A metaphysics that the painter has found, within the wide time-span of what interests him in paintings of all epochs – indeed, he does not feel in thrall to recent traditions –, first of all in Greco or, a little later, in the thick, solemn atmospheres of Zurbarán, where space seems like the repercussion of an echo that reverberates amid the silence of the great Spanish provincial cathedrals. Thus he reinvents that possibility of giving presence, through painting, to a sort of metaphysical feeling – which consists, in the end, in the capture of another idea of time – but now given new depth and, perhaps, a different and unexpected level of drama.

Or, as we may perhaps say, highlighting in this manner that always pursued and also always present metaphysical dimension that, even if quietly, run through all his work like an enigmatic key that, more than any other, allows us access to it, helping us understand it as what it is: a key of time, in which are felt, on the same time-plane, multiple forms of time. This also occurred in his admirable Homenagem a Carpaccio, a view of a deserted Lisbon that, thanks to the densification of space, conveyed the feeling of a congealed time, a time that can indistinctly contain in itself several times.

3.

We know how, while opposing himself, though silently, to the dynamic and restless (in other words, revolutionary and modernist) domination of Futurism, Cubism and, in more general terms, of the so-called historic Avant-gardes from

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early 20th-century Europe, that which was named “metaphysical painting” within the vast context of modern Italian art, he in fact took upon himself a “corrective” aesthetic need that is also typical of the Italian cultural tradition. An action that consisted in recovering and preserving the static richness of that grand tradition that dates back to the early Renaissance, endeavouring to bring it into that new era of technical reproducibility.

We might then say, in short, that metaphysical painting attempted to seize the mysterious link that hides itself in the heart of reality, without, however, escaping reality itself, which it somehow apprehended now in an almost abstract dimension, while moving over the concreteness of things. That is to say, over the world of objects.

Its approach to reality was extremely different, by isolating space and time, almost freezing and fusing them, as if space were a mere expression of time, and reversing both of them as pure pictorial imaginings. In other words, it suspended what had once been done in painting for the sole benefit of representation, thus freeing it from any need for signification or meaning.

In the briefest terms, metaphysical painting sought to engage with the elements of reality by depicting them, while never attempting to extract from them any key to a meaning or identifiable signification. It was as if, while acknowledging the need to deal with reality, something it has never relinquished, it paradoxically isolated reality and freed it from all realism. Thus reality became, in that form of painting, a mere pretext to denote the mystery. Avoiding the traps of Surrealism, whose flight from reality did not interest them, the metaphysical painters found in reality itself the imaginary key to the mystery and to the indecipherable secrecy of the world.

In this manner, objects appeared in that painting as if they had been previously cut out, suspended like collages of elements summoned from various times and places, under a silent and grave mantle of mystery, which in fact no longer owed anything to the incantatory oneiric feel of Surrealism. Thus the exemplary figures of reality, drawn from a noble and long pictorial tradition, were preserved, while losing at the same time their original, objectively representational quality, and even the cultural context and purpose of they preceding occurrences, leaving them as if suspended in a sphere of frozen time. It was this that largely gave metaphysical painting its element of enigmatic silence and strangeness, inspiring so much perplexity, and even anxiety, on all those who witnessed its emergence.

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In fact, metaphysical painting had unexpectedly deviated the issue of abstraction to, so to speak, an inner, or much deeper, layer of the painting. Instead of simply resolving that issue on the surface, as was the case of most abstract art – which did nothing more than replace one formal recipe with another –, it made abstraction a part of the very concept and construction of the images, thus isolating them from mere representation.

Such are the internal limits of the dispute between figurative and abstract artists, a subject tackled by very few artists in Portugal; Nikias was one of them.

Thus his work found an unanticipated but profound connection with the sense of a metaphysics in painting – here, we should remember that he never claimed to be a part of that group or movement, but simply said that a metaphysical point was operating inside his work – in the way how, in spite of the fact that it was constantly engaged with reality, it brought to its interior a number of somewhat anachronic elements, such as circus scenes, figures moving in the distance, nearphantasmal deserted urban landscapes. Their presence, though occurring within the same plane – and precisely because they carry the signs of a certain ahistoricity – generates altered perceptions of time and space. To use the words of the great poet Giuseppe Ungaretti, they provide us with a different feeling of time: “Hasten you, O time, to place upon my lips / Your last kiss” (1931).

