Manuel Cargaleiro died at the age of 97. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa highlights an artist who “never let cosmopolitanism mean uprooting me.”
Master Cargaleiro died. The news was given by the President of the Republic who expressed, in a note sent to the newsroom, his regret for the death of Mestre Cargaleiro, who left us today.
“Having lived in Paris since 1957, Manuel Cargaleiro never let cosmopolitanism mean uprooting. Proof of this is the memory of the images and colors of Beira Baixa in his work, namely the memory of patchwork blankets; The artist’s committed presence in the region where he was born, through the Foundation and the Cargaleiro Museum, also proves this, writes Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
The note of condolence from the President of the Republic continues: “Ceramicist and painter, but also a designer, engraver and sculptor, Mestre Cargaleiro left his signature in churches, gardens or metro stations, and on countless pieces of art. They are geometric and chromatic like those of other cosmopolitan artists who lived in Portugal. Therefore, having been away for decades, he continued to feel, and we continued to feel like him, a Portuguese artist. Maria Helena Vieira da Silva told Cargaleiro that he had the perfect technique, the right measure, the rare colors; and said Ãlvaro Siza Vieira, who showed an unusual joy in the Portuguese artistic scene. Having decorated him, in 2017, with the Grand Cross of the Order of Infante D. Henrique and, in 2023, with the Grand Cross of the Order of Camões, the President of the Republic had the opportunity to pay homage to these singularities soon message for the catalog of the last exhibition he held, a text in which he saluted, and now renews his salute, his joyful and luminous work, faithful to the past and present, to a time that is It’s ours and it was also yours.â€
The last meeting between the two was a few weeks ago, at Cargaleiro’s house, “where he continued to dream of projects for the future and believe in Life, always paying respect to Portugal†, says Marcelo.
