João Figueiredo    -   Reviews

João Figueiredo

The world of art has never been the same since Marcel Duchamp with is moustached Gioconda.

Laughter was unleashed, and humour became part of the language of contemporary art. In today’s art we see a lot of irony, a new way to look and understand, and shows us that reality and wit are close together.

Transformation/Dissection/Manipulation – The logic behind João Figueiredo’s work is not based upon interpretation as he seeks to create a new way to represent reality. In this, João’s latest collection, he is a stage manager, as his works reach both theatrical and fictional dimensions. He manipulates images, certainly having fun, perhaps creating a “Story of Satirism” narrative.

The humour helps to balance things, thus becoming an act of superior intelligence.

Plastic efficiency that always has the renewed ability to surprise or shock us. His work allows us to see his world of dreams and imagination. He plays around with the classics, killing pre-conceived beautiful formats with irony.

It’s normal that when we comment on perceptive relationship between the audience and the work, it is supposed that this might be a source of pleasure. When I look at João's work, I imagine him looking too, maybe imagining the same as I am?

With each of the greats that João takes apart, there is an invitation, which draws me into the images that are integral to my own life much in the same way as child-hood memories do also.

Sometimes I have some doubts. Then I ask myself if I’m seeing a tribute being paid, de-mystification or just some kind of strange complicity?

In my opinion, João Figueiredo’s work is a unique odyssey that eludes equally our collective imagination as well as our personal dreams.

After seeing João's work it is unavoidable in my visits to the Louvre, the Tate Britain, the Prado and so on, to look again at my favourite greats, thinking to myself what João Would do with them. He would undoubtedly surprise us again, once more provoking a smile on our faces.

Joana Rego - Artist

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An (un)real Pinacoteca

When visiting this ephemeral pinacoteca, various conclusions may be drawn. Two of them, seem obvious: João likes to provoke and he is shameless about it. If not, how to explain the partition of the masterpiece of the Portuguese art – the thousand-times analysed São Vicente Panels – in two triptychs, like it was showed until 1926? Isn’t he provoking art critics and historians that do not agree with the date of its making and the identification of authors and the many figures, but believe that the panels are at present correctly displayed in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga?

Purists will not appreciate the Saxonic eyes of D. Catarina de Bragança, or the politically correct nose of Duque de Montefeltro, or Shakespeare winking to Camões, or the trés à la mode robes of Adam and Eve, or an unexpected pregnancy of the Virgin.

Upon subtly appropriating some of the icons from five centuries of European art, João Figueiredo continues to produce a baffling fantasy set against a highly exciting stage set. The somewhat unusual attraction for lavish robes and jewels of the past is now connected with the unveiling of the naked body; beautiful and un-ashamedly sensual, void of content but overflowing with humour. A final remark for his titles: less formal than the original, but equally revealing.

Pedro Moura Carvalho

Art Historian – PHD in Islamic art

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João Figueiredo’s jeweled Renaissance-like paintings remind me of objets d’art, from princely treasures that one would see in Europe's very best Cabinets of Wonder. They are at once extremely beautiful and like Mona Lisa’s smile, slyly enigmatic as if they are holding some long kept secret. While one cannot help but seeing them as homage’s to Vermeer, Cabanel, Da Vinci or Flandrin, one also cannot help but marvel at Fiqueiredo’s contemporary, and yes, intriguingly psychological update. Fiqueiredo brings back the ancient stories of Adam, Madonna and Bachus and shows us that life, however flowing, is one long continuum. These exquisitely crafted paintings, whether deeply analyzed or taken at face value, are living proof that we are all one. As Flaubert said, “Madame Bovary c’est moi.” So it is with Figueiredo’s portraits.

Edward Rubin

Art Critic

From New York Arts Magazine

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“João Figueiredo’s reputation as one of Portugal most intriguing young artists has been established with a series of provocative reworkings of paintings from artists as diverse as Vermeer and Velázquez, or Da Vinci and Piero della Francesca. His work however, is emphatically contemporary and takes as its subject the common lives of all us. He is inspired to create his own engaging, dramatic tales about the scenes he has depicted on the great masters.”

In Catalogue “Portraits Memories”

“Images, Forms, Styles. Some contemporary artists who work with borrowed elements do so by copying existing images, forms or styles from art, everyday life and popular culture to make an artwork or part of an artwork. While some copied images, forms or styles closely resemble the original on which they are based, there are always some differences. These differences can range from the subtle to the dramatic, and can be the result of the artist reproducing or reinterpreting the original using different materials or techniques to reproduce or reinterpret the original image form or style. Joao Figueiredo´s work is the perfect example. Artists often bring great personal expression and style and new details and ideas to their interpretation of borrowed images, forms or styles. For example, the highly personal interpretation of modernist painting styles in work by Joao Figueiredo´s; the deletion and addition of particular details in the reworking of an existing image is the mark of this promising artist”

Lourenço Guerra

In Catalogue “Renaissance of the Portrait”

“João Figueiredo’s reputation as one of Portugal most intriguing young artists has been established with a series of provocative reworkings of paintings from artists as diverse as Vermeer and Velázquez, or Da Vinci and Piero della Francesca. His work however, is emphatically contemporary and takes as its subject the common lives of all us. He is inspired to create his own engaging, dramatic tales about the scenes he has depicted on the great masters.”

In Catalogue “Portraits Memories”

“Images, Forms, Styles. Some contemporary artists who work with borrowed elements do so by copying existing images, forms or styles from art, everyday life and popular culture to make an artwork or part of an artwork. While some copied images, forms or styles closely resemble the original on which they are based, there are always some differences. These differences can range from the subtle to the dramatic, and can be the result of the artist reproducing or reinterpreting the original using different materials or techniques to reproduce or reinterpret the original image form or style. Joao Figueiredo´s work is the perfect example. Artists often bring great personal expression and style and new details and ideas to their interpretation of borrowed images, forms or styles. For example, the highly personal interpretation of modernist painting styles in work by Joao Figueiredo´s; the deletion and addition of particular details in the reworking of an existing image is the mark of this promising artist”

Lourenço Guerra

In Catalogue “Renaissance of the Portrait”

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