José de Lemos (Lisbon, 1910-1995) is a case apart in the crowd of 20th century Portuguese illustration geniuses. His modernist style, full of contrasts, will have no master or disciples. Children's literature and the evening newspaper Diário Popular marked his life and work. Under the sign of the absurd, his literary and graphic creation for children crystallised in books published by Ática throughout the 1940s and 1950s, denying naturalism, cartoon parody and the moral and pedagogical values of the Estado Novo. It will mark the 49th anniversary of Diário Popular, whose first issue was published in September 1942.
Lemos generously illustrated the entire newspaper, but two supplements, Volta ao Mundo and Sábado Popular, created in the 1950s, would reveal the excellence of the artist's graphic work, in illustrations in India ink or gouache, to which he would apply coloured photomechanical plots. Riso Amarelo (Yellow Laughter), Lemos' most famous section, appeared in 1965 and accompanied the newspaper until its final departure from the presses on 28 September 1991. Riso will be Lisbon's portrait of the country and the civic conformism of the last years of the dictatorship. Its endless gallery of human types is worth an anthropological and social essay, in a masterful dialogue between line and stain.
Project, Texts and Graphic Design
Jorge Silva
240 x 330 mm
240 páginas / pages
Brochura / paperback
PT / EN
9789898980243
2022
