DIRECTARTS editorial
FROM THE EDITOR
W
elcome to Directarts. If you are holding Directarts International in your hands, it means that you have an interest and a passion in the visual arts and have made the right choice among so many quality art publications available to you. You might have noticed that the magazine that you are holding is issue Nº1. After publishing the last eight issues nationally from Lisbon and after some serious consideration we decided that an even better way to bring the world the best of Portuguese art was to go global. We thought through our initial concept, revisited our editorial message, stayed true to our design to give our artists the best possible exposure...and we optimistically started at Nº 1 again. Directarts is a quarterly meeting place for the international art community hosted by a Portuguese perspective. If you are an established artist or an art student, if you are an artist who chooses paint as a medium or a computer as your main tool of expression, this publication is your new point of reference. Directarts will connect the fine artist with the applied artist. It will bring together the many disciplines which work to express their vision universally. It will inform and inspire. We hope we will test some conventions and boundaries. In our feature pages we publish portfolios that will include painting, sculpture and installations. Photography is a large part of our selections in our camera section. We will spotlight the established artists and give new talents their much needed share of exposure. Our interview section will probe the creative process of various artists from conception to creation and showcase artists that will soon make their mark internationally. Our unconditional passion for the arts shows on every page. We are artists in our own right so we feel we are reaching out to those who understand us, and for those who would like to understand us. We know you will enjoy Directarts, because we enjoy bringing it to you. We’ll keep talking… Carlos Duarte
COVER: Aharus (cropped) by Nadir Afonso, 1992. Acrylic on canvas 83cm x 131,5cm. Nadir is without question a respected leader of the Portuguese contemporary art movement. Our editorial team had the pleasure of spending some time with the master at his home in Cascais, a touristy coastal village, a 30-minute drive from Lisbon. In our feature article The Masters, page 8, we bring to you, with Nadir’s and his wife Laura’s kindness and generosity, insight into this artist’s amazing life.
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