Isso, 2021, by Pedro Casqueiro is our current highlight as the painting is on loan to MAAT – Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia, Lisbon. The work, acquired in 2021, is part of the artist’s anthological exhibition Detour, curated by João Pinharanda, open between November 12, 2025 and April 6, 2026.
Having completed his Painting degree at Escola Superior de Belas Artes de Lisboa in 1984, Pedro Casqueiro quickly diversified his pictorial vocabulary, embracing a multiplicity of means and techniques, in a "frantic versatility" (Bruno Marchand). Favouring the painted image – whether abstract, figurative, architectural, comic book or graphic – his work shows mastery, virtuosity "and an imminent sensuality" (Alexandre Melo). Deeply rooted in the history of contemporary painting, particularly in the movement of return to painting after its proclaimed end in the late 1980s, Casqueiro's production stands out in the Portuguese artistic landscape due to "its deviant and insubordinate character" (Miguel Wandschneider). The artist has always revealed a natural enthusiasm for the use of colour, exploring vibrant contrasts and subtle glazes through which he constructs festive and intoxicating compositions. Driven by a constant desire to expand his range of pictorial possibilities and variations, Casqueiro tests and explores the limits and freedoms of painting. Although he was initially prone to large dimensions, oil painting, and saturated colour, years later his practice evolved: the canvases became more restrained, the technique shifted to acrylic, and the palette incorporated shades of gray, white, and black, demonstrating his remarkable capacity for metamorphosis and renewal. “In all these creations, there is an idea of enchantment and permanent transfiguration of painting whithin its processes – which are now very broad.” (Delfim Sardo).
Isso – along with Anymore, a work that also belongs to the CGD Collection – is part of a series presented in the Granuja exhibition at the Miguel Nabinho Gallery, Lisbon, in 2021. Then, the set on display showed a common denominator: colour, once sophisticated and exuberant, now appeared in gray or muted tones. According to the artist, “it is an irrational need, I suppose, for colour to match your state of mind, your needs, the eloquence of the image. There may be … Not being a mental illness, I think there's a bit of chromophobia involved.” (Pedro Casqueiro). Textures, patterns, and words become major concerns in a muted pictorial backdrop. (João Pinharanda). By manipulating the rapport between surface and image “his continuous exercises in composition, the dismanteling and reconstruction of the world seem to be able to save him from modern life’s huge dullness.” (João Pinharanda).
Among Pedro Casqueiro’s solo shows starting 1981, when he was 21 years old, the retrospective exhibition curated by Maria José Moniz Pereira – CAM - Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1997 –, when the artist was 38 years old, also stands out.
Hugo Dinis