Pancho Guedes
Pancho Guedes | |
|---|---|
| Born | Amâncio d'Alpoim Miranda Guedes 13 May 1925 Lisbon,Portugal |
| Died | 7 November 2015(aged 90) Graaff-Reinet,South Africa |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Spouse | Dorothy Guedes |
Amâncio d'Alpoim Miranda"Pancho"Guedes(Lisbon, Portugal, 13 May 1925 – Graaff-Reinet, South Africa, 7 November 2015) was a Portuguese architect, sculptor, painter, and educator.
He is described as one of the earliestpost-modernistarchitects inAfricaand an archetype Eclectic Modernist.[2]
Early life
[edit]Guedes was born inLisbon,Portugal, in 1925. He is a descendant of Portuguese noblemanLuis de Alpoim.
Guedes spent much of his life inPortuguese Mozambiquefrom the age of 7 years old and he would stay there for most of his life.[3]
Wanting to become an artist, he enrolled at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in 1945. He soon decided to study architecture which was to him the culmination and combination of all the artistic trades that interested him.[2]
Architecture career
[edit]Guedes then began his career and produced a multitude of projects in the 1950s and 60s as building activity intensified in Mozambique.[2]
InEast Africahe produced the designs for hundreds of buildings,[4]many of them in the city ofLourenço Marques(Maputo) but also in Angola, in South Africa, and in Portugal. His creations mixed the sculptural and figurative with practical requirements and traditional local identity.[5]
Guedes was part of “Team 10”,a group of architects who assembled in July 1953 at the 9th Congress ofCIAMand adopted a new approach tourbanismthrough impactful theoretical frameworks which influenced the development of European architectural thought during the late 20th century.[2]
Arguably, one of Guedes' most famous buildings is the Smiling Lion Building from 1956 built in Mozambique.[6]Guedes calls the style of this building STILOGUEDES which translates loosely as 'GuedesStyle'. The high level mural on the West façade is still intact and so is the "smiling lion" on the North corner. The lion is a small concrete casting with a smile hence the name of the building.[7]
Artistic career
[edit]Aside from his large-scale architectural projects, he was also a sculptor and painter.
Exhibitions of his visual art have taken place at theBerardo Collection Museumin Lisbon, among other venues.
Guedes bought works by Paul Klee in 1948, admiring his surrealist style and infantile themes. He made sculptures inspired by Paul Klee's Angels at the end of his career. One of his last sketches, made in 2015, was entitled 'A Tribute to Paul Klee'.[6]
Political problems
[edit]After the events of theCarnation RevolutioninLisbon,he left newly independentMozambiquein 1974. Mozambique was officially established in 1975 as thePeople's Republic of Mozambique.
His rapid departure from Mozambique in 1974 along with other Portuguese subject to the24/20 declaration(giving them 24 hours to leave and allowing them to take 20 kilograms of belongings) left his family almost penniless.[4]Due to his reputation, he received an invitation to take the vacant chair of Architecture at theUniversity of the WitwatersrandinJohannesburg.[8]
Death
[edit]Pancho Guedes died on 7 November 2015 at the age of 90.[9]
Works
[edit]- Church in Maputo (1962)[4]
-
Edifício Dragão (1953), Maputo -
Prédio Abreu, Santos e Rocha (1953/56), Maputo -
Prédio Spence e Lemos (1964), expanded 2008–2010
References
[edit]- ^"GUEDES, Amancio d'Alpoim Miranda (Pancho)".artefacts.co.za.Retrieved2021-07-09.
- ^abcd"Pancho Guedes, Sculpting a New Africa".ArchDaily.2021-07-09.Retrieved2021-07-09.
- ^"PANCHO GUEDES, ARCHITECTURE ON A GRAND SCALE".Dorisglason.net.Retrieved26 June2011.
- ^abc[Magical Mozambique] by Tom Downey Wall Street Journal Magazine October 2013 page 83 (includes an exterior photo)
- ^"Amancio Guedes - architect, sculptor, painter".guedes.info.Retrieved2021-07-09.
- ^ab"Pancho Guedes, un grand maître portugais".Magazine Singulart(in French). 2021-01-20.Retrieved2021-07-09.
- ^"O Leão que Ri - Smiling Lion details".artefacts.co.za.Retrieved2021-07-09.
- ^Guedes, Amancio (2007).Manifestos, papers, lectures, publications.Lisboa, Portugal: Ordem dos Arquitectos. p. 6.ISBN9789728897246.
- ^Architect Africa:Obituary,7 November 2015
External links
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