Martinho Dias

Stella Jurgen interviews Martinho Dias

CAMÕES TV, Toronto – “Stella’s Studio”   a production of MDC Media Group. Hosted and produced by artist Stella Jurgen www.camoestv.com All rights reserved. ©2021

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MARTINHO DIAS, ART AS A REASON OF PLEASURE

RUA MAGAZINE Nº 34, December 2019

By Maria Inês Neto | Photography: Nuno Sampaio

Martinho’s interview, portuguese only

                                                                                                    in "RUA magazine", 2019

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MARTINHO DIAS – Partial interview, by Laura Gomez

KLASSIK INTERNATIONAL,  Barcelona – New York, 2018

How would you define yourself as an artist?

- I see myself as a figurative, expressive, serious and good-humoured artist. I need some organisation and method. I project the ideas before I get to work on the canvas or whatever it is. Concept interests me a lot, but I am not conceptual.

I am not able to show what I want merely through the mind. I usually make use of the painting with paint, brushes and magnetic cards.

In essence, I am a narrative (re)builder, an image and context manipulator.

For how long have been in art? How did you start?

– I would say that I have been in Arts for as long as I can remember, having started with “playing art”. I was always a very busy child and when I had no occupation, I would invent it. Sometimes my mother would anticipate that invention for me.

I would use every single piece of paper I was given to draw or paint – it could be an incomplete invoice book or the white cardboard which helped a new shirt to maintain its form.

I never wanted to be an astronaut because I thought it was impossible, but I believed I could fly with big wing-shaped cardboards tied to my arms. I built, I destroyed, I enlarged and I rebuilt a great number of houses (inhabitable) in the yard. I consider myself privileged because, from a young age, I had my own home, despite being vulnerable to fires, floods and landslides. With divine protection, I would use cutting tools to build boats, planes and carts. Later, I built my first easel, then my studio.

I attended a secondary school of artistic education, and then the Faculty of Fine Arts. I started to look for a job in publishers, as a freelancer, starting activity as a storybook and schoolbook illustrator. Later, I started to teach at secondary school, and I’ve done that for thirteen years. In parallel, I would still make time for painting.

What themes do you pursue?

– My subject matter is mainly social, playing with power and its lack, with several behaviours or with different moments of History which are closely connected. I am interested by the human figure and its condition, in frozen movement. The figures rarely appear isolated, but as a part of the frequently paradoxical, surreal or even absurd narratives. This is to attempt at some balance with the excess of “reality”, “logic” and “truth” in which we are submerged.

What inspires you to work?

– Besides the professional point of view, I am motivated by the necessity to materialise or achieve something. Only that way I can make it known to others – that is my job. 

Where do you find inspiration?

– I find inspiration in the times we live in and in the way we live them. The news and the images of the media cans also be inspirational. Above all, and more than facts, I am interested in the way humans relate to each other. The way we behave in society and in private is often present in my work. I rely on what I know and see, but also on what I don’t know. 

What for you is the most enjoyable part of your art?

– The final part of the execution of a work of art is the one that gives me the most pleasure. To me, it is towards the end (uncertain) when I start to see the completion of something. After all, that is why I started.

Although I have, from the start, an idea of what I am going to do, the initial phase is always of expectation, anxiety and, a lot of times, of dull work. Then, it may (or not) be a party and I may not notice time go by, as I may have an unexpected battle to fight.

What does being creative mean to you?

– Being creative means to be able to do something new with what everyone has access to, but no one has done anything with yet. Just like words, for example. We all make use of the same words as writers or poets, but only some make the syntactic combinations that tell them apart from others. 

Creativity and creation are not owned by artists. There are a lot of common people, less common then everyone. Creativity should be mandatory in everyone’s life.

What famous artists have influenced you, and how?

– Contrary to the tendency to catalogue, define and name everything, I prefer the “bittersweet”. There were times when rock music would avoid classical music like the plague. These days, despite many merely pamphletlike combinations, we can witness admirable matches between an electric guitar and a violin, for example. In other words, I may be absorbed by scratches, accidental stains or rough gestures, with traditional, smoky, precise, photographic or minimalist combinations.

To make this clearer, imagine a common work with these artists: Sigmar Polke, Ai Weiwei, Rembrandt, Benjamin Clementine, John Cage, Willem de Kooning, William Turner, Antoni Muntadas, Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko, AC\DC, Philip Glass, Thomas Struth, Julian Schnabel, Vermeer, Stockhausen, Leonard Cohen, David Salle, Bernardo Sassetti, Franz Kline, Dan Flavin, Jackson Pollock, Fragonard, Anish Kapoor, Antoni Tàpies, Brian Eno, Anselm Kiefer, Ghada Amer, Shirin Neshat, Nils Petter Molvær, Peter Haley, René Aubry, Bill Viola, Courbet, Rolling Stones, Helnwein, Fiona Rae, Paula Rego, Mike Dragas, Pina Bausch, Malevich, Ron Mueck, João Penalva, Picasso, Ad Reinhardt, Millet, Gerhard Richter, Kandinsky, Francis Bacon, Jenny Saville, Ann Hamilton, Gary Hume, Caravaggio, Júlio Pomar, Cecily Brown, Cézanne, Hermeto Pascoal, Laurie Anderson, Marlene Dumas, Jeff Wall, Joseph Beuys, Velásquez, Murakami, Monet, Sol LeWitt, Joy Division, Maurizio Cattelan, Nuno Rebelo, Delacroix, Kennet Noland, Kronos Quartet, Francisco Goya, Peter Greenaway, Gary Hill, Steve Reich, Albert Oehlen.

