Fall Trip to Portugal

This fall, in recognition of the France-Portugal Season scheduled from February – October 2022, the International Council of the Louvre visited Lisbon and Porto. International Council members discovered the rich cultural history of Portugal firsthand and learned about the latest innovations in museums, contemporary art and architecture.

The Phoenicians founded Lisbon and Porto in antiquity, setting the stage for the rise of Europe’s greatest maritime powers, whose explorers would eventually circumnavigate Africa and sail to Brazil. A dictatorship for much of the 20th century, Portugal was a backwater until the ‘Revolution of Carnations’ in 1974, when parliamentary democracy helped the country regain its role as a pioneer of globalization. The art and architecture scenes in Lisbon and Porto are the fruits of this rebirth, regaining their edge thanks to architects such as Alvaro Siza Vieira and Eduardo Souto de Moura and artists including Paula Rego, Joana Vasconcelos, and Pedro Cabrita Reis. The combined strength of Lisbon’s and Porto’s artists’ communities, the caliber of their art museums, and the scale and quality of their private collections make this beautiful country clinging to the edge of Europe, an undisputed player on the international art scene.

For information on how to join the International Council, visit our Membership page or contact Constance Barut at cbarut@aflouvre.org.