The Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes is the oldest and most representative artistic association in Portugal. Founded in 1901, it had previous origins, in the merger of Grémio Artístico, de Silva Porto and his Grupo do Leão (from 1891), with the Sociedade Promotora de Belas Artes, originating, in turn, in the Academy, in 1861, and first presided over by Marquis Sousa Holstein. Its headquarters, designed by architect Álvaro Machado, opened in 1913, offers a large French-style “Salon”, measuring 50m by 15m, unique in the Iberian peninsula, and the fulfillment of the dream of the first booksellers who returned from Paris and Barbizon, at the end of the 19th century.

Successive generations asserted themselves here, from the representatives of romanticism – Tomás da Anunciação, Visconde de Menezes, Assis Rodrigues, Victor Bastos, João Cristino, Miguel Lupi, Alfredo Keil, and then landscapers, led by the example of Silva Porto: Columbano, José Malhoa, João Vaz, Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, António Ramalho.

The immediate generation, of Veloso Salgado, Ressano Garcia, Alves Cardoso, Benvindo Ceia, Costa Mota (uncle), Rosendo Carvalheira, will be joined by Carlos Reis, Roque Gameiro, Jorge Colaço, Teixeira Lopes, João da Silva, and others. In 1920, the SNBA also had many non-artist members: traders, musicians, poets, and art enthusiasts. The atmosphere is eclectic, where day and night classes run alongside the pool tables and alternate with dances and festive events. Here masters such as Malhoa, Veloso Salgado, Columbano, Carlos Reis, Condeixa, Roque Gameiro, and Mário Augusto, offer their classes to members, in a tradition maintained without interruption to this day, in the SNBA Artistic Training Courses.

In 1920 the “question of the new people” arose, a new generation whose entry as members was barred. There are more than 100 including the “Five Independents,” who will finally be able to exhibit in 1923 (Dordio Gomes, Henrique Franco, Francisco Franco, Diogo de Macedo, Alfredo Migueis) and who will leave the invitation to Eduardo Viana, Almada Negreiros, Milly Possoz, to try to alleviate the blockade of Adães Bermudes and his management. Mário Eloy, Lino António and even publicists such as António Ferro, among many others who were rejected, can also join this current of new people. As a commitment and innovation, in 1925, Eduardo Viana organized the 1st Salão D’Outono, as opposed to the traditional annual Spring Salon, which remains the most academic. This is what Francis Smith, Emérico Nunes, António Soares, Jorge Barradas, Clementina Carneiro de Moura, Manoel Jardim, Sára Affonso and many others exhibit, including architects with their projects (such as Carlos Ramos, Cristino da Silva, José Pacheco, Jorge Segurado).

In 1930 and 1931, the two Independent Salons took place, by António Pedro, with Arlindo Vicente, Mário Eloy, Mário Novais, Carlos Botelho and joined by Leopoldo de Almeida, Canto da Maia, Barata Feyo, António Duarte, Roque Gameiro, João Carlos, Hein Semke, Clementina Carneiro de Moura, Júlio Reis Pereira, the architects. Jorge Segurado, Carlos Ramos – and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva. The “Free and Preparatory Course” classes are held during this period, aiming to expand access to Fine Arts Schools.

In the Estado Novo, in parallel, the first two exhibitions of the National Information Secretariat, directed by António Ferro, in 1935 and 1936 were also held at the SNBA.

The then minister of propaganda here announces, at a dinner for artists, the new “Politics of the Spirit.”

But soon the alternative manifested itself and, in 1940, Abel Salazar’s great exhibition was received and, in 1945, the foundations for a platform of civic and artistic intervention were established here: CEJAD / MUD, which provided the renewing structure of the famous General Exhibitions of Plastic Arts, self-organized annually between 1946 and 1956, in a total of 10, every year – except 1952, the year in which the SNBA was closed by the Estado Novo – opening many of them symbolically on May 1st. Messages combating illiteracy, calling for registration and voting are displayed on graphic arts posters, and the aesthetic and programmatic denunciation contained in neo-realism – systematized by Júlio Pomar, is launched in painting and drawing. Mário Dionísio, Manuel Filipe, Ribeiro de Pavia, Arco, Álvaro Perdigão, Maria Keil, Keil do Amaral, Vespeira, António Domingues, José Dias Coelho, Huertas Lobo, Júlio, Dourdil, Rudy, Manuel Filipe, Manuel Mendes, Ribeiro de Pavia, Betâmio, Vasco da Conceição, Maria Barreira, Louro de Almeida, Clementina Carneiro de Moura, joined by Arlindo Vicente, Sena da Silva, Euclides Vaz, Augusto Gomes, Cândido Costa Pinto, Carlos Botelho, Celestino de Castro, Avelino Cunhal, Domingos Saraiva, and also the former republicans who have always been linked to the SNBA: João da Silva, Falcão Trigoso, António Saúde, António Conceição Silva, Anjos Teixeira, and to which they will be added over the years, many other artists and architects, such as Francisco Castro Rodrigues, Francisco Keil, both of great importance in this movement. Also participating in EGAP are architects Alberto Pessoa, Ernâni Soares Nunes, Daciano, Francisco da Conceição Silva, Frederico George, Manuel Tainha, Formosinho Sanchez, and younger artists, such as Nikias Skapinakis, Charrua, Hogan, Rogério Ribeiro, João Abel Manta, Victor Manaças, Vítor Palla, Sá Nogueira, Lima de Freitas, José Viana, Frederico George, Carlos Calvet, Tossan, Sebastião Rodrigues, António Alfredo, António Quadros, Artur Bual, Fernando Lanhas, Bartolomeu Cid, Eduardo Luís, Relógio, Lagoa Henriques, Leopoldo de Almeida, Lourdes Castro, Mário Henrique Leiria, Demée, Nuno San Payo, Paulo D’Eça Leal, Querubim Lapa, among a whole generation of sculptors, painters, architects, photographers and graphic designers.

