Born: 1931 Lisbon, Portugal
Died: 2008 London, England
Year of Migration to the UK: 1956
Other name/s: Barto dos Santos, Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos
Biography
Artist and teacher Bartolomeu dos Santos was born on 24 August 1931 in Lisbon, Portugal. His father, a distinguished surgeon and bibliophile, and his grandfather, art historian Reynaldo dos Santos, nurtured his early appreciation for the arts. Traveling across Europe in his youth, he encountered diverse artistic traditions that shaped his development. From 1950–56, he studied at the Escola Superior de Belas-Artes in Lisbon, initially focusing on sculpture before shifting to painting. Frustrated with the school’s rigid academicism and Portugal’s authoritarian regime, he sought greater artistic liberty in London.
In 1956, Dos Santos moved to the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London. The transition was difficult, as the Slade’s emphasis on critical discussion and artistic experimentation contrasted sharply with the rigid teaching methods he had experienced in Portugal. He described his first months in London as traumatic, struggling to adapt to the analytical, debate-driven approach of the Slade after coming from an educational system where ‘inquiry was not encouraged, and intelligent criticism was discouraged’ (Sarre 1989). Despite these challenges, he quickly immersed himself in London's art world. In 1989 he contributed to the exhibition Graven Image at the Whitechapel Gallery, an important showcase for contemporary printmaking. At the Slade, he was part of a generation of Portuguese artists, including Paula Rego, João Cutileiro, and Jorge Vieira, who found in London a more experimental artistic environment. Though not actively engaged in political opposition, their work increasingly reflected a critical stance towards Salazar’s regime and its colonial policies. The Slade’s modernist approach contrasted with the rigidity of Portuguese institutions, allowing Dos Santos and his contemporaries to develop their own artistic identities. He was particularly drawn to the Neo-Romanticism of Graham Sutherland and John Piper, the expressionism of Francis Bacon, and the sculpture of Henry Moore and Reg Butler. Jacques Prévert’s and Izis' 1952 book Charmes de Londres influenced his decision to move to the city, which he later described as a dark and mysterious postwar landscape, full of ruins and fog, reminiscent of Whistler’s Thames paintings (Oliveira 2019). These impressions of the desolate cityscape became a recurring motif in his early prints, capturing the play of light and shadow over London’s rooftops and the murky waters of the Thames.
Dos Santos’ transition into printmaking happened almost by accident. William Townsend, one of his tutors, noticed the predominance of black in his work and encouraged him to try etching, introducing him to printmaker, Anthony Gross. ‘I did not know what the word etcher meant’, Dos Santos later recalled, ‘but I soon found out, and with it the potentialities of aquatint with its deep, profound blacks and beautiful half tones that Goya understood so well’ (Slade website). In 1961, he joined the Slade faculty as a lecturer in printmaking, becoming Head of the Printmaking Department until 1996. In 1994, he was named a Professor of Fine Art, and upon retirement, was granted the title of Emeritus Professor. Recognised for his contributions to Portuguese culture abroad, he was awarded the Order of Prince Henry by the President of Portugal in 1993.
Dos Santos’ printmaking practice was deeply influenced by his personal and political experiences. Themes of confinement and liberation, rooted in his reflections on Portugal’s dictatorship, featured prominently in his work. His prints from the 1960s, such as the Bishops series, depicted skeletal figures surveying decaying ruins, symbolising the moral and political stagnation of Portugal under Salazar’s rule. This imagery was further shaped by a defining earlier experience, when he witnessed the exhumation of King Henry IV of Castile, an event that made a lasting impact on his representations of bishops and mummified figures. In the 1970s, he explored labyrinthine compositions, inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’ writings. This period marked a significant shift in his artistic approach, with geometric structures symbolising entrapment and the search for escape. Dos Santos found inspiration in literature, cinema, and history, particularly in Fernando Pessoa’s poetry, Andrei Tarkovsky’s films, and Schubert’s music. His Ode Marítima series, based on Pessoa’s poem, reflects his engagement with Portugal’s maritime history and the psychological dimensions of nostalgia and longing. Boats, maps, and themes of departure and waiting frequently appear in his work, reflecting both Portugal’s seafaring past and a more universal sense of transition.