But that is so, too, in the measure that the, so to speak, classical dimension of representation has been over time replaced (or, more properly, discarded) by a construction, in itself near-abstract, something I have previously called a theatre of painting. That is certainly visible in such pieces as the aforementioned Homenagem a Carpaccio, among others. In other words, pieces where the picture is mostly used to construct a device in which to present a staging of painting itself.

In them, the painting is no longer conceived as a means to depict certain objects or scenes, but as a scene in itself, a presentation, an action that is not necessarily tied to a representational goal or meaning.

Now, the painting stages only itself, that is to say, its inner workings, which are summoned to serve as a visual argument for a profound disbelief in the socalled system of modern art, as it has historically been developed, namely as concerns formal abstraction, which some critics have taken to be the “conquest” of modern art, or even its obvious destination, a theory this artist opposes, even when episodically engaging in dialogue with that very system.

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4.

Nikias was, then, a post-modern even before Post-modernism had even a place in artistic culture. In a conference entitled “The Untopicality of Modern Art,” which he presented at SNBA, Lisbon, in 1958 – and which Seara Nova magazine would publish in that same year – the artist took a stance against the ideological championing of abstraction, which was being promoted at the time by José-Augusto França.

There, he stated: “A time is made up of many surviving times, a concept of modernity woven out of many contradictory presences. But I believe, or more precisely I feel, that modern art, as it founds itself on history and penetrates the usual forms of our everyday lives, moves insensibly from the present to the past. (…) To break the dogmas of modern art is a necessity imposed by the impossibility of reaffirming them without causing them to lose their strength, without making them meaningless.”

What all this means is that, in opposition to the purely ideological upholding of a Modernism that should now be found in abstract art, as if abstract art were an inevitable historical goal that must be conquered – which posited a conception of history as being animated by a sense of progress, which could never linger, because that would negate its voracity for the future – Nikias gave his intense and opposite support to the notion of a pendular movement for the proper time of works of art.

In it, art moves back and forth, which allows it to dip into the roots of its own history and heritage and thus gauge the reasons for its most precise definition, which the present progressively makes clear, precisely as it reconnects with its past and arche. With that, Nikias once again showed himself to be a contemporary avant la lettre, by upholding the practice of art as an archaeological practice, in opposition to the historicist concept that ideologically supported Modernism.

That is why his art was metaphysical.

And also because, in its own way, the same could be said of Portugal at the time. It was a metaphysical country, because it lived in ethereal suspension, its people seemingly unaware of the fact that Europe and the whole world existed around them, and that around them quite different realities and destinies were in motion, countless expectations and aspirations of a cultural and even civilisational nature that found no echo here.

The whole of Portugal (somewhat similarly to the situation in Italy during the same period) appeared then to be suspended within a spherical time, isolated and closed in upon itself, as if enclosed in a bubble, hypnotically imprisoned inside the

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inanimate glass of a trivial paperweight. This isolated the country from the historical time experienced throughout Europe, which appeared increasingly more distant.

It could be said, then, and this is precisely what can be seen in his work, that Nikias actually painted the air (or the atmosphere) between things, that feeling of a space between them, and that the artist knew how to select, from that effect of remote Cézannean resonance, what was certainly one of the most expressive elements in that dramaturgy of images which I have earlier called a theatre of painting.

5.

It is, then, through this process of isolating and cutting out figures, be they houses, boats, human, architectural (a study of architecture’s role in this artist’s work has yet to be made) or vegetable elements – out of which Nikias has developed a veritable constructive method over the decades –, and then repositioning them like a simple collage in relation to the other elements, that this dramatic relationship between all of them is generated. Dramatic because it is largely suspended, like inside a paradoxical communication that is mostly the result of their assemblage, which is sometimes antagonistic, even if it takes place within the same space. A properly aerial space, in which the elements tend, by virtue of their abandonment, towards a dramaturgy: the metaphysical point consists in the revelation of this drama (static, like Pessoa’s The Mariner).

Something that, at the very moment that it connects the elements, is already separating them. And that, in this case, operates with colours that are sometimes reduced to their barest tonal dimension, faded in order to, thanks to that deletion and economy, intensify the feeling that, more than a simple empty space, a tangible, sensible and somehow representable element is manifesting around them. It is not, then, a matter of searching for some narrow realism, but rather of realistically showing what usually goes unseen.

