The figures were released to the Lusa agency by the president of the Arpad Szenes - Vieira da Silva Foundation, António Gomes de Pinho, who was contacted by the Lusa agency about the celebration of the entity's 30th anniversary.

The anniversary is being marked today with a conference taking place at the headquarters, in Praça das Amoreiras, with the presence of representatives of entities that are partners of the foundation and experts on the work of the Portuguese painter who lived in France.

"The celebration of the 30th anniversary is an important moment of reflection about the past, but also of thinking about and building the future", commented the person in charge, about the three decades of the museum's existence, which covers a vast period of the couple's painting and drawing production: from 1911 to 1985, for Arpad Szenes (1897-1985), and from 1926 to 1986, for Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908-1992).

For the future, exhibitions are planned in Italy, Spain, the United States, Brazil and, following the holding of the first exhibition of Vieira da Silva's work in an Arab country, in Morocco, FASVS is preparing "another major exhibition in the Arab world", without providing any details for now.

"The foundation's main activity focuses on the preservation, study and dissemination of the work of Vieira da Silva and Arpad Szenes, but also on an activity of raising awareness for art among younger audiences, which extends to a very wide range of schools, of various age groups", pointed out the president of the entity.

Gomes de Pinho stressed that "Vieira da Silva's work has an enormous topicality, which is being recognised all over the world, both for the characteristics of her work as an artist, and for the values, which are so current, such as the defence of human rights, gender equality, immigrants and refugees, freedom, in all its forms".

"Vieira da Silva had a difficult life: she was an immigrant in France, she was a refugee in Brazil during the Second World War, having lived as a stateless person", he recalled, adding that, in those experiences "she maintained a permanent action of fighting against the dictatorship in Portugal, a country that was always in her spirit, but with which she only ended up reconciling after 25 April".

In 1956 Arpad Szenes and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, stateless since 1930, received French nationality, which the Portuguese dictator Salazar had refused them.

"The foundation has always been inspired by the thought and work of Vieira da Silva, with this spirit of guaranteeing full freedom of expression. This is the emphasis that we want to give to the celebration of the 30th anniversary, thinking about the future, but not forgetting the past, the values always defended by the two artists", stressed the person in charge to Lusa.

The Arpad Szenes - Vieira da Silva Museum was inaugurated on 3 November 1994, in a building in Praça das Amoreiras, ceded by the Lisbon City Council, and regularly presents exhibitions with the work of the couple or of artists with whom they had some kind of friendship.

Read Also: Alexandre Pais is the new president of Museums and Monuments of Portugal (Portuguese version)