Pedro Cabrita Reis – without sorrow of heart

Pedro Cabrita Reis presents a vast collection of nearly two hundred previously unseen paintings, drawings, and sculptures in MAAT's Oval Gallery, consolidating his investigations and deepening his connection with post-Renaissance art. About Pedro Cabrita Reis is one of Portugal's most internationally renowned artists, with numerous works featured in European museums. Discovered in the 1980s, his work quickly expanded from painting (both abstract and figurative) to sculpture and installation, always taking into account the architectural or urban spaces in which it is displayed. His creative process is omnivorous in its desire to recover/integrate the signs of urban or rural life, whether they come from 'high' or 'low' culture. Using debris, discarded fragments, and banal and anonymous objects associated in unexpected and effective ways, his goal is to magnify, through grand gestures of discursive imposition, signs of what could be seen as a civilisational decline. Using and benefiting from all the resources guaranteed by the succession of revolutions of modernity, Cabrita Reis insists on the continuity and effectiveness of great pre-modern art, in an arc that takes him from the Renaissance to Romanticism, from an interest in great sculpture and courtly painting (whose masters he often cites) to a fascination with the small-scale collecting of Wunderkammer or Cabinets de Curiosités. In MAAT's Oval Gallery, Cabrita Reis presents a vast collection of series of paintings, drawings, and sculptures, created specifically for this exhibition. Comprising nearly two hundred previously unseen works, this exhibition consolidates the artist's investigations and deepens his connection with the great themes and masters of post-Renaissance art. The title Pedro Cabrita Reis: "without sorrow of heart" originates from a passage in Hesiod, Works and Days, devoted to the "Golden Age", a primordial era when humankind lived "like gods", without suffering, fatigue, or worry. Accessibility: A small part of this exhibition is not accessible to persons with reduced mobility (PRM). Pedro Cabrita Reis was born in 1956 in Lisbon, where he lives and works. His work has gained international recognition, becoming crucial and decisive for the understanding of sculpture since the mid-1980s. His complex work is characterised by an idiosyncratic philosophical and poetic discourse, encompassing a wide variety of media: painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, and installations composed of industrial materials, found objects, and manufactured objects. By using simple materials subjected to constructive processes, Cabrita recycles almost anonymous reminiscences of primordial gestures and actions repeated in everyday life. The artist has participated in international exhibitions such as Documenta IX and XIV in Kassel in 1992 and 2017, the 21st and 24th São Paulo Biennials in 1994 and 1998, respectively, and Aperto at the Venice Biennale in 1997. In 2003 he represented Portugal at the Venice Biennale; in 2013 he presented A Remote Whisper at the 55th Venice Biennale and participated in the exhibition The Spectacle of the Everyday, Lyon Biennale, 2009. In 2022 Cabrita presented Les Trois Grâces, commissioned by the Musée du Louvre, at the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris, and on the occasion of the 59th Venice Biennale he presented Campo at the Chiesa di San Fantin. Read more Toggle Painting Photography Sculpture Installation Drawing