The almost tangible, or visible, air that seems to run through the space between things and beings, as it often occurs in Nikias’ painting since the 1950s, in which vague, almost haunted figures wander, in the distance, through near-deserted spaces where sometimes we can glimpse the outline of a destitute circus or of a faraway landscape, is the most preponderant and recognisable (even if not identifiable) element in this artist’s work, the one that we feel as a thing. And that we almost see, or even sense, as one more presence in the dramatic whole of the painting’s scene.

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Because if it is true that things do not exist outside its space, that is, however, how they are depicted there: as if none of them actually belonged to the space it occupies. And thus, in order for the aerial space between things and bodies to become sensible, isolating them in essential solitude, the depicted paradoxically becomes what was thought to be non-representable.

Jean Genet has a magnificent meditation on the nature of painting, as both form and object: “I must first try to isolate in its significance the painting as material object (canvas, frame, etc.), so that it stops belonging to the immense family of painting (even if it means bringing it back to that later on), but so that the image on the canvas becomes linked to my experience of space, to my knowledge of the solitude of objects, beings or events (…) Whoever has never been filled with wonder at this solitude will not know the beauty of painting.”4 This means that there is, besides the depicted figures and space, a time that appears to circulate between things and beings, isolating them a sort of almost atmospheric dimension and revealing itself in this manner, taking the form of what the artist has described as a time made up of many surviving times.

An ungraspable time that, as such, must be made visible and sensible in order to bring it to the plane of our comprehension. Such, then, is the task of the arts and literature. Such, then, is the task of painting, when it sets on depicting what Nikias has precisely named the metaphysical point. In it resides, or begins, the understanding of what painting truly is, and what is it for, what distinguishes it from the other arts in terms of fulfilling a purpose in our comprehension of the world and its absolute connection to thought. Therein consists, in the end, that true beauty of painting which that brief excerpt from Jean Genet so well conveys.

Thus, it can be said of all of Nikias Skapinakis’ painting that it always stems from that desire to open oneself to a metaphysical mood. It is through that desire that one can understand something more than just his style: the very process that is intrinsic to his way of painting and to the reasons that guide it. Such is its deepest purpose: to display, as on a stage, or in a scene, that which Genet has fittingly called the solitude of objects, beings or events. The very same element that, in the end, was already exemplarily present in the Desenhos Higiénicos series, from which would later emerge, already on a large screen and in colour, the extraordinary paintings of the Cortinas series. In fact, all his painting work has, from the beginning, pursued that ability to make us feel and see the many times of which the time of art is made.

––––––– 4 The Criminal Child – Selected Essays, New York Review of Books, New York, 2020, p. 73.

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6.

Nikias’ new black paintings – which, indeed, cannot fail to evoke in our eyes those others, also known by this name, that Goya created in his final years – show thus the intention to stress even more strongly that which, in all of the artist’s previous work, was already felt as its true sensible pattern, which has guided from within all the development of that same work, but is now revealed in a new, tremendous dimension.

Which makes it, therefore, worthy of our fullest attention.

It is now, much more openly than before, a matter of revealing, through the very process of painting, the absolute victory of what we call the expressive over what we call the formal, which is always a means, never an end. And consequently, in his case, of taking even further his own way of further stripping painting of all its representational dimension – whatever might link it, in mimetic terms, to the reproduction of immediate reality – and instead capturing, through it, invisible forces that move inside reality itself. In this manner, painting is freed from anything that might make it opaque, revealing in the process the essentials of what surrounds the spaces and figures. It is precisely that allows us to understand the major innovation brought by this series. More than in any previous series, all that surrounds each figure is stripped away here, in an abrupt, violent contrast in which all processes are made clear.

The excessive white that envelops the black forms in this new series by Nikias, but from which at the same time they disengage themselves, as if they were in suspension, presents a number of subtle variations in tone, now harder, rawer, as in certain unpainted sections of the canvas, now softer, almost evocative of seafoam, as in the delicate layers with minimal chromatic variation, is evocative of that other white, in Malevich, that opened itself to receive the contour of his Black Square, also overflowing with metaphysical meaning.