In January 1947, the National Council of Portuguese Women, led by Maria Lamas, organized at SNBA an “Exhibition Hall of Books Written by Women,” with 3,000 books from all over the world, films and conferences – the exhibition that in a certain way preluded the extinction of this movement by the Estado Novo, and founded more than thirty years earlier by Adelaide Cabete (in 1914).

Still in 1947, at the II General Exhibition of Plastic Arts, the Ministry of the Interior selected and seized 11 neo-realist paintings by 10 artists, considered politically unacceptable by the regime.

At EGAP, preparations were made for what would be the first National Architecture Congress, in 1948, with Cotinelli Telmo, Pardal Monteiro, Miguel Jacobetty and the contribution of the new ones, and the signing of Le Corbusier’s Charter of Athens.

Also in the SNBA, surrealist groups originated and split, the first, from 1948, with António Pedro, António Dacosta, Alexandre O’Neil, Fernando de Azevedo, Vespeira, Moniz Pereira and José-Augusto França, and the second, from Cesariny, Cruzeiro Seixas, Mário Henrique Leiria, António Maria Lisboa, Carlos Calvet.

In April 1952, the SNBA was closed sine die by the Estado Novo, the result of Eduardo Malta’s confrontation with the young sculptor José Dias Coelho, – the latter would later be murdered in the street, by PIDE, in 1961. He managed to rescue and reopen the SNBA after the intervention of the painter António Conceição Silva, now 83 years old, and some founding members who are still alive and involved.

In 1956 José-Augusto França organized the 1st Salão dos Artistas Hoje, beginning a unique journey as a critic and historian. In 1959, the exhibition ’50 Independent Artists’ by Conceição Silva, Fernando Azevedo, João Abel Manta, Jorge Vieira, Júlio Pomar, and Vespeira was held, in the context of Humberto Delgado’s candidacy for the presidency of the Republic, and brought together the next generation: Alice Jorge, António Charrua, António Areal, Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos, Carlos Calvet, Fernando Azevedo, Francisco Relógio, João Abel Manta, João Cutileiro, João Hogan, Joaquim Rodrigo, Jorge Vieira, José Escada, José Júlio, Júlio Pomar, Lima de Freitas, Manuel Baptista, Menez, Nikias Skapinakis, Querubim Lapa, Sá Nogueira, Rui Filipe, Vespeira.

Also here, in 1957, the 1st exhibition of the new Gulbenkian Foundation took place, with great impact on the press and society in general (“345 contos de prizes”). The exhibition “British Art of the 20th Century” (1962) will also be notable when opening to the outside.

The KWY group of Lourdes Castro, René Bertholo, Costa Pinheiro, Escada and João Vieira, with Christo and Jan Voss, he exhibited in 1960. In 1965, the Artistic Training Courses were renewing, starting the teaching of Design and Sociology of Art, for example, with the participation of notable personalities from our artistic environment such as Rolando Sá Nogueira, Manuel Tainha, Sena da Silva, Daciano Costa, José Cândido, Fernando Conduto, Rocha de Sousa, Quintino Sebastião, and the historians and essayists José-Augusto França, Ferreira de Almeida, José Blanc de Portugal, Ernesto de Sousa, Adriano de Gusmão, Santos Simões, Rui Mário Gonçalves, and other values of national art and culture.

