Fantasmagoria de um freguês
Reflexões sobre formas e cores
dentro de um supermercado/
The Phantasmagoria of a Shopper
Contemplations on the Shapes and Colors
found in a Supermarket

I was invited by Professor Doutor Fernando António Baptista Pereira, curator of the Museu de Setúbal/Convento de Jesus, Setúbal, Portugal, to present a solo painting show at the Museu do Trabalho/Michele Giacometti (The Work Museum). This solo show will take place between April 27 and June 3, 2000, featuring a new series of twenty acrylic polymer paintings accompanied by a retrospective of my solo painting show titled "Abstracções e semi-abstracções/Abstractions and Semiabstractions," that occurred at Bulhosa Livreiros in Lisbon, Portugal, during the month of June 1999.1

The theme of the new series, which I have titled "Fantasmagoria de um freguês. Reflexões sobre formas e cores dentro de um supermercado/The Phantasmagoria of a Shopper. Contemplations on the Shapes and Colors found in a Supermarket," is the fantastic daydreams of a fictional character name João Pessoa, a Mormon minister who not only earns his living as an investment and insurance services representative, but who also loves very much to go shopping. Through depicting the fantastic daydreams of the above mentioned fictional character João Pessoa, my intention is to create an abstract lyric description of the following samples of industrial art: the packaging of commercial products—food as well as non-food—along with the many publicity announcements distributed by stores and supermarkets, American and Portuguese alike.

Furthermore, through creating this series of paintings, my intention is to recall a gouache painting by the American artist named Stuart Davis (1894-1964) titled "Detail Study No. 1 for Package Deal."2

Finally, like Stuart Davis, in his "Detail Study No. 1 for Package Deal," as well as in his numerous related compositions,3 I wish to employ similar motifs in all works related to "Fantasmagoria de um freguês. Reflexões sobre formas e cores dentro de um supermercado/The Phantasmagoria of a Shopper. Contemplations on the Shapes and Colors found in a Supermarket," much like a musician who makes many variations on a sequence of notes.

1. Fifteen of the seventeen paintings, which were part of this solo show, will be part of the retrospective view of my works. The remaining two paintings were sold to Doutor Paulo Rocha Trindade, Instituto Camões, Lisbon, Portugal, and Professora Doutora Nitah Camotim, Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa, Portugal.

2. Cf. Stuart Davis. Detail Study No.1. for Package Deal. 1956. Collection Leo S. Gutham, Chicago. Lowery Stokes Sims. Stuart Davis. American Painter. 1991. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harry N. Abrams, 1992. 89, Figure 74.

3. Namely: twenty-nine drawings, two gouache studies, and three paintings titled: "Package Deal," "Premiere," and "International Surface No.1."

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