Apparently, Nikias wants now to remove all unnecessary elements that might distract us from contemplating what seems to him the most essential, perhaps the most vital, that is to say, that which matters most to his painting. He has cleaned it of all that is artificial and all that is spurious, reducing it to a minimum.

There are no longer colours, just the tenuous presence of the gestures that once applied them. And, out of those gestures, only preserve the presence of those that are indeed essential, sometimes as a simple suggestion. There are no longer forms, only, sometimes, their negative, their outline, that almost sculptural air that appears to float around them, containing the figures in isolation.

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They are harsh and sober, then, these paintings. In them, all the economy of forms, gestures, the very hues that even the two simple colours, reduced to their essential, take, without ever losing their austere gravity, appears to suffuse all that surrounds them, thus revealing that essential solitude of which Genet spoke, thanks to which the true beauty of painting manifests itself limpidly. Just as harsh, sober and essential as, in their historical times, the works of Toledo’s El Greco or Goya’s black paintings were, something so clear in that dog of which we can only see, like a flame burning over an immense void, the dazzling apparition of its head.

And, like those troubling isolated figures in Friedrich’s paintings, these too are associated with spaces whose existence we can only suspect, being so remotely evocative of all those spaces we have ever known.

They remind us, in their icy presence, of such sights as can be seen in the poles, distant and desolate landscapes never before seen, craters of extinct volcanoes, mountains covered in dense layers of ice and snow, or seas that have reached a state of absolute immobility. The world they reveal to us, then, is a very peculiar one.

That is why I have previously written that they now allude to a dimension of the tragical, or announce the imminent release, into the world, of forces and forms filled with singular strangeness. Why is it legitimate to wonder, while looking at them: what do those images, so distant from all the ones we knew, want to “tell” (that is: make us imagine) us? What worlds do they evoke, in their frozen solitude, as mysterious as the shipwrecking sea? To what abyssal areas are they leading our gaze, which, confronted with them, knows only awe? What was the artist’s intention when he decided to show us this new series and, most importantly, to create it, since he prefers to remain in sober, distant silence regarding it?

It is, however, in this manner that, via a gesture that is radical, unexpected and even violent, the courageous decision to leave behind what has been left behind and trace the necessary plans to open a new path leading to a new and vast field of image exploration – now, at the culmination of an already vast oeuvre, something that demands enormous intellectual courage, after more than sixty years of work, already recognised and deeply inscribed into the Portuguese art and culture of his time – the artist comes now to surprise us, and this time we lack ready references to decipher his intention.

He surprises us, precisely because this is also a way of going to the bottom of something that comes to bring a new meaning, and new implications, to the tremendously rich path of his preceding work. That is precisely why he decided to do away with colour, which has always been a part of our idea and our image

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of painting (with the exception of Guernica), particularly his own. And leave in its place black, white, and the shadows that envelop them, like an infographic.

What does this gesture explain? What truth runs through it?

For now, and in the place that was formerly occupied by the joyous, bright colours that usually filled his previous paintings with luminous variation and vibration, it is a matter, I believe, of highlighting the internal movement of painting itself, by intensifying the outlines of the figures and forms, wounding them deeply with an unexpected but fundamental internal discontinuity. That discontinuity reveals a number of faded landscapes, sometimes almost lugubrious and haunted, evocative now of the sombre environments of Bochlin or Friedrich, now of certain frames from the sublimated films of Dreyer or Victor Sjostrom, Bergman’s undisputed masters. Crepuscular, uninhabited landscapes that have been emptied of all human presence to receive, in their desolate locus, the gaze and awe of those who look at them. This, in fact, is a way of leading the gaze, our gaze, into the vertigo of the extreme contemplation of its own abyss, in which it could lose itself once and for all.

Such a painting, which sucks into itself the viewer’s gaze (as Merleau-Ponty once explained), attempts in this manner to threat subjectivity itself: brought inside it, the viewer’s gaze enters a state of subjective loss, no longer able to reconstitute itself by means of references taken from the known visible. Consequently, the this was, the eidos of photography according to Barthes but actually constitutive of all types of image, namely those in painting, tends to dissolve or crumble here, being replaced by a this will be. A paradox, however, emerges out of this very relationship: how is it possible to enunciate a this will be through a form as thoroughly confirmed and culturally established as painting is? Almost diagrammatic and symbolic, in that progressive phantasmisation of an anticipated form of reality they appear to announce, these obscure landscapes allude then, and at the same time, to the possibility of referring to spaces that are simultaneously inside and outside, as is the case of those images that surface in out most troubling dreams.

