João Abel Manta​,​ illustration​,​ graphic arts​,​ and cartooning

João Abel Manta was born on January 29, 1928, in Lisbon, the son of painters Abel Manta and Maria Clementina Carneiro de Moura. He graduated in architecture from the Lisbon Higher School of Fine Arts in 1951 and went on to work across an extraordinarily wide range of disciplines, including painting, ceramics, tapestry, mosaics, illustration, graphic arts, and cartooning. From early on, he aligned himself with Lisbon's intellectual left-wing circles that opposed the dictatorship, and his political convictions deeply shaped his artistic output. He is regarded by many as the most extraordinary Portuguese cartoonist of the 20th century, with his cartoon work spanning roughly from 1954 to 1991 and reaching its peak intensity between 1969 and 1976. His political engagement surged after the Carnation Revolution of 1974, when he threw himself into producing caricatures, posters, and hoardings with a markedly revolutionary spirit, becoming closely identified with the artistic voice of that transformative period in Portuguese history. He also left a lasting mark on public art, including the tapestries of the Noble Hall of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and a large tile panel on Avenida Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon.