Alda Rosa died this Thursday at 89 yearsin Lisbon, following several health complications, as a family member explained to Lusa. The graphic designer was hospitalized “some time ago” at Curry Cabral Hospital.
O wake will take place between 5pm and 11pm this Friday at the Saudade Building of the Carnide Cemetery, where the funeral on Saturday at 2pm. Before that, at 1pm, a memorial ceremony will be held, before the cremation.
Born in 1936 in BragaAlda Rosa graduated in painting from the Escola Superior de Belas Artes, in Lisbon, in 1959, later studying in England, where she attended the Art and Graphic Design course at Ravensbourne College, in London. After completing the course in 1970, he became one of the first Portuguese with academic training in graphic design.
Belonged to Catholic University Youthwithin which close personalities were the former President of the Republic Jorge Sampaio, the thinker and sociologist Manuel de Lucena, the writer, essayist and historian Vasco Pulido Valente, the writer Nuno de Bragança, the sculptor João Cutileiro and the filmmaker Paulo Rocha, with whom he would collaborate on the film “Verdes Anos” (1963).
Alda Rosa aged around 30
He began his professional career in the studio of architects Duarte Nuno Simões and José Santa-Rita, where he collaborated on graphic and interior design projects. AND played a fundamental role in establishing the concept of design in Portugal. He was part of the Industrial Art and Architecture Center of the National Institute of Industrial Research, participating in the organization of the first Portuguese design exhibitions in 1971 and 1973 – for which he designed the catalog covers and graphic materials, in collaboration with Maria Helena Matos, Cristina Reis, António Sena da Silva and Tomás de Figueiredo. He also performed functions of internal consultancy at the General Directorate of Quality and, later, at the Portuguese Institute of Quality, in addition to, as a representative of the Ministry of Industry, having collaborated in the installation of the Portuguese Institute of Design, where she was a consultant.
After having created and directed the graphic sector of the Macau Cultural Institute and founded and directed the Portuguese Design Association, he began working as an independent graphic designer from 1993 onwards, creating catalogs for exhibitions and events at Portuguese museums such as the José Malhoa Museum, the National Theater Museum and the National Tile Museum. His work is characterized by a minimalist and modernist aestheticcentered on typography and dynamic geometric shapes.
He also participated in four dozen exhibitions – including “The Iron Age in the south of Portugal” (1980), at the National Archeology Museum, and “Un Éclat Portugais. L’Art de l’Azulejo” (1996), at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Paris – and collaborated, in the cultural and institutional area, with publishers such as Estampa, Cosmos, Moraes, Plátano, Inapa and Livros Horizonte. In his graphic work, the pocket collection Livro B, from Estampa, stands out, with its volumes with black covers and light blue pages. He was also part of the Expresso School Newspapers project team.
The artist’s documentary collection will be available at MUDE – Design Museum, in Lisbon.