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U.Porto Memory

University of Porto Famous Alumni

Alberto Carneiro

Alberto Carneiro 1937-2017 Sculptor and teacher

Alberto Almeida Carneiro was born in São Mamede de Coronado, in the council of Trofa, on 20 de September 1937.

In 1947, he began his artistic apprenticeship as image sculptor at a saint-making workshop, where he worked for 11 years. In the meantime, he completed his secondary education, attending evening classes at the Soares dos Reis School of Decorative Arts, in Porto, and António Arroio School, in Lisbon.

In 1961, he returned to Porto to study sculpture at the Porto Higher Institute of Fine Arts. After completing his degree in 1967, he left the following year to London where he attended a postgraduate course at Saint Martin's School of Art (1968-1970). Here was a student of British sculptor Anthony Caro (1924-) and of his most famous disciple, Philip King (1934-). Between 1975 and 1976, during which he studied the shapes and aesthetic procedures resulting from tilling the land, he received a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

He began to exhibit his work when he was still a student: group exhibitions, in 1963, and solo exhibitions, in 1967, at the ESBAP.
His artistic activity started in the seventies. He was a Sculpture teacher at the Porto Higher Institute of Fine Arts (1972-1976), took over the educational and artistic departments of the Círculo de Artes Plásticas [plastic arts group] of the University of Coimbra (1972-1985) and lectured at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (1985-1994).

He was the author and co-author of texts and books on Art and Pedagogy and has participated in courses, debates and seminars on art and body dynamics.
He has also dedicated himself to the study of Profound Psychology, Zen, Tantra and Taoism, which he taught, gave lectures and wrote about. He received the influence of the "poetics of matter", the French essayist and philosopher Gaston Bachelard (1884-1962).

He made many trips throughout his career. In 1968, he travelled to former Yugoslavia, Austria and Germany. In the seventies, he visited Mozambique, Angola, Brazil and, for the first time, Italy, a country to which he would return on many other occasions. The following decade, he continued his trips through Europe (Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, etc.), the United States of America, Morocco, and spent some time in Prague and Budapest. In the nineties, he travelled through India, Nepal, China and Japan, where he deepened his knowledge about Hinduism, Taoism, Tantra, Zen and gardens.

Alberto Carneiro organized more than seventy individual exhibitions and participated in more than one hundred group exhibitions, in both Portugal and abroad.

Several Portuguese cities boast public sculpture works by Alberto Carneiro. In 1991, Santo Tirso received the works entitled "Water on earth, granite and water" and "The boat, the moon and the mountain". For the "Contemporary Art Conferences of Porto", in 1992, he prepared a sculpture entitled "A tree is a work of art when recreated as a metaphor"; for the inauguration of the Centro Cultural de Belém, in Lisbon, in 1993, he designed the work "On the banks of a river", using water trees and glass transparencies; and for the headquarters of the Association of Architects of Porto he produced the granite sculpture "About water". He also made sculptures for the Metropolitano de Lisboa ("About trees", bronze sculptures dated 1995-1996), for the Expo 98' ("About the sea", a granite and wood sculpture dated 1997-1998), for the Almeida Garrett Library, in Porto ("Seven Lotus flower for an endless column", a wood sculpture erected in 2001), for Chaves, a bronze sculpture, for the Gardens of the Casa de Serralves ("To be a tree and art", inaugurated in 2002) In 2002, he began to set up the International Contemporary Sculpture Park in Carrazeda de Ansiães, for which be built a sculpture which now stands in the gardens of the local library.

We can also find sculptures by Alberto Carneiro outside Portugal, in particular "The Stone Garden", in Derwenthaugh Park, in Gateshead, England; a sculpture with trees, stones, earth and grass in the city park in Quito, Ecuador; a sculpture in the Sculpture Park in Woodland, in Devil’s Glen, Ashford, Wicklow, Ireland; a sculpture in the Korean Folk Village in South Korea; the sculpture "The house of earth and fire" found in the sculpture route in the Ordino valley, Andorra; a sculpture in the city of Taoyuan, Taiwan; the sculpture "Trees flourishing in Huesca", Spain; and a sculpture in Santiago do Chile.

Alberto Carneiro was the most enthusiastic promoter of the International Museum of Contemporary Sculpture of Santo Tirso (MIEC), of which he was the national artistic director. Officially established on 20 October 1996, the Museum houses works of art received from international symposia of outdoor contemporary sculpture, held in Santo Tirso since 1991.

He received many prizes and commendations, among which the National Sculpture Award (1968), the National Fine Arts Award, given by the International Association of Art Critics (1985) and the Art Award, by Casino da Póvoa (2007), consisting of prize money for the purchase of the winning sculpture ("Signs and Wisdom of the Forest", 2000-2001), and also for the publication of the monograph entitled "Alberto Carneiro – Lição das Coisas" [A.C. - A Lesson on Matters], written by Bernardo Pinto de Almeida and directed by Armando Alves.

Represented in many museums and collections, in both Portugal and abroad, Alberto Carneiro lived and worked in his hometown.

He died in Porto, on April 15, 2017, at the age of 79.

Posthumously, on may 12, 2018, was inaugurated in Largo de S. Domingos the sculptural set "Three metaphors of trees for a true tree", which is part of the Public Art Program established by the Oporto City Council in 2015.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2010)