Footnotes

Provenance
The Studio of Bertina Lopes.

Exhibited
Orvieto, Palazzo Dei Sette, Bertina Lopes: Percorsi E Tracciati, (December 1998- January 1999), no. 7.
Rome, Palazzo Della Cancelleria, Bertina Lopes: Fragments of Distant Lands, (October – November 2002).

Literature
Claudio Crescentini, Bertina Lopes: Fragments of Distant Lands, (Consiglio Italiano per i Rifugiati, 2002), p. 88. (illustrated, incorrectly catalogued).
Claudio Crescentini, Bertina Lopes: Percorsi E Tracciati, 1998 - 1958), (Orvieto: Municipality of Orvieto, 1998), p. 35. (illustrated).

An integrally important figure in both Mozambique and Portuguese modernism, Bertina Lopes's influence, both aesthetically and politically, cements her as arguably one of the most important female artists from Mozambique.

A colony of Portugal since the early sixteenth century, anti-colonial ideologies were gaining traction in Mozambique in the face of state-sponsored discrimination for the colonised population. In 1964, the Front of the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) embarked on a guerrilla campaign against Portuguese rule. Similar upheavals from the colonies of Angola and Portuguese Guinea contributed to conflicts that amalgamated into the Portuguese Colonial War (1961-1974). FRELIMO sought to gain influence in the rural, undermined areas of Mozambique, areas much like those where Lopes grew up.

The union of Bertina with her first husband, a Portuguese-Mozambican poet, journalist, and activist in the Resistance against Portuguese colonisation called Virgilio de Lemos, personified this movement. Their creativity and revolutionary mindsets intertwined into the political upheaval that Mozambique faced at this time. Bertina and Virgilio de Lemos's growing political involvement would lead to Bertina fleeing Mozambique to take refuge in Portugal. She then moved to Italy after increasing political pressure for her stance against fascism. Moving to Rome in 1964 and separating from Lemos, Bertina married Francesco Confaloni the following year, and the two would remain together in Rome until she died in 2012.

Although in Italy, Lopes was deeply affected by the violence of the civil wars of Mozambique that followed the Carnation Revolution of 1974 and the ultimate de-colonisation of African countries from Portugal and transition to democracy. A series of civil wars beginning in 1975 would last for 30 years between the armed anti-communist movement RENAMO against the Mozambique government. The violence and emotional turmoil of the time spilled onto Lopes's canvases leaving these vibrant, expressive, and deeply impactful works.

The scale of this work is indicative of the space in which it was created. Lopes's studio, with its high ceilings and cavernous space allowed large-scale works like La vita, una eruzione vulcanica to be created. Expanding beyond the traditional tools used in painting, the 1990s for Lopes's work was characterised by the absence of these formal tools such as paintbrushes, opting instead to utilise other more industrial tools. This electric upheaval in her creative process reflects the vibrancy of her chosen palette. This dynamic explosion recalls Kandinsky's theory of spiritual and musical colour, a concept that Lopes applied to the rhythmic notions of Jazz and poetry that she depicted in her work. It is works such as the present lot that led to Lopes's recognition by the President of Italy for her contribution to artistic, cultural, and intellectual fields.