Manuel Pereira da Silva

Manuel Pereira da Silva He entered the Porto School of Fine Arts where he completed the course brilliantly, being awarded the Soares dos Reis and Teixeira Lopes prizes. He then headed to Paris in the company of his classmate, the famous painter Júlio Resende. There he attended several sculpture courses and learned the “fresco” technique. The work of Manuel Pereira da Silva has an abstract formal orientation inspired by the human figure, in particular men and women. He is the author, among others, of the following works: Frescoes of the Main Chapel of the Church of Santa Luzia in Viana do Castelo, bas-relief Pedro Pitões in the Palace of Justice in Porto, monument to Fernando Couto in Sandim, monument to the Lavrador in Gulpilhares, monument to Father Araújo in Avintes, monument to the Athlete in Avintes, monument to Firefighters in Avintes, Gondomar and Freamunde, monument to General Ulisses Grant, 18th President of the United States of America between 1868 and 1872, commissioned by the Portuguese Government for the capital of Guinea -Bissau, bronze sculpture “The Maternity” in Praça Marquês de Pombal, in Porto, bas-relief in Polychrome Ceramics in the capital of Angola and the Monument to Industrialists and Furniture Industry Workers in Paredes. As for busts, Manuel Pereira da Silva is the author of the following works: Fernando Pessa and José Hermano Saraiva, Lisbon, Francisco Viana, Henrique Moreira, Adriano Sá Figueiredo and Dr. Adelino Gomes, all in Avintes and Alves de Sousa in Vilar de Andorinho. Sculptor with high sensitivity to social themes, Manuel Pereira da Silva He put his talent at the service of various associations or civic movements in Avintens and was an example of generosity, discretion in gestures and commitment to the construction of citizenship and democracy. On April 13, 1987, he was awarded the Medal of Honor by the Avintes Parish Assembly and in 2000 the Gold Medal of Cultural Merit by the Municipal Council of Vila Nova de Gaia. The first modernist sculptures of Manuel Pereira da Silva emerged in the pioneering years of sculptural abstractionism in Portugal. Portuguese abstract art is historically linked to “independent” exhibitions, whose main organizer and animator, Fernando Lanhas, is coincidentally the central figure of this abstractionism. After a 1st Exhibition, in April 1943, at the Porto School of Fine Arts, where the presence of the future “hard core” of “independents”, such as Júlio Resende, Fernando Fernandes, Nadir Afonso, Arlindo Rocha, Altino Maia, Mário Truta, Serafim Teixeira, Augusto Tavares and Manuel Pereira da Silva. The “independent” exhibitions now take place outside the School and, several times, outside Porto. This movement would only make sense due to the situation formed by the Directors of the Escola Superior de Belas Artes do Porto in the 40s, where Dordio Gomes, in Painting, Barata Feyo, in Sculpture, and Carlos Ramos, in Architecture, allowed a new breath, breathing in the artistic avant-gardes that continued to assert themselves in Europe. In Porto, students from all courses, Architecture, Painting and Sculpture, coexisted closely, not only because they had common preparatory studies, but also because the three Arts were considered inseparable. There were discussions about Modernism in Art, and a latent nonconformity in relation to classical education. There are countless examples of close collaboration between Visual Artists in architectural works. In collaboration with Architect Carlos Neves, Manuel Pereira da Silva creates a fresco mural decoration of the “Branca de Neve” shoe store on Rua Santa Catarina, in Porto and two decorative figures on buildings in Jardim do Marquês de Pombal, in Porto. On April 13, 1987, he was awarded the Medal of Honor by the Avintes Parish Assembly and in 2000 the Gold Medal of Cultural Merit by the Municipal Council of Vila Nova de Gaia.