Portuguese Culture Icons

The caricatures at Lisbon’s Aeroporto (Airport) metro station were created by António Moreira Antunes, the cartoonist who signs his work “António” and has been the regular cartoonist for the newspaper Expresso since the 1970s. A series of 53 cartoon portraits reproduced in azulejo (tile) form on the walls of the Aeroporto station. The station artwork was in place when the station opened to the public on July 17, 2012. Subjects: the portraits depict a selection of prominent Portuguese figures (writers, actors, artists, musicians, politicians, athletes, a surgeon, airmen, a philanthropist, etc.). Reportedly, the group includes 13 writers, 8 actors, 8 artists, 6 musicians and 4 politicians; only seven of the portrayed figures are women. One of the women portrayed is the poet​/​writer Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen. António is a well-known and sometimes controversial political cartoonist in Portugal (one of his best-known cartoons, from 1993, provoked a strong public reaction). His reputation helped secure this public commission; President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has called him one of Portugal’s leading political caricaturists.

Location

Airport Metro Station, Lisbon, Portugal

Curatorial tags

cartoons, icons, portugal