The dawn of an artistic path

From a graphic perspective, Sol Nascente is distinctively unusual when considering its coeval periodical counterparts: the presentation of a large-format piece of art in practically all its covers (except issues 1 and 38). The concern with artistic communication and education is evident, not only through the initially chosen subtitle – Quinzenário de Ciência, Arte e Crítica –, naturally expressed in recurring articles on this subject, but above all by the promotion of a visual culture that is maintained throughout the more than 3 years of the magazine’s existence, which “lets see” pictorial works of editorial significance, with emphasis on the front page.

Manuel de Azevedo (1916-1984) was one of the founders and pillars of the publication, from the initial staff team in Porto to its subsequent transfer to Coimbra. From the first issue he actively participated as a permanent secretary of the editorial office, coordinating editorial programming and administrative duties, as well as being responsible for the graphic direction and execution, but also collaborated regularly as an illustrator and a film and literary critic, while in charge of the cinema section.

Despite these constants, the magazine graphically and artistically reflected the ongoing ideological, and consequently editorial, shifts. While initially following a more eclectic and heterogeneous matrix, it brought together Republicans headed by Abel Salazar (1889-1946), mentor and tireless collaborator of the magazine, some personalities with libertarian-anarchist backgrounds, among which the art critic and artist João Alberto de Carvalho (1909-1982), and young Marxists.

In the first issues of the biweekly periodical, all cover and interior illustrations are by Manuel de Azevedo and João Alberto, except for an interior by Jaime de Oliveira. From issue 5, after some directorial changes, the term “Arte” is removed from the subtitle, which now reads Quinzenário Cultural de Literatura e Crítica, but paradoxically the Sol Nascente covers show reproductions of works that denote a more careful choice and greater artistic knowledge. This selection, by the painter Dominguez Alvarez (1906-1942), displays relevance and unusual graphic quality in comparison to other contemporary publications. The covers show works by painters either from Porto or connected to its school of Fine Arts – Dominguez Alvarez himself, Joaquim Lopes (1886-1955), Dórdio Gomes (1890-1976), Guilherme Camarinha (1912-1994), Ventura Porfírio (1908-1998), Mendes da Silva (1903-1987), Casimiro de Carvalho, Cruz Caldas (1898-1975), Abel Salazar, and his disciple Augusto Tavares (1897-1990) –, and include landscapes and human figurations from a late-naturalist perspective, sometimes with incorporations of modernist proposals, notably a degree of expressionism. Also presented are works by two Galician painters, José Seijo Rubio (1881-1970) and Carlos Maside (1897-1958) – due to Alvarez’s connection, through his ancestry, to Galician art – and two engravers from northern Europe, the Pole Skoczylas Wladyslaw (1883-1934) and the Swede Nils af Ström (1903-1971), who lived in Porto. In thematic terms, special attention is paid to regionalism and social aspects, through representations of the people, their work or their living conditions.

Meanwhile, in the transition phase to Coimbra, from October 1937, a change in the header image takes place, with the title presented in a broader and more impacting font, bringing out the red in the word “Sol”. In addition to some of those artists from Porto, works by Lisbon painters, youthful promises of a modern and human art, namely those by Magalhães Filho (1913-1975), Frederico George (1915-1994), and Manuel Lima (1911-1991) are also shown on the cover of the “magazine of young thought”, as well as by Jorge Barradas (1894-1971) and a Baixo-relevo by Leopoldo de Almeida (1898-1975). Inside the periodical, Manuel de Azevedo's engravings are predominant, illustrating essays and texts of fiction and poetry, such as the woodcut representing motherhood, published with the poem “Caminho” by Mário Dionísio.

With the staff office in Coimbra and following an editorial line even more focused on progressive action and greater care in the choice of ideological and artistic collaboration, priority is given to drawings and engravings on the covers, to new artists such as Huertas Lobo (1914-1987), and to a selection of works that denote greater political and social commitment, such as those by Abel Salazar. Manuel de Azevedo's contributions become increasingly scarcer until stopping altogether in May 1939, probably due to his third arrest by PIDE, and the illustrations and other graphic work by two Coimbra artists, António Ruivo Ramos [Somar] (1918- 1998) and António José Soares [Ares] (1916-2002), become frequent, namely in the portraits of personalities such as the writers Romain Rolland, Erich Maria Remarque, and Maxim Gorki. Along these lines, one of only two photographs, the portrait of Federico García Lorca, is also published.

This ideological and aesthetic link to an international movement is also visible in the magazine by not only representing culturally significant figures, but in reproducing drawings published in other magazines, such as Brazilian Diretrizes and Cuban Mediodía, by Nicolás Guillén, and by devoting covers to works by artists such as the German expressionist George Grosz (1893-1959) and the painter of the Brazilian people, Cândido Portinari (1903-1962). A reproduction of the famous painting Café, which becomes an expressive epilogue and reveals an aesthetic-artistic path into the social realism for which the editors yearned, is published in what would be the last issue of Sol Nascente, before its ban by the Censorship Services.

Luísa Duarte Santos