A Difficult Gap:

Abstract

Between 1945 and 1990 Portugal witnessed great cultural and political transformations, which had no equivalent in other countries in either Western or Eastern Europe. These changes gave rise to a specific context that needs to be acknowledged in any discussion of the critical reception of postwar American art in Portugal. With the democratic revolution of April 25, 1974, the end of the colonial regime, and the period of profound economic, social, and cultural transformation that followed, a state secretariat of culture was established. Two events were particularly significant for the development of new art criticism in Portugal, which would quietly open up to US art: the First Conference of Portuguese Art Critics in 1967, and the restructuring of the Portuguese section of the International Association of Art Critics in 1969. The art magazines that had been important in the 1970s were still seen as relevant in the 1980s, but only because of the lack of new specialized publications.