These are only some of the artists who may be present in my work, either inside my painting, or as company. I am interested by the precision of some, as well as by the spontaneity, experimentation, gestures or aggressiveness of others, either they’re realists, minimalists, classical, abstract or conceptual.

Actually, it is hard to name two or three influential artists to me.

What role does the artist have in society?

The artist integrates society as any other citizen. The artist does not work for the society, but depends on it to exist. In turn, society does not need the artist, but what he is capable of creating. If he exists – we may no notice his presence, but if he wasn’t there, our existence would lose sense. His role is to be an artist.

Should art be funded? Why?

Art should be funded when the completion of a work is at stake, either from the artist’s point of view, or from the public’s point of view. I, as an artist and as a connoisseur, should not be deprived from making what I do (for others) known, nor should I be deprived of what was made for me, just because it exceeds my economic power. Naturally, I exclude the acquisition of works.

All of this is dependent on the capacity and instruction level of the governors, in what concerns cultural policies, just like it depends on the citizens to demand those policies.

This is a very short and inexact answer for a relevant and complex question.

© Martinho Dias

Selected SOLO EXHIBITIONS 

2020

- TRIGGER, Espaço Exibicionista Gallery, Lisbon PT

- Penas | FEATHERS, Centro Cultural e Congressos Caldas da Rainha, Portugal;

2019

- OFFICE, O Rastro Gallery, Figueira da Foz, Portugal;

- Martinho Dias – painting, Art-Fact Gallery, Herdade da Aroeira, Almada, Portugal;

2017

- PAROXETINE, MAC Gallery – Contemporary Art Movement, Lisbon, Portugal;

- airOPORTO, curated by co.ART.co, Soares dos Reis National Museum, Oporto, Portugal;

2016

- A CORJA [the scum], Casa das Artes, V.N. Famalicão, Portugal;

- TRADE MARK, Zeller Gallery, Espinho, Portugal;

2015

 - LIES AND OTHER TRUTHS, Gallery 5, Guimarães, Portugal;

 - UP, Red Nankim Gallery, Oporto, Portugal;
- MARTINHO DIAS: 005’015, Espinho Municipal Museum, Espinho, Portugal;

2014

- I BELONG TO MYSELF, MAC Gallery – Contemporary Art Movement, Lisbon. Portugal;

- PO(L)VO [octopus vs people], O Rastro Gallery, Figueira da Foz, Portugal;

2013

- MARTINHO DIAS - painting, João Pedro Rodrigues Gallery, Oporto, Portugal;

2011 

- CIRCUMSTANCE, São Bento Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal;

2009 

- STAGES, Del Veinte Gallery, Santander, Spain; 

- MARTINHO DIAS - Painting, House-Museum Soledade Malvar, V. N. Famalicão, Portugal;  

- WRITTEN PAINTINGS, Servartes – Cultural Space, Oporto, Portugal;

2008

- MARTINHO DIAS - Painting, Municipal Library of Ponte de Sor, Portugal;

- DIALOGUES AND MONOLOGUES, O Rastro Gallery, Figueira da Foz, Portugal;

2007 

- WRITTEN PAINTINGS, Santos Rocha Museum, Figueira da Foz, Portugal;

- NEW BODY, SERVARTES space, Oporto, Portugal; 

- APPLAUSE, São Bento Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal; 

2006 

- APPLAUSE, Galeria Cañizares, Salvador - Bahia, Brazil;

- NEW BODY, Oporto Literary Club, Oporto, Portugal;                                                                                             

(...)

Selected GROUP EXHIBITIONS 

2020

- AMÁLIA RODRIGUES, António Prates Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal;

- Ao Quadrado, Da Vinci art gallery, Porto/ Matosinhos, Portugal;

- DILEMMA, Espaço Exibicionista Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal;

2019

- 5th Espinho International Art Biennial, Espinho Municipal Museum, Espinho, Portugal; 

- DINA 5, DaVinci Art Gallery, Oporto, Portugal; 

- Collective Show, Porto Oriental Gallery, Oporto, Portugal;

- Idioms, Espaço Exibicionista Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal;

2018

- AMADEO, Espinho Municipal Museum, Espinho, Portugal;  

- sOttosOpra: l’Arte in libertà “controllata”, Bar di viale Arsia, Carbonia – Sardinia, Italy;

- MAC 24th Anniversary, MAC Gallery – Contemporary Art Movement, Lisbon, Portugal;

- Collective Show, Porto Oriental Gallery, Oporto, Portugal;

2017

- 3rd Biennale Internazionale Sant’Antioco, (guest artist), Sardinia, Italy;

- MAC 23rd Anniversary, MAC Gallery – Contemporary Art Movement, Lisbon, Portugal;

2016

- In Good Hands – 1st annual show of Acervo collection, Acervo Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal;

- Biennial Wave, Gaia Artists, Barcelos Municipal Gallery, Barcelos, Portugal;

- Collective Show, Amostra Gallery, Maia, Portugal;

- MAC 22nd Anniversary, MAC Gallery – Contemporary Art Movement, Lisbon, Portugal;