Adelaide Duarte is the coordinator of Post-Graduation program in Art Market Studies at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. She is the coordinator of the TIAMSA subcommittee Art Market and Collecting: Portugal, Spain and Brazil and a researcher at the Art History department of FCSH, Universidade NOVA. She is the vice-President of the Association ‘Os Amigos do Museu do Chiado’. She holds a PhD in Museology and Cultural Heritage (2012), and specialized in private collections of modern and contemporary art in Portugal, at the University of Coimbra.
Between 1973 and 1981, Galeria Quadrum dedicated five solo exhibitions to the work of Alberto Carneiro. His work is also currently on view alongside Claire de Santa Coloma, Lala Meredith-Vula and Ana Lupas in the exhibition “Rural Topographies”. The presentation by Adelaide Duarte takes place within the context of the exhibition “Rural Topographies” and intends to discuss the impact that the gallery’s programming had on Portuguese cultural life since the 1970s. The research is an attempt to understand the relationships of the gallery founder Dulce D’Agro’s with a group of artists and curators and their strategies for the dissemination of avant-garde art. Furthermore this presentation also outlines initiatives for the internationalization of Portuguese artists that originated at Galeria Quadrum’s, its continued presence at art fairs during the 1970’s and 1980’s, and its policy of exchanging artists with other European galleries.
Galeria Quadrum was an avant-garde art gallery, active in Lisbon for twenty-two years (1973-1995). Founded by the painter Dulce D’Agro, the program distinguished itself as a precursor in the dissemination of avant-garde art. Avoiding normative aesthetics of the art market, D’Agro contributed to the discovery of many artists. In addition to her effort to internationalize the work of Portuguese artists, promoting their work at art fairs and fostering the exchange of exhibitions with European galleries, D’Agro also organized art courses and experimental workshops, contributing to art education of diverse audiences. The influence of her work on the professional lives of artists, the influence she exerted with collectors and gallery owners who later replicated her strategies, and the impact of the gallery’s activity on Portuguese cultural life, made her a mythical figure in Portuguese culture. Since 2010, Galeria Quadrum is part of a network of five exhibition spaces run by the Municipal Galleries.
