The exhibition João Hogan. Something that never ends features the engraving Untitled, 1971, a work that belongs to the Collection Caixa Geral de Depósitos. The show, co-produced with Culturgest, was organised to mark the 110th anniversary of the painter's birth and will be opened at the Panteão Nacional from 10 September to 1 December, 2024.

Born in Lisbon on the 4th of February 1914 into a family of artists of Irish descent, he was the grandson of the watercolourist Ricardo Hogan and the nephew of the painter Álvaro Navarro Hogan. In 1930, he joined a woodworking workshop, dedicating himself to this work for over twenty years. As seen in the precision of his drawing lines and in the method he used to create composition and colours, this training would prove to be crucial for his future artistic career as a painter and an engraver. That same year, he attended the Escola de Belas-Artes de Lisboa; he would later abandon his academic studies to join Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes in 1937. His first solo exhibition was held in 1951. In 1956, he became one of the founding members of Gravura – Sociedade Cooperativa de Gravadores Portugueses. His work as a painter and engraver would come across as a dichotomy of styles, which surpassed the Portuguese artistic milieu of his time.

João Hogan became famous for his landscapes that unveil a vision which is raw, arid and devoid of human presence, a transition zone between the city and the countryside. The exhibition, however, shows his amazing side as an engraver, a technique he started to explore in 1957. His first woodcuts show a realistic approach to his painting. The artist himself clarifies that: “(...) it is likely that this strange world of engraving I inhabited greatly contributed to putting an end to the naturalist quality my painting had until the 1950s.” About Hogan, Rui Mário Gonçalves writes that “the engraver would free emotions and dreams.” After the 60s, as his painting matures and buildings and human figures are no longer depicted, the copper engravings show surrealist influences toward an almost unreal yet humorous fantasy. These delirious and poetic drawings and narratives express a freedom and a creativity, which contrast greatly with the austerity of the past. The fantastic universe and the creation of dream shown in the engravings seem to contradict the silent and arid landscape of his paintings. The artist states: “(...) I never wanted my engraving to be my painting’s facsimile.” Rocha de Sousa says that Hogan’s engraving “(...) takes him on a dreamlike journey with a poetic density of subterranean and nocturnal undertones.”

João Hogan died of a stroke on 16 June 1988. An anthological exhibition of his work – paintings and engravings – was presented at the Centro de Arte Moderna (CAM), Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, in 1992.  The show, more than a just tribute to the artist, was curated in a harmoniously balanced way. In 1993, CAM also supported “Hogan – the painter”, a film directed and produced by Tereza Martha that premiered in that same year.

Hugo Dinis