As the ultimate symbol of Portuguese culture, appreciated all over the world, the art of the Portuguese paving is one of Lisbon’s greatest attractions. The black and white tapestry embellishes the city with distinctive patterns, which mostly depict the epic voyages of the Portuguese discoveries.
The limestone cobble pavements appeared in the 15th century, but it was during the first half of the 19th century that Lisbon’s physiognomy began such a profound transformation the city would never be the same again. It was also from this time onwards that true masterpieces were created in the pedestrian areas of Portuguese overseas territories such as Macao, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, India or Timor.
The whiteness of the limestone, interlaced with black basalt or limestone of the same colour, refined urban public spaces and established an ideal for the modernization of cities.
Stones were cut to the appropriate dimensions thanks to the work of pavers, who created abstract compositions in these mosaics, with geometric or even figurative designs. The limit? The artists’ imagination.
Hidden secrets of this artistic manifestation reveal themselves at every step. Foliage, boats, faces, animals, mythological beings and fruits are some of the motifs surreptitiously introduced by pavers amongst the repeated patterns with the intent of signing their work.
From the first craftsmen to contemporary visual artists, renowned exemplars of mosaic paving in Portuguese territory include works of art by Eduardo Nery, Fernanda Fragateiro, Fernando Conduto, João Abel Manta, Maria Keil, Pedro Calapez, Pedro Proença, Porfírio Pardal Monteiro, Rigo, Xana and even Vhils, who through this tradition found a way of paying tribute to Fado singer Amália Rodrigues.
The first decorative stone carpet ever created, which exhibited a vibrant zigzag within St. George's Castle, descended the hill to settle in Rossio, where to this day one can still appreciate the Mar Largo (“Broad Sea”), an alternating sequence of white and black waves honouring the Portuguese discoveries.
In the following years, the most noble parts of the city were also paved with magnificent decorative motifs. From Avenida da Liberdade to Cais do Sodré, from Largo do Carmo to Chiado, from Praça de Camões to Príncipe Real, from Praça do Município to Praça do Comércio, from Estrela to Belém’s riverside, the city covered itself in fantastic stone carpets. Some of the first exemplars still maintain the original patterns and can still be observed today.
At the end of the century, Expo 98 would create the ideal conditions for a new generation of artists to rethink Portuguese paving with new plasticities. The Eastern part of the city displays some of the most extraordinary works of art, where creativity and tradition come together to form images of monsters and marine motifs.
The versatility of Portuguese artistic paving, and its ability to reinvent itself, remains a source of inspiration for many other fields of artistic creativity which go beyond the ground we tread.
Visual artist, mainly a painter, worked intensively with tile art, tapestry and stained glass, but also with Portuguese paving. He is the author of two of Lisbon’s most relevant paving works located in the Town Hall Square and on Rua da Mouraria/Rua do Arco do Marquês do Alegrete. Another can also be found on Rua Brito Aranha, complementing the mosaic on the inside of the dome of the triumphal arch situated inside the Caixa Geral de Depósitos Home Office building.
Visual artist with an extremely diverse oeuvre, from sculpture to installation, and illustration to landscaping. From an early stage she took it upon herself to intervene in public places. For the Garden of Ulysses, created within the context of Expo 98, the artist conceived a knit mesh design in white cobblestones, which stand out amidst black cobblestones. It was entitled “Penelope” as a reference to the long and endless tapestry of Ulysses' mythological wife.
A visual artist of recognized merit, both in painting as in sculpture, engraving and design, who excelled in contemporary numismatics. He lectured at the Cooperative Society of Portuguese Engravers, the António Arroio School for Decorative Arts, the Lisbon School of Architecture at the Technical University of Lisbon, and the Faculty of Architecture and Arts of the Lusíada University of Lisbon. He was also co-founder of the Artistic Training Course at the National Society of Fine Arts. For Expo 98, in Rossio dos Olivais, he reinterpreted and recreated Rossio’s traditional Pombalino style paving design called “Mar Largo” (“Broad Sea") with new contemporary sinuosities, creating one of the area’s most striking visual images.