Throughout his career, Dos Santos exhibited widely, holding 84 solo exhibitions across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. His first UK solo exhibition took place at the Oxford Gallery in 1973. He also undertook major public art projects, including the etched limestone mural at Lisbon’s Entrecampos underground station (1,000 square metres) and the commemorative monument in Grândola celebrating the 1974 Carnation Revolution. Bartolomeu Dos Santos died in London, England on 21 May 2008. In the UK public domain his work is represented in the Victoria and Albert Museum, British Museum, and Government Art Collection, among others.
Related books
- Leonor de Oliveira, Portuguese Artists in London Shaping Identities in Post-War Europe (London: Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2024)
- Leonor de Oliveira, ‘Iconografias de resistência: O caso de quatro artistas portugueses em Londres nos anos 1950 / Iconographies of Resistance: The Case of Four Portuguese Artists in London in the 1950s’, Ler História No. 74, 2019, pp. 187-212
- Catarina Alfaro, Leonor Oliveira, and Carlos Carreiras, 1961: Ordem e Caos: Paula Rego, Victor Willing, Eduardo Batarda, Bartolomeu Cid Dos Santos (Cascais: Casa das Histórias Paula Rego, 2014)
- 'Obituary', Times, 27 June 2008, p. 65
- Catherine Allison, Slade Prints of the 1950s: Richard Hamilton, Stanley Jones and Bartolomeu dos Santos (London: University College, 2005)
- Inês Sarre, ‘Entrevista a Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos’, in Edward Lucie-Smith, Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos, Exposição Retrospectiva (Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1989)
- Edward Lucie-Smith, Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos: Exposição Retrospectiva (Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1989)
- Bartolomeu dos Santos (Lisboa: Galeria 111, 1985)
- Bartolomeu dos Santos, exhibition catalogue (Lisboa: Galeria 111, 1979)
- Bartolomeu Dos Santos, exhibition catalogue (London: J.P. Lehmans Graphics, 1974)
- Bartolomeu Dos Santos: Etchings and Aquatints (Oxford: Oxford Gallery, 1973)
- Bartolomeu dos Santos, exhibition catalogue (Roterdam: Galerie Fenna de Vries, 1967)
- Bartolomeu Dos Santos: Graphic Works (London: London Graphic Art Associates, 1967)
Public collections
- Ashmolean Museum
- British Museum
- Fitzwilliam Museum
- Glasgow Art Gallery
- Government Art Collection
- Victoria and Albert Museum
Related organisations
- Academia de Artes Visuais, Macau (visiting lecturer)
- Academy of Fine Arts, Umeå, Sweden (visiting lecturer)
- Escola Superior de Belas Artes (student)
- National College of Arts, Lahore (visiting lecturer)
- Slade School of Fine Art (student, professor)
- University of Wisconsin (visiting lecturer)
Related web links
- Barto Dos Santos Memorial Award, Slade School of Fine Art
- Dos Santos’ artworks in the Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
- Dos Santos’ CV, Rohtas Gallery exhibition
- Interview With Bartolomeu Cid Dos Santos, Review of Culture, Instituto Cultural de Macau, 1989
- Negley Harte, ‘Professor Bartolomeu dos Santos: Creative Printmaker and Teacher at the Slade School of Fine Art’, Independent, 4 June 2008
- UCL obituary
Selected exhibitions
- Slade Prints of the 1950s: Richard Hamilton, Stanley Jones and Bartolomeu dos Santos (London: University College, 2005)
- Bartolomeu dos Santos: 45 Years of Printmaking, London Institute (2001)
- Bartolomeu Dos Santos, Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh, Scotland (1997)
- Solo exhibition, Curwen Gallery, London (1986)
- Print Making–Making Prints, group exhibition, Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport, Lancashire (1984)
- Solo exhibition, Curwen Gallery, London (1984)
- Solo exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London (1980)
- Solo exhibition, Gravshot Art Gallery, Surrey (1980)
- Solo exhibition, J.P Lehmans Gallery, London (1974)
- Bartolomeu Dos Santos: Etchings and Aquatints, Oxford Gallery (1973)
- Graphic Works, London Graphic Art Associates, Grosvenor Street, London (1967)
- Graven Image, Whitechapel Gallery (1959)
