Jaime Fernandes
21 october 2023 — 30 december 2024
Curator: Centro de Arte Oliva
Jaime Fernandes, the artist who began drawing at the age of 66, four years before his death, is one of the notable names in 20th century Portuguese art and was recognized across borders. In 2021, Centro de Arte Oliva held the solo exhibition Jaime, I saw a female dog of mine with wolves which showcased his work, which was then spread across several collections in Portugal and Europe. One of the results of the exhibition was the preservation and identification of several drawings, twenty-three of which are on deposit at the Centro de Arte Oliva, where they will be presented alternately.
Jaime Fernandes was born in the village of Barco (Covilhã/Central Portugal) where he lived until age thirty-eight, when he was committed to Miguel Bombarda Hospital (Lisbon) where he eventually died in 1969. The artist unexpectedly started to draw after having been institutionalized for over thirty years. His drawings start as a dense web of lines, mostly made with coloured ballpens, to create a world of ancestral figures inhabited by imaginary animals and human, anthropomorphic characters.