Carlos Cobra’s work was primarily developed outside of Portugal. Born in Alcácer do Sal in 1940, he left for Paris in the early 1960s on a Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation scholarship. There, he joined a generation of Portuguese artists who found the French capital to be a decisive space for training, socialising and experimentation. It was during this time that he crossed paths with figures such as Lourdes Castro, René Bertholo, José Escada, João Vieira and Júlio Pomar, during a particularly fertile period for Portuguese artists on the Parisian art scene.
While in Paris, Cobra continued his sculpture training at the École des Beaux-Arts under Henri-Georges Adam, and also worked on welding and casting techniques at the Académie du Feu with László Szabó. The sculptor Étienne Hajdú also accompanied some of his experiments. International recognition followed swiftly: he participated in the Paris Biennale in 1967 and was awarded the prestigious Prix Bourdelle in 1981, one of Europe’s most important sculpture prizes.
Despite this trajectory, Cobra’s work remained largely invisible within Portuguese institutions. This exhibition at the Galeria Nuno Centeno presents a collection of paintings created in recent years. The works reveal a silent and persistent artistic process, characterised by constant work on the pictorial surface, where images appear to emerge gradually from a meticulous construction process.
Since the early 1980s, painting has been at the heart of his artistic practice. Cobra describes the act of painting as a prolonged dialogue between artist and canvas, a process in which each gesture is tested, transformed or rejected. Often, this dialogue transcends time: the artist revisits old works, revising and transforming paintings created decades earlier.
Having lived and worked in Paris for over sixty years, Cobra has always been reserved about the circulation of his work. This exhibition offers a unique insight into a journey built discreetly over several decades and sustained by a daily painting practice.