7 Facts about the Portuguese artist Cruzeiro Seixas

The poet and artist Cruzeiro Seixas (1920-2020) was one of the founders of Portuguese Surrealism, a movement to which he has always remained loyal, as he considered it "unique and revolutionary" in the history of art. His fine line drawings have always been faithful to this aesthetic language, which emerged in the early 1920s with the aim of transforming society and freeing the spirit. He dreamed and imagined, without aesthetic or moral impositions, in the world of plastic art, but also of poetry. He is the author of a vast work in several fields, from drawing and painting, but also in poetry, sculpture and sculpture. Discover seven facts about the last of the Portuguese surrealistsCruzeiro Seixas in this article.

He was the last of the Portuguese Surrealists, the movement led by Mário Cesariny in the late 1940's.
The emergence of Surrealism in Portugal is late, although artists were aware of this movement and the publication of Breton's first manifesto. Gomes Leal, Teixeira de Pascoaes or the Orpheu generation already had some surrealist characteristics in their works, although Surrealism in Portugal only came to be imposed in 1947. As in France, the development of Surrealism also suffered some vicissitudes in Portugal. In the vast artistic production,Cruzeiro Seixas went through several stages, from expressionism to neo-realism, until reaching surrealism. He was recurrently promoter of surrealist aesthetics in the Portuguese milieu.

 
painter and poet
He explored different techniques and supports, transmitting a constant poetic and plastic freedom. His drawings, paintings and sculptures integrated the metaphysical landscapes of Giorgio de Chirico and the metamorphic figurations of Salvador Dalí. Through the contrasts between blacks and whites, he developed a very personal imaginary universe. He dreamed and imagined, without aesthetic or moral impositions, in the world of plastic art, but also of poetry. In his works composed of collages, poems and objects, we perceive that the creation process came in circles: from poems he created paintings and vice versa. Intensely expressing his dreams and desires for freedom, he was an artist who rejected the formal concerns of art, introducing new techniques and materials in his pieces.

The desire for freedom was always the most important thing for the artist.
"We reinvented surrealism during Salazar's [dictatorship] time, when there was nothing in Portugal. There was so much hunger and there were no books. Nothing arrived here. But we kept reinventing. There were extraordinary ideas, especially in the field of painting ", recalled, in another interview, the plastic artist.

Traveled through Africa, India and the Far East
In the 1950s,Cruzeiro Seixas he left for Africa in 1950, wanting to get to know the continent, enlisting in the merchant navy. He also traveled through India and the Far East, settling in Angola in 1952, where he held several exhibitions that had a profound impact on society at the time.

He donated his entire collection to the Cupertino de Miranda Foundation
In 1999, he donated his entire collection to the Cupertino de Miranda Foundation, in Vila Nova de Famalicão, for the establishment of the Center for Surrealism Studies and the Museum of Surrealism, which were created in the meantime, existing today the Espaço Cruzeiro Seixas, at the Foundation, with a permanent exhibition dedicated to the artist.

There are several films about the artist
The premiere of the documentary "As Cartas do Rei Artur", by Cláudia Rita Oliveira, in 2016, the third film dedicated to the artist, followed "NOMA -- Cruzeiro Seixas" (2006), by Carlos Cabral Nunes, and also the "Cruzeiro Seixas: O Vício da Liberdade" (2010), by Alberto Serra and Ricardo Espírito Santo. "The Letters of King Arthur" are the result of interviews withCruzeiro Seixas, which intersect images of his painting with his objects - the author's notebooks and drawings. The film addresses the homosexuality of Cruzeiro Seixas, and in particular, the relationship with Mário Cesariny, which spanned several decades.

Won several awards
In 2012,Cruzeiro Seixas was honored by the International Book Fair of Santiago de Chile (FILSA), which dedicated an exclusive issue of the magazine "Derrame", of the Chilean surrealist group, to him. In the same year, he received the Medal of Honor from the Portuguese Society of Authors.In 2017, the Art Biennial of Vila Nova de Cerveira celebrated its 40 years of existence with a tribute to the artist. A year later, it was Centro Português de Serigrafia, in Lisbon, to remember its journey, with an exhibition and the publication of a book with the graphic work, which would be followed, in 2019, by the album "Diário não Diário", with "all its creative dimension". He received the Medal of Cultural Merit from the Minister of Culture, Graça Fonseca, as "institutional recognition, but also as personal recognition of someone who joins the many who admire him and who find in themselves a gaze that has always seen further and deeper" .