Gerardo FERNANDEZ

Niños en cuerda

Gerardo Fernandez South American Artist set of 10 bronze stick bugs with iron antennas. Some bugs have circles on their feet in order to make an art ...

“Making sculpture is a very complex matter. A word added to a form, ultimately helping to better define it. And ultimately helping to understand the whole.” Ugo Riva is probably the...

bronze edition 25

A very unusual, stylized sculpture of man by a Portugese sculptor Manuel Pereira da Silva. Made of pine, 1979. A note about the artist: "Manuel Pereira da Silva was born in Portelas, in 14 de Maio Street, Vila Nova de Gaia, on 7 December 1920. In October 1928, he started his education at Cabanões primary school. After he sat the 2nd level exams, at Palhacinhas school, his father enrolled him in the Faria Guimarães Industrial School (currently Soares dos Reis Artistic Secondary School), to take the joinery course. The following year, he changed to the Drawing course. After completing his secondary school studies, he enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in Porto, in 1939. Here, he studied under the supervision of Joaquim Lopes, Acácio Lino and Rodolfo Pinto Couto, and had as colleagues Arlindo Rocha, Júlio Resende, Eduardo Tavares, Isolino Vaz, Nadir Afonso and Fernando Azevedo, some of which were part of the "Grupo dos Independentes" (Group of Independents). He received two awards: the Teixeira Lopes Award and the Soares dos Reis award. His final thesis was on Nuno Álvares Pereira, and he obtained a final mark of 18 out of 20. In 1946, he left for Paris. He spent the following two years studying at the École des Beaux-Arts, shared the experience of the great masters at the Louvre, came into contact with the new artistic trends and attended open courses, where he learned, among others, the fresco mural painting technique, which was later used in the Santa Luzia Church, in Viana do CasteloIn his workshop in Afonso de Albuquerque Street, in Vila Nova de Gaia, he produced two types of works: realist sculptures, to meet the commissions he received, and more abstract and independent-type of sculptures, which can be found in many Portuguese and African cities, for instance, Viana do Castelo, Vila Nova de Gaia, Porto, Bolama, in Guinea – Bissau, and Luanda, in Angola. Baixo relevo de D. Pedro Pitões entre os Cruzados no Palácio da Justiça do PortoAmong the sculpture work he produced, we highlight the torsos of his friends Fernando de Araújo Lima, Adriano de Sá Figueiredo and Adelino Gomes; the monument to the Athlete (1973), erected in the Gândara Square, in Vila Nova de Gaia; the monument to the American general and statesman Ulysses Grant (1822-1847), in front of Bolama City Hall (1955); and the low relief work in Ançã stone, for the Audience Room of the 3rd Court Division of the Porto Court House, depicting D. Pedro Pitões near the Porto Cathedral summoning the crusaders to help Afonso Henriques in the conquest of Lisbon, dated 1961. Estátua de Ulysses Grant (1955)Manuel Pereira da Silva also produced a low relief in multi-coloured ceramics for the façade of a building in Luanda, dated 1960; the figure of the Lavrador (Farmer), in Gulpilhares; the fire-fighters in Avintes and Gondomar; the monument to the benefactor of Sandim, Fernando Couto; the monument in homage to furniture...