Viúva Lamego - MorningCalM july 2019

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WAKE OF COLORS

In the 170 years since its founding, Viúva Lamego has become known not only as a maker of high-quality hand-painted Portuguese azulejos, but also as an important collaborator in some of the country’s greatest public art projects.

A building might rise brick by brick, but Portugal rose tile by tile. This is true especially of Lisbon, where the distinctive Portuguese style of ceramic tiles, called azulejos, can be seen on countless building facades and even underground in its metro stations. Still standing untarnished by time is Viúva Lamego, one of the most respected tile manufacturers in Portugal.

In Lisbon’s Largo do Intendente district, the company’s original workshop is now a store. It greets passersby with an exterior of whimsical azulejo panels hand-painted in 1865 by Luís Ferreira. “It’s a work full of special details and meanings,” says CEO Gonçalo Conceição, “like the allegorical figures of Trade and Industry standing on either side of the entrance door.” Ferreira, who started as a painter at the company, became its first artistic director.

When founder António da Costa Lamego opened the workshop in 1849, the company manufactured pottery and tiles. It wasn’t until the 20th century, after Lamego had passed away and viúva (Portuguese for “widow”) had been appended to the company name, that it began to dedicate its focus to azulejos.

In a way, azulejos represent many journeys to many parts of the world. They first drifted into the country after King Manuel I fell in love with the Islamic tiles he saw in Spain. They were soon painted in styles influenced by Italian and Flemish artists. The blue-and-white azulejos now commonly associated with Portugal were a nod to Delftware from the Netherlands, which in turn took cues from MingDynasty (1368-1644) pottery. In the 17th century, Portuguese tile artists were enamored with patterns found in textiles from India and East Asia.

It’s no surprise that so many azulejo panels feature ships and seas — not just for Portugal’s coastal geography, but for its curiosity and history of exploration. A large, evocative mural on Lisbon’s Avenida Infante Santo, called O Mar (The Sea ), shows the ocean in sharp shades of blues and greens. A male figure stands in the foreground holding a child in one arm and a ship in the other. In the background, sailboats seem poised to embark on a new voyage. Created by artist Maria Keil with Viúva Lamego in 1959, O Mar is representative of the azulejo renaissance that swept the country in the mid-20th century.

Since about the 1930s, Viúva Lamego has been involved in public art projects that have revamped the face of modern Lisbon, and artists like Keil found a perfect partner in Viúva Lamego. The company’s artisans were extremely skilled and committed to a slow, hand-painted process. Today, Viúva Lamego’s workshop is located in Sintra, where a team of artisans works together with artists and architects. Some of the artisans have over 30 years of experience. “Most of our work nowadays is on bespoke projects either for architecture or art expression,” says Conceição.

Clay for the tiles is cut to size and then dried in the open air before being baked. Then a glaze is applied and each tile is individually hand-painted before it’s baked again. “The process of making a tile at Viúva Lamego requires a great human dedication, as the human hand is present in all stages,” says Conceição.

Just a single tile shows great human dedication, but when all put together, the resulting work can be even greater than the sum of its parts. Expo ’98, held in Lisbon, was a watershed moment in the country’s modern history, drawing over 10 million visitors. It was organized around the themes of seafaring and exploration. There was no better person to design the Pavilion of Portugal, which would represent the host country, than world-famous architect Álvaro Siza — and no tile maker better to help realize his vision than Viúva Lamego. One wall of the structure shines with red azulejos and the other side with sea green ones, as if reflecting the color of the Tagus River that the pavilion stands before.

To this day, the company continues full steam ahead on projects that allow azulejos to be shared as a public treasure. “Viúva Lamego is more like a national brand,” says Conceição. “I realized that when the acquisition became public. Everyone I met had advice regarding the strategy to implement. Since then, I see myself not as the owner but more like a custodian of the company for the next generations.”

Perhaps no other project represents Viúva Lamego’s stake in the national brand better than Lisbon’s subway stations. In the 1950s, the Portuguese government began building a metro system in the city, and Keil’s husband was the architect. Keil created the art that would give the new stations their character. Today, the tiles she created with Viúva Lamego are visible in 19 metro stations, greeting the hundreds of thousands of people who ride every day. The azulejos here exist in a space of transition — the start of a journey.