Alberto Carneiro

Alberto Carneiro (Coronado, 1937, Porto, 2017) was a prominent Portuguese sculpture and one of the most awarded artists of his generation. He studied Sculpture at Escola Superior de Belas Artes do Porto and Saint Martin’s School of Art (London), after training for eleven years at traditional oficinas de santeiro in his hometown of Coronado. His work was instrumental to the contemporisation of Portuguese sculpture and its emancipation from the kind of decorative statuary so dear to the Portuguese totalitarian regime (1926-1974), in a shift towards the conceptual, performative and experimental from the 1960s onwards. Sculpture, installation, photography and drawing were the means used to explore a thematic and visual language based on the relationship between the body and natural elements. This resulted in a markedly original body of work notable for its questioning of the landscape, nature and how humans relate to the world. His educational career also influenced various generations of artists and architects.