Here the Association of Portuguese Architects and the future Order of Architects, the Association of Designers, and the Portuguese Section of AICA originated, which can be referred to as also the Cineclubes (the Jardim Universitário de Belas Artes – JUBA – by Guilherme Filipe and José-Augusto França), the musical sessions of Fernando Lopes Graça, and the groups of theater that was recovered here. Also in 1965, under the Presidency of Arch. Conceição Silva, created in the small Gallery of Modern Art, in the cave, the experimental room where many international values will be revealed: Arshile Gorky, Paula Rego, Hogan, Nikias, Victor Belém, Helena Almeida, Charrua, Espiga Pinto, Maria Velez, Eduardo Nery, João Fragoso, MAN, Nuno de Siqueira, António Sena, Fernando Calhau, Carlos Ferreiro, Miguel Arruda, Guilherme Parente, Isabel Laginhas, Graça Antunes, Eduardo Gageiro, Noronha da Costa, Artur Rosa, Rocha de Sousa, Hilário, Pires Vieira, followed by Mário Botas, Maria Gabriel, Manuel Casimiro, Teresa Magalhães, Raul Perez, Ana Marchand, Carlos Carreiro, António Viana, Cutileiro, Graça Morais, Jorge Molder, Jaime Silva, Luís Camacho, Rocha Pinto, Quadros Ferreira, Pedro Chorão, João Duarte, and some other artists also hosted in the Gallery on the first floor.

In 1970 Arlindo Vicente exhibited in retrospective, and in 1972 they exhibited Lima de Freitas and António Trindade, and then presented the exhibition AICA SNBA 1972, which proposes a renewed critical discourse, by Fernando Pernes, Rocha de Sousa and Rui Mário Gonçalves.

In 1973, the exhibition 26 Artists of Today was held, a group of distinguished artists by the Soquil Awards. In December, at “Exhibition 73” the Lying Soldier, ‘Jaz Morto e Refecece’ by Clara Menéres. At the inauguration, João Vieira’s performance, involved a naked woman painted gold.

Also notable in the 70s were the exhibitions by the Puzzle group (Armando Azevedo, Albuquerque Mendes, Carlos Carreiro, Dario Alves, Graça Morais, Jaime Silva, João Dixo, Pedro Rocha, Gerardo Burmester and Fernando Pinto-Coelho), the exhibition ‘Portuguese Artists’, organized by Clara Menéres, Emília Nadal, Sílvia Chicó, and with Paula Rego, Graça Morais, Ana Hatherly, Ana Vieira, Menez, Maria Velez, Alice Jorge. Still other exhibitions, ‘Local Mythologies,’ ‘Paper as Support,’ ‘Eroticism in Portuguese Art’, or the major solo exhibitions by Helena Almeida, in 1972 and 1976.

At the beginning of the 80s, Luís Pavão, Jorge Molder, Manuel Magalhães. In 1983, the great multidisciplinary exhibition took place here and programmatic “After modernism” conceived by Luís Serpa, and co-organized by Manuel Graça Dias, Leonel Moura, António Cerveira Pinto, involving, in addition to the arts visual and architectural, design, fashion, and dance.

The exhibition “Arquipélago,” in 1985, by Pedro Cabrita Reis, Pedro Calapez, Pedro Croft, Rui Sanches and, later, “Continentes: V homeosthetic exhibition,” in 1986, with Pedro Portugal, Pedro Proença, Fernando Brito, Ivo, Xana and Manuel João Vieira mark the period of affirmation of a generation. The collective “New Drawing Tendencies,” in 1986, curated by Michel Toussaint, also dates back to this period.

Other proposals appeared, in the following years, in 1990: “Seven Deadly Sins,” with Miguel Branco, João Queiroz, Jorge Varanda, Jaime Lebre, Gonçalo Ruivo, Helena Pinto and José António Cardoso, and in 1994 the “Independent Worm Saloon,” curated by Alexandre Estrela and Rui Toscano. In the same multimedia production line, in 2003, the exhibition by Vasco Araújo, at the Salon, “Sabine/Brunilde”.

In recent years, SNBA has been convening contemporary artists internationally through mobilizing partnerships: the Drawing Gallery Fair “Drawing Room,” alongside notable solo exhibitions such as Maria José Oliveira (2017) Pedro Saraiva (2018), João Jacinto (2019), Isabel Sabino (2019), in addition to a growing approach to new audiences, with the Antiquarian fair, or participation in the exhibitions of Monstra (animated film), from the Portuguese Cinema Academy, from New Art Fest, or the international “Navigator Art on Paper” award.

The artistic foundations are also being revalued with major exhibitions such as “The 500 Drawings of Silva Porto” or “João da Silva: the Animalist Sculptor,” already in 2020, or, in the years previous ones, with retrospectives by Francisco de Aquino, Joaquim Palencia, Manuel Ribeiro de Pavia, Menez and Ruy Leitão, Miguel D’Alte, and Betâmio d’Almeida.

SNBA saw its contribution to society recognized by being awarded Member-Honorary member of the Order of Infante D. Henrique (1983), and honorary member of the Order of Freedom (in 2004).

João Paulo Queiroz, 2020