JOSEFA DE ÓBIDOS

THE ART OF CARLOS ALBERTO SANTOS

Carlos Alberto Santos was born in Lisbon in 1933. He started his aprenticeship as publicity illustrator in 1947. Soon he was doing artwork for comic books. In 1953 he completed his best remembered early work: a history of Portugal in 203 illustrations. The resulting book had 17 editions in 20 years. As a graphic artist he illustrated many books and magazines and was also commissioned by the Portuguese Post to do the artwork for two series of stamps.
His first individual exhibition of oil paintings of historical subjects was held at the National Society of Fine Arts in 1970. His work is in private and public collections and museums in Europe and the United State

The artist presented his oils on 94 instances, including the following individual exhibitions:
-National Society for Fine Arts, Lisbon, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1976;
-Faculty Club of the MIT, Boston, 1984;
-Casa da Saudade Library, New Bedford, 1986;
-Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge (USA), 1986.

His work is in collections in Portugal, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Brazil, USA, Canada, and Saudi Arabia.

2 ILLUSTRATIONS MADE FOR "MENSAGEM"

(and the poems with wich they are related)

Mist



Neither king nor law, neither peace nor war,
Define with outline and substance
This dull brilliance of the land
That is Portugal sinking in sadness -
Brightness without light or heat,
Like that which the will-o’-the-wisp confines.

Nobody knows what one wants.
Nobody is aware of one’s own soul,
Nor of what is evil, nor of what is pure.
(What distant anxiety weeps nearby?)
All is uncertain and ultimate.
All is fragmented, nothing is whole.
Oh Portugal, today you are mist...
‘Tis the hour!




King Joao the Second

Arms crossed, he stares beyond the sea
Resembling the promontory of a high mountain ridge-
The limit of the land dominating
The sea that may exist beyond the land.

His formidable solitary hulk
Fills with his presence the sea and the sky,
And the bewildered world seems to fear
That he will open his arms and tear away its veil.

Oil paintings by Carlos Alberto Santos

(for more information :http://www.tabacaria.com.pt/CarlosAlberto/Index.htm )