The Galeria Julio will inaugurate on March 21 at 4:00 PM the exhibition “Interseções: em torno da expressão artística. Pintura, desenho, dança, música e poesia na obra de Julio”, a showcase that, for the first time, delves into the dual creative identity of Julio / Saúl Dias, highlighting the inseparable relationship between the visual artist and the poet.

Curated by Bernardo Pinto de Almeida and Laura Garrido e Caetano, the exhibition brings together 163 works — including oil paintings and drawings — as well as manuscripts, various publications, and objects from the artist’s studio, spanning over five decades of creation from 1918 to the 1970s.

Drawing on the question of artistic expression, central to the modernist tradition and the thinking behind the magazine Presença, and also the title of the essay Em torno da expressão artística published in 1940 by José Régio, the exhibition shows how, in Julio / Saúl Dias, creation emerges at the intersection of multiple languages: painting, drawing, dance, music, and poetry. “We wanted to highlight how Julio and Saúl Dias constitute a single artistic identity, in which word and image function as complementary facets of the same sensibility,” emphasizes Bernardo Pinto de Almeida.

Synesthesia of the Arts and Rare Pieces in a Journey of Painting, Dance, Poetry, and Music

Instead of a chronological path, the exhibition is organized into four thematic rooms — painting and drawing, dance, poetry, and music — creating a kind of circuit where visitors are invited to see, read, hear, and feel.

In each room, drawings, oils, and poems are placed in dialogue, highlighting what the curators describe as the “synesthesia of the arts” in the work of Julio / Saúl Dias. “Color can be read as words, line as rhythm, image as silence or suggested sound. What interested us was to show that the work does not merely represent: above all, it seeks to make one feel,” say Laura Garrido e Caetano.

Highlighted pieces include the Revista de Baltar (1914), a handmade notebook created by Julio with his brother José Régio and cousin António José, featuring stories, drawings, and pastimes that reveal the artist’s early maturity. The exhibition also includes an oil painting dated 1918, shown for only the second time, and a mandolin from 1891, produced in Porto by Manuel Augusto Carneiro de Mello, which served as a model for Julio’s drawings and paintings and is now presented to the public for the first time.

The exhibition further includes correspondence exchanged between Julio / Saúl Dias and his brother José Régio, as well as publications of Saúl Dias’s poetry — such as …mais e mais, Tanto, Ainda, Sangue, and Essência — reinforcing the ongoing dialogue between text and image.

Most of the works belong to the Coleção Galeria Julio | Câmara Municipal de Vila do Conde, complemented with loans from the Câmara Municipal de Portalegre - Casa Museu José Régio, the State Collection of Contemporary Art (on deposit at the Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis), and the Centro de Estudos Regianos.

Interseções: em torno da expressão artística will be on view until September 27. The program includes guided tours and educational activities for schools, families, and youth during the Easter and summer holidays, available by prior reservation.