A mural paying tribute to the artist João Azevedo, who lived most of his life in Alportel, will be inaugurated tomorrow, April 24th, at 18 pm, in this village in the municipality of São Brás de Alportel.
This initiative will make it possible to «eternalize» on a wall a cover of one of Zeca Afonso's albums by João de Azevedo, «in the village where he chose to live most of his life», according to the São Paulo Chamber.
«This work of urban art is born from a challenge launched by the family of the artist, who died on April 26, 2020, and to which the municipality promptly associated, making it possible to carry out the mural, produced by Jaime Franco, with the artistic participation of the Algarve Sen and Hugo Azevedo, director of photography and director (nephew of the artist)», describes the municipality.
João Azevedo, who was born in Figueira da Foz in 1950, was a “unique man” in his eyes, from São Paulo at heart, who, upon his departure, is greatly missed for his dimension as an artist and above all for the greatness of the Simple Men, who always brought in his smile" and eternal defender of the ideals of the "April 25, 1974"».
After having started to exhibit his works, as a plastic artist, in his homeland, between 1964 and 1967, the artist held individual and group exhibitions in Italy, namely in Rome, the city chosen by the artist to reside until 1976.
It was in that country that he met José Afonso, when he was with Francisco Fanhais in Italy to record the album República, for which João Azevedo was invited to write a presentation text.
Later, he was the author of the illustrations for the album “Com as minha tamanquinhas”, by José Afonso, published in 1976.
Between 1977 and 2001, João continued his journey around the world, «a constant inspiration for his artistic works».
He has also lived in Mozambique, Niger and Timor, where he worked as a national and international consultant, for the European Commission and the United Nations, as an expert on cooperatives and evaluation. This passage through Timor-Leste, in 2005 and 2006, earned him the series of paintings entitled “Crocodiles” and another “Refugiados”.
As of 2007, he lived mainly between the Netherlands and Portugal, where he had lived for over three decades, in Alportel.
In 2012, São Brás de Alportel had the privilege of hosting an exhibition of his artistic work, in an exhibition at the Gallery of the “Zem Arte” space, meanwhile transformed into a restaurant “4 à Mesa”.
In 2014, almost fifty years after his first exhibition, he returns to his homeland with «A voz do crocodilo». He held several exhibitions at Associação José Afonso, at the Núcleo de Lisboa, one in 2015, “With my tamanquinhas”, another in 2018, for the 6th anniversary of the Núcleo under the theme “Refugiados/crossings”, in which he is remembered as “holder of a powerful drawing and painting technique, based on strong and magnetic colors that defined environments of different cultures and strongly marked their style”.
In 2019, he illustrated the book “Táxi”, by the professor of Portuguese Literature at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Fernando Cabral Martins. Also dated this year, under the title “Ó Zeca sings for the people!”, was the last exhibition by João de Azevedo, at the Casa da Cultura in Setúbal, in the last edition of the Illustration Festival.
João de Azevedo was also the author of all the covers of the agendas of Associação SOS Racismo, and in 2020 he dedicated one to “modern and current genocides”.
«A man of the world, of art and freedom, João Azevedo left a unique life path, which left his mark in São Brás de Alportel, in Portugal and in the world», concluded the Chamber of São Brás de Alportel.
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