For that very reason, the paintings, too, become troubling to us.

7.

Thus Nikias becomes our absolute contemporary. That is, an artist who is already fully of our time, a pioneer who lights the way, when a new century has already clearly defined new conceptual and formal standards for art, without ever

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excluding painting from them (in Richter, Tuymans, Borremans or Peter Doig).

Now, he asks from it new forms, which may understand and incorporate that new and complex domain of the image.

And, diving deep, without fear or hesitation, into that dense night of the images, where, as in a procession, the many times of which time is made converge, the artist pulls out of it visions, mysteries, jolts that perhaps only painting can fully contain, because there are no words to say them yet. Like Goya’s “black paintings” did in their time, revealing the sudden interaction of a present time with another, archaic age.

Regarding this, we will have to understand that the true beauty of painting, and it is always about that art that we talk when we talk about Nikias, does not appear today, as indeed it has never done in all its history, as a finished form. All the art of painting is inevitably wounded by an essential unfinishing whenever it truly attains the realm of art. That is precisely because in it the expressive is always more important than the formal, and its space has always been a space of reinvention regarding all that it was, to which it nonetheless remains connected.

Indeed, if all the history of painting had been instead marked by a sense of finishing, its ability to invent itself would have run out long ago. In that sense, painting (the art) does not actually innovate: much on the contrary, it simply processes, reinvents and prolongs itself, in an unavoidable confrontation with the impossibility of its finishing.

Maurice Blanchot spoke, on the subject of literature, of an entretien infini,5 an infinite conversation, and one such infinitude also applies to art. The infinitude of its unfinishing, more exactly. That is precisely because, as Bacon and, though in different terms, Giacometti6 pointed out, it is an unfinished, or, more properly, unfinishable form, which will never attain completeness and perfection, but which also constantly reinvents itself. And that is also the reason why artists ceaselessly return to it, trying to perfect their previous gesture, while knowing their attempt is inevitably doomed to fail.

And through that failure is revealed the possibility to continue reinventing that “art of painting,” that beauty of painting which, in spite of all the other forms that emerged in the meantime, has lost neither potency nor force, because it has ––––––– 5 Maurice Blanchot, L’entretien infini, Gallimard, Paris, 1969.

6 Cf. Alberto Giacometti, Assouline, Paris, 1995.

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never lost its ability to invent. In other words, there is still a need for this art, since no other human expression or form can show us what painting shows, which is precisely the way it tends to an infinitude that exceeds history, since history, just by itself, is unable to convey it.

Thus Nikias continues to discontinue, in so far as that his “dishevelled painting,” as he has called it in the past, has always been fed by that jolt and that sense of visual invention (to use Francis Bacon’s fine phrase) that inscribes it with a wound, or an internal discontinuity through which the deep meaning of the unfinishing (or, as we might say now, of the infinitude) that all true art conveys is eventually revealed. For no work of art is ever truly finished.

It is precisely the feeling associated with confronting that infinitude, an experience that in fact only art can offer us, that inspires us to feel deeply moved before it, to desire it and to need it, sensing its essential inappropriability and inexplicability, which reveals to us, through that potency, our own capacity to feel infinitude, and thus perceive and express it.

It was, then, always through the extreme act of finding, in the experience and creation of painting and, more in general, of art, because of the fact that it is wounded by an essential internal discontinuity, that it became possible to reinvent it, causing it, throughout all the times, to become the carrier of new significations, new meanings, new perceptions and new sensations of matter, space and time.

But it is also thanks to the presence of that wound throbbing inside it that painting has the chance to continue as both form and expression, rather than as a mere repetition or reactivation of previously seen forms. The one that, paradoxically, gives it the chance to continue by revealing, always in new ways, a process that feeds solely on the expressive possibilities its exercise affords. And, because of the fact that they exist in this way, they turn into our contemporaries all those who, throughout its history, and even though deeply connected with it, were guided by that same desire to reinvent it.

