This conference examines the artistic relations between Portugal and the US in the complex climate of the Cold War and the transition from Salazar's dictatorship to democracy. The intersections between the Portuguese and US art worlds in this period have rarely been examined. One aim of the conference is to evaluate the different means by which Portuguese artists, critics, curators and wider audiences discovered and engaged with US art. In addition, scholars will discuss the exhibition reviews that shaped the Portuguese perceptions of US art. They will examine the impact of US artists and movements on Portuguese art practice and tease out parallels and affinities between the artists of the two countries. 

The event is inspired by the anthology Hot Art, Cold War-Southern and Eastern European Writing on American Art, 1945-1990 edited by C. Hopkins and I.B.Whyte (Routledge, 2020), an initiative of the journal Art in Translation and funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art.