Eduardo Batarda

He was a Medical school student, but moved to Lisbon, to study at the Fine Arts School of Lisbon between 1963 and 68. His first exhibition was held in 1968 at the Quadrante gallery, in a period when he exercised a Pop Art-influenced figurativism, as well as illustration and comics-related techniques and other "marginal" typologies of figuration. ¶ Between 1971 and 74, as a student at London's Royal College of Art, he achieved remarkable watercolour technical skills. He returned in 1974 to Portugal and exhibits works at Gulbenkian that seem to prolong his previous figurative and chromatic options, and even choice of humour, although clearly revealing a penchant for scandalous topics such as sexuality, and mixing literary allusions and commentaries on his contemporary state of affairs, whether political or artistic. In the late 70s, he moved to Porto, where he became a teacher at the Fine Arts School of Porto. ¶ The 80s are a turning point for Batarda. To begin with, his chromatic palette becomes much more grave, densified, and his network of source material becomes larger, embracing the whole of the History of Art, brought about whether by recurrent formal archetypes or other quite erudite details. The commentary aspect becomes more ciphered, less explicit. ¶ These new paintings, at a more emotional, immediate level, have a tendency to suggest a certain vortex effect, as if in a whirlwind, an abyss of sorts - sometimes through a quite literal representation. ¶ During the 90s, the colours return to their rightful place in Batarda's painting. They displace the blacks, and they seem to open from within, whereby form strengthens its dynamic dimension. The 1997 works have the brand of a strong tendency towards diversification, by the resurfacing of elements from earlier phases of the author. ¶ Since 2000, his painting has entered yet a new phase, the main characteristic of which is a clear distinction between form and content, due to the high contrast of two uniform colours. These are works that bring closely together a certain degree of formal contention and the author's ability for an infinite, good-humoured multiplication of suggestions, which is one of his work's main features.

 

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