In this manner, then, we may come to understand how in fact there is a common lineage that mysteriously connects, beyond themes or objects, and even across the diversity of the times, spaces and cultures in which these artists affirmed themselves, even though always in connection with them: Titian and Greco to Manet or Cézanne, or even these to Giacometti and Bacon, etc. Bacon, indeed, once stated: “Techniques change, and one could talk about painting by making a sort of history of the techniques of painting, but as for what it is that makes a

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painting, which is always the same thing, the subject of a painting, what painting is; you can’t explain it – it is impossible 7.”

And if that process is mysterious, as I wrote, or even unexplainable, as Bacon stated, that is just because in it, or rather, through it, we are confronted with the sense of a fundamental unfinishing, through which an essential transhistoricity of art (which is difficult to apprehend within the historical framework of our culture), if not even its ahistoricity, is revealed. In other words, an inapprehensible and in fact inappropriable movement of time (and of the many times that inhabit each time) that, notwithstanding the historical conjuncture in which every work emerges, shows, running through it, as if coming up towards its most visible layer, another conjuncture in which another form of time is revealed; an improper time or, to use Nikias’ expression, a time made up of various times. Which is nonetheless time, the time of the archaic (or of the arche), that is, a time that has remained out of history but even so reverberated through it, like a secret breathing inside it.

The one that often occurs as the presence of an element that is alien and yet retrospectively recognisable, causing some works of art to look alien in their own time, in which they appear, thus exceeding it. But which is perceived, later, as existing in it simultaneously, as if already turned to a yet unknown time, that is also still and always to come. Ceaselessly taking part – against all historical determinism that might hold it back – of that which we call a becoming, which fulfils itself time and again in the work as both promise and vestige. Or as a vision. Which is also the reason why, sometimes, certain works from the past can return as if to settle scores, exerting again influence on works from another historical time, which is surprised into rediscovering them.

No other form of human expression, apart from art, comprises, or reveals to us, this ceaseless dialogue between humans and time. A dialogue that, to our surprise, but also for our joy, suddenly makes topical before our eyes – and precisely because they were untopical in their own time – the paintings found on palaeolithical walls or on the bulgy surface of a Greek vase, the expressive figures of some anonymous medieval altarpiece, a slanting of the light in a De La Tour painting, the magisterial presence of secret harmonies in Poussin or the way space reverberates with near-inapprehensible quivers of the air and atmosphere, light and geom––––––– 7 Archimbaud, Michel, Francis Bacon: In Conversation with Michel Archimbaud, Phaidon Press, London, 1993, p. 74.

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etry, in the ever-secret work of Cézanne, suddenly animating them with a new sense of movement that transfigures them before our eyes. This is, as Bacon so well described it, the mystery that explains right from the beginning, since times immemorial in the palaeolithical caves, our need for painting, which is much more than just a mere historical form.

The same need that makes it, in the end, a contemporary form. That is, a form in which, or rather, through which we continue to recognise ourselves in our humanity, because in it we can recognise a measure that still applies to us and can accompany us in our discovery of the world and ourselves. Indeed, it brings us before that feeling of infinitude that the very unfinishing of art conveys, and to which all artists ceaselessly return, because they could not otherwise attain what is proper of art. Which consists of its inappropriable dimension, a dimension that, nonetheless, can be approached and touched, even though it is unattainable as perfection or a completed thing.

We might, for now, state that painting and art in general serve us, precisely because through them we are able to recognise a measure of time to which we would have no access otherwise. When we face that measure of time, we realise that it, in fact, actually belonged to us, since it reveals to us another dimension, perhaps a deeper one, of our humanity, as beings made as much of flesh as of time, when faced with that condition of infinitude. Its mysterious and unexplainable dimension consists of that.

In this manner, before our surprised eyes, Nikias’ oeuvre suddenly reveals itself, as in an epiphany, as our absolute contemporary. That is, contemporary of this new time, that is already our time, even though the oeuvre itself began in another cultural and historical time, to which it has not remained tied because it ceaselessly reopens itself to time. “But, as it is known – to quote from a long meditation by the artist –, in the end, it is time that rules contemporaneity.”

And that is so because, having attained their essential unfinishing – something that the new painting series makes explicit, now in a way that is especially surprising, because at the same time it casts light upon all the previous oeuvre – they approach that dimension of the inappropriable that rests at the core of all art, the only element that truly manages to place us, while centred on our own time plane, before all times.

(November 2019 – March 2020)

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