One of the most visible outcomes of the 25 April revolution was the explosion of colour and image that flooded the country.
While freedom of expression took shape through the written and spoken word, in the theatre and cinema, and in television reports that for the first time made viewers feel involved in what they heard and saw, the streets and squares of Portugal also became large-scale canvases where free rein was given to the act of creation, with no limitations other than ethics and the common sense of each participant.
Discovering a new, almost intoxicating aesthetic, graphic art took on a role of intervention, voicing subjects and feelings that for a long time had been repressed.
Art came out onto the streets. Artists experimented with new languages, already anticipating the phenomenon of street art that would later become prominent, and they were able to externalise their feelings freely.
This new situation also allowed for the creation of new audiences for this type of artistic expression, ordinary people, passers-by who, regardless of whether or not they wanted to participate, were called upon to bear witness to this unstoppable movement.
The appearance of large-scale political propaganda and the need to convey the various categorical messages that, for the first time, found an open stage, contributed to accelerating the development of this type of expression in the country.
The Portuguese postage stamps issued during that period, for so long restricted in terms of topics and their interpretation, were not immune to this libertarian trend and today we can identify in their design the main themes that street art seemed to want to make last forever: democracy, freedom, the participation of all in political life, the end of colonial war. Unfortunately, the canvas on which these messages were inscribed, whether in colour or black and white, was ephemeral. Time has erased the graffiti from the walls and sent into oblivion the photographs that brought newspapers and magazines to life.
In commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 25 April revolution, CTT Correios de Portugal undertook to recover the artistic atmosphere of those early days of democracy in Portugal, taking into account the good advice of the Task Force that was officially created to celebrate this momentous event.
We turned to the inspired work of André Carrilho, Daniel Rocha, Félix Esteves, Sebastião Rodrigues, SMILE and the Underdogs collective, to show these art forms that – at the time – subverted and painted in technicolour a Portugal that had previously been conformist and grey.
Philately Office
