Acquisition of new works, foreign artists, a large exhibition in Lisbon and now also displayed online. The art collection starts to gain new life under the aegis of president Rita Faden.

A collection of art renewed, crafted, alive and, above all, open to all. This is one of the goals FLAD president Rita Faden has set to herself and the Foundation. Now, all the works of art, the more than a thousand that are part of the collection, can be seen and consulted also in an online repository.

“FLAD’s art collection should be able to be known and appreciated by everyone. We don’t want it closed or just accessible to those who visit FLAD.” – Rita Faden, president of FLAD.

Showing the art collection in a major exhibition in Lisbon was a decision made on her first day on the leadership of the Luso-American Foundation for Development.

Even in a pandemic scenario, which placed many limitations on everyone, Rita Faden achieve this objective and last September 22, opened to the public in the Central Tejo of Maat the exhibition Festa. Fúria. Femina. – Works of the FLAD Collection.

“If there is one thing that the pandemic has clearly shown us, it is the importance of art in our lives and how it helps us find meaning in these difficult times.” – Rita Faden.

The exhibition, whose closure was anticipated due to the new shelter in place rules, was one of the first steps in the new life of the collection. After Lisbon, you will head to the Azores, a region with which FLAD has a special relationship, on a date yet to be defined.

The novelties are several. The acquisitions of new works of art were restarted under this administration in 2019, which also wanted to give a sign of internationalization of the collection, when buying a work by Marwan Rechmaoui, lebanese artist from Beirut, after the explosion in the port that devastated a substantial part of the Lebanese capital.

“A collection of contemporary art only makes sense if it also has an international dimension. We wanted to begin this process of international acquisitions with a symbolic gesture of support for the artists in Beirut, after the terrible explosion and devastation that the city suffered.” – Rita Faden.

Collection available online in full

As part of this new impetus given to the art collection, FLAD now has available on its website a contextualized archive with all the works of art that make up the collection.

Rita Faden explains that the goal is for everyone to see and appreciate the collection. For this, not only will they serve the exhibitions, but also the availability of all works and information on the FLAD website.

“It should be available for consultation and easily accessible, hence the importance of making it available online with more complete information about the works and artists. This is a process that we will continue, bringing more information and knowledge to the database with the works of the collection.” Rita Faden.

There are more than a thousand works acquired in the last 35 years of the collection’s history, with artists with diverse artists such as Paula Rego, Júlio Pomar, Helena Almeida, Álvaro Lapa, António Poppe and Anna Hatherly.

To see the collection, click this link.