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U.Porto Memory

University of Porto Famous Alumni

Clara Menéres

Clara Menéres 1943-2018 Sculptor

Maria Clara Rebelo de Carvalho Menéres was born on 22 August 1943 in Casa de Vilar, S. Vítor, Braga.

In Porto, she studied sculpture (Higher Course and Complementary Course) at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Porto, and concluded her degree in 1968, with the work "A Menina Amélia que vive na Rua do Almada" (Miss Amelia who lives in Almada Street).

When studying at ESBAP, she was taught by masters Barata Feyo, Lagoa Henriques, Heitor Cramez and Júlio Resende, and began to exhibit her work, first at the collective shows in the Magna Exhibition organized by FBAUP, and individually, in 1967, at the Borges de Aveiro Gallery, with ceramic work.

At a later stage, between the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 90s, she continued her studies in France and the United States, as a bursary student of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Luso-American Development Foundation. In 1983, she obtained her PhD in Ethnology at the University of Paris VII, and between 1989 and 1991 she was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Visual Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Meantime, she began to teach, first at ESBAP and later at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon (1971-1996), where she became Tenure Professor (with Aggregation) and chaired the Faculty Board (1993-1996); lastly, she taught at the University of Évora, where she is Full Emeritus Professor.

Her sculptor work depicts mainly the founding myths, solar, water and in particular fertility cults, seen, for instance, in works such as: "Papisa" (Popess) or "Coincidentia Oppositorum" (Conciliation of Opposites) (1983), in the gardens of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, "Relicário" (Shrine), "Fogo Fátuo III ou Igniculli Terra Emicantes" (1987) and "Alba Navis" (White ship) (1987). Other themes include the allegory of death ("Os Amantes ou Restos Arqueológicos de uma viagem para a morte" - Lovers or the archaeological remains of a trip to death - with which she obtained the Sculptor Award at the 4th Biennial Exhibition in Vila Nova de Cerveira); civic intervention (with the sculptor "Jaz morto e arrefece o menino de sua mãe" - Mother's little boy lies dead and cold, at the National Society for Fine Arts, in 1973; after the 25th of April, she joined the Grupo ACRE, with Queiroz Ribeiro and Lima de Carvalho); scientific and philosophical reflections (exhibition "Da terra à Luz ou a Coincidentia Oppositorum entre Nicolua de Cusa e Max Planck"), and bible themes.

In art works such as "Mulher-Terra-Viva" (Woman-Land-Alive), shown in the "Alternativa Zero" exhibition in 1977, in Belém, she revealed some influences from Land Art (Ecology Art), whilst the sculptures such as "A grande espiral" (The great spiral) shown at the 1st Sculptor Symposium in 1988, the "Monumento ao viajante" (Monument to the traveller), in Guimarães (1991), "Monumento a Willy Brandt" (Monument to Willy Brandt), in Porto (1993), and the "Monumento a Salgueiro Maia" (Monument to Salgueiro Maia), in Castelo de Vide (1994) are true representations of public art that arise from the research carried out by the artist on the relations between art and nature.

In the eighties, Clara Menéres rediscovered light in her sculpture work, and became known as a "light sculptor".

Recently, she produced for the Sanctuary of Fátima the imagem of the shepherdess Jacinta (2000) and “The Angel of Peace” (2016). Har last work was the statue of John Paul II, inaugurated on Easter in 2018, at the Maia roudabout.

The artist and teacher has also been actively engaged in artistic research and in the cultural and social life of the country. She participated in the 1st Conference on "A representação do sagrado no mundo da imagem" (The representation of holy themes in the world of image), joined the Cultural Programme of the Feminist Congress 2008, exhibiting a photograph panel entitled "Clara Menéres. Escultura. Obra retrospectiva entre os anos 1968-1980" (Clara Menéres. Sculpture. Retrospective work between 1968 and 1980); she was an effective member of MIC (Intervention and Citizenship Movement), formally set up in 2006, and in 2009 she ran for the European Elections as an MPT (Partido da Terra - Land Party) affiliate, and to the Assembly of the Republic, in the coalition Frente Ecologia e Humanismo (Ecology and Humanism Front).

She died in Lisbon on May 10, at the age of 74.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2009)