Bertina Lopes

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Bertina Lopes , also called Mama B , (born July 11, 1924 in Lourenço Marques , Portuguese East Africa ; † February 10, 2012 in Rome ) was a Mozambican - Italian painter and sculptor .

Life

Youth and education

Bertina Lopes was born on July 11, 1924 in Lourenço Marques, the capital of the Portuguese colony of Mozambique, as one of four daughters of a Portuguese farm worker (or trader) and a Mozambican woman. While completing the school career up to the second year of Liceus in the colony, she graduated from secondary school in Portugal. First she attended a painting course at the Escola de Artes Decorativas António Arroio from 1945 to 1949 , and later she trained as a painter and sculptor at the Academia Superior de Belas Artes . During this time she got to know artists such as the expressionist Carlos Botelho and the surrealist Marcelino Vespeira , and Lino António and Celestino Alves are said to have been among her circle of friends.

Return to Mozambique

In 1953 Lopes returned to Mozambique and initially taught at the Escola Técnica General Machado girls' vocational school until 1962 . During that time, Lopes made friends with numerous other activists who - underground - advocated Mozambique's independence, including Noémia de Sousa , José Craveirinha and Rui Nogar .

In addition to her professional activity as a teacher, Lopes continued to work as an artist: in 1956 she created a large mural in the history pavilion of the exhibition of social, cultural and economic activities on the occasion of President Craveiro Lopes' visit to Mozambique. In 1959 Bertina Lopes was elected chairman of the plastic arts section of the local artists' association ( Núcleo de Arte ), and in 1960 she was elected deputy chairman of the association.

During this time Lopes married the Mozambican poet Virgílio de Lemos (* 1929 on Ibo ). In 1955 Lopes had twins with him. Lemos, who published anti-colonial poems, came under pressure from the colonial authorities. After a case of denigration of the Portuguese flag (1954), he joined the anti-colonial struggle underground.

Exile in Rome

In 1961 Lopes moved back to Portugal to study ceramics under Querubim Lapa with a grant from the Gulbenkian Foundation . Her children followed suit a year later, and her husband fled to Paris with difficulty. Due to the start of the war of independence in Mozambique and the intensified repression by the colonial authorities, Lopes decided not to return, but to live in exile in Rome from 1964 thanks to another grant from the Gulbenkian Foundation. There she married the Italian artist Francesco Confaloni in 1965 and took Italian citizenship.

In Rome, Lopes also showed her paintings for the first time in an international exhibition in 1969. Since then Lopes has exhibited her pictures in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde , the United States, Germany and Russia, among others . The sculptor Marino Marini and the painter Renato Guttuso are said to have belonged to her circle of friends in Rome .

After Mozambique gained independence, Lopes was able to show her art again in her home country. Some of their exhibits are still in the Museu Nacional de Arte in Maputo today . In 1979 she received the Mozambican citizenship.

death

Bertina Lopes' last public appearance was at the 2011 Venice Biennale . She died in February 2012 at the age of 88 in Rome, where she lived until her death and where she was buried. Mozambican President Armando Guebuza held a funeral speech in Maputo on the occasion of her death.

It was planned to convert her home in Rome into a museum of her art.

Awards

  • 1974: Trullo D'Oro , Fasano di Puglia, Brindisi
  • 1975: International award for painting from the Centro Internazionale d'Arte e Cultura Mediterranea, Corfu
  • 1978: Leader d'Arte. Campidoglio , Rome
  • 1988: Grand Prix d'Honneur of the European Association of Art Critics
  • 1991: "Rachel Carson Memorial Foundation World Prize"
  • 1992: “La Plejade per l'Arte”, Rome
  • 1993: Honorary status of the Portuguese State, awarded by President Mário Soares
  • 1995: Award Gabriele d'Annunzio , Pescara
  • 1996: Award Messaggero della Pace UNIPAX , Rome
  • 1998: Award Arte e Solidarietà nell'Arca , Florence
  • 1998: Award Fra 'Angelico , Rome
  • 2002: Silver plaque of the Italian President

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Bio-Bibliografia. In: Archivio Bertina Lopes. Retrieved April 21, 2019 (Portuguese).
  2. ↑ a b c Kathleen Sheldon : Lopes, Bertina . In: Emmanuel K. Akyeampong and Henry Louis Gates, Jr (Eds.): Dictionary of African Biography . tape 3 . Oxford Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5 , pp. 518 .
  3. ↑ a b Vanessa Sanches: Bertina Lopes: Mãe e pai das artes plásticas moçambicanas . In: Sapo. February 10, 2012, accessed April 21, 2019 (Portuguese).
  4. ↑ Homenageada pintora Bertina Lopes. Retrieved April 21, 2019 .
  5. ^ Mozambique: Guebuza Mourns Death of Bertina Lopes. In: AllAfrica.com. February 13, 2012, accessed April 21, 2019 .
  6. ^ MHN: Bertina Lopes. Retrieved April 21, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Lopes, Bertina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES B, mom
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mozambican-Italian painter and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Lourenço Marques , Portuguese East Africa
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 2012
Place of death Rome