Having trained as an architect, it was as a visual artist, more specifically as a painter, illustrator and cartoonist, that he became more well known. In terms of public art, besides the large panel of ceramic tiles on Avenida Calouste Gulbenkian (designed in 1970 and installed in 1982), the paving work in Praça dos Restauradores (1971) is also noteworthy.
A visual artist who was part of the second generation of Portuguese modernist painters. Her vast oeuvre encompasses painting, drawing, illustration, graphic and furniture design, tapestry, among others. Distinguishing herself in the renewal of Portuguese tile art, she was the author of a vast majority of the oldest metro stations. She was also one of the artists invited to create new designs for artistic Portuguese paving. The renovation of Praça Luís de Camões with mermaids and caravels (1947), and the lining of the walls of Cervejaria Trindade’s great nave (1959), were also her doing.
Having established himself as a painter in the first half of the 1980s, amidst the emergence of Post-Modernism, he led a parallel academic career, both as a teacher and as head of the design and painting departments at Ar.Co (1986-1998). Internationally renowned, he participated in the Venice (1986) and São Paulo (1987 and 1991) Biennials. He is the author of the abstract composition using Portuguese artistic paving conceived for Alameda dos Oceanos, more specifically for the area surrounding the refinery tower, where white graphic schemes scratch the black background, in great affinity with his pictorial universe. Transformed into a viewpoint for Expo 98 by architects Manuel Graça Dias and Egas José Vieira, only from the top of the tower can one grasp a complete understanding of the immense pavement, which could be interpreted as a possible city map.
Trained as a painter and a founding member of the "Homeostéticos" group, from early on this visual artist favoured a style based on a contemporary revisitation of the grotesque classics he reinterprets. The graphic aspect of the images and allegories of his artistic universe find an echo in his choice of «Marine Monsters», figurative compositions recreating the imagery that populated nautical cartularies, which he designed for the Portuguese pavement built in Cais dos Argonautas, for Expo 98.
One of the most important Portuguese architects from the first half of the 20th century, during the modernist turn of national architecture, and university professor at Instituto Superior Técnico. He designed some of the most emblematic buildings in Lisbon, such as the Cais do Sodré Railway Station (1926), the family house on Avenida 5 de Outubro, 207-215, (1926 - Valmor Prize 1929), the University Campus and buildings of Instituto Superior Técnico (1927) and the Statistics Portugal headquarters (1931), both of them displaying ample Portuguese paving work of his authorship; the Church of Nossa Senhora de Fátima (1938 – Valmor Prize of that year), maritime terminals Gare Marítima de Alcântara and Gare Marítima Rocha do Conde de Óbidos (1934), or the Ritz Hotel, currently the Four Seasons (1954).
Artistic name adopted by Ricardo Gouveia, a Madeiran visual artist established in San Francisco, USA, since 1985, who favours public art in his work, especially murals in urban landscapes, with a strong political message. For Expo 98, he created a “water path” with Portuguese paving along Alameda dos Oceanos. A work of strong graphic impact where symbols and marine motifs converse with calligraphic signs.
Artistic name adopted by Alexandre Farto. A visual artist who stands out in the urban art of graffiti, especially with his bas-relief carved murals, and has pieces spread here and there all around the world. As proposed by Portuguese-French film director Ruben Alves, Vhils conceived his first Portuguese artistic pavement in 2015, using the iconic image of Amália Rodrigues. A pioneering form of Portuguese urban art, in this case rising from the ground and fading into the neighbouring wall.
Alexandre Barata, his real name, is a visual artist and was also one of the founders of the "Homeostéticos" group. The diversity of his work comprises both painting and sculpture, scenography or performance and installation, among others. With strong chromatic and visual impact, and favouring three-dimensionality and contamination between art forms, his playful and humorous character stands out in his work. Living in Lagos, Algarve, since 1984, he is in charge of programming at the local Cultural Centre. For Expo 98 he created a mixed pavement at Cais Português, where amongst the granite cobblestones one can find abstract figures, waiting to be discovered. These were designed with inspiration from the plan views and front views of the Pavilion of Knowledge, and seem to reinvent pavement games from childhood imagery, applying them to Portuguese paving.
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