About the book
ESPIGA's Round Book is among the most concentrated objects of his cosmic period: a circular artist’s book conceived as an artwork in its own right. Its form, sequence, image-montage and handwritten inscriptions make it a rare material statement of the artist’s thinking at a defining moment in his career.
Published in December 1973 by Jaime Isidoro’s Galeria Alvarez, the book belongs to the height of ESPIGA’s 1970s visibility. In these years he was moving across painting, sculpture, stage design, performance and public-space projects with unusual intensity. In 1972, he presented Egotemponírico at Casa da Carruagem, in Valadares, within the artistic circle fostered by Jaime Isidoro. In 1973, he received the São Paulo Biennial Award for the sets and costumes of Dulcinea, created for the Gulbenkian Ballet Company.
This context matters. Casa da Carruagem was not merely a venue, but a meeting ground for artists, critics, poets and cultural figures seeking new forms of artistic freedom in Portugal before the Revolution of 1974. ESPIGA’s collaboration with Isidoro sits within this atmosphere of experiment and communion, where performance, image, object and environment could be brought into direct relation.
The Round Book gathers that spirit into a single object. Its circular structure, recurring hand motif, cosmic diagrams, photographic documentation, stage imagery and references to sculpture and installation suggest a world organised around earth, body, sun, gesture and universe. Luísa Cardoso, writing for CAM Gulbenkian, identifies the 1973 circular catalogue-book as a key source for understanding ESPIGA’s cosmic-symbolic, performative and urban-space research, noting its summary of the visual language he was developing at the time.
The book also gives rare access to ESPIGA’s worldview. Its inscriptions and imagery point towards his reflections on war, ecological fragility, cosmic energy and the possibility of human reconnection through art.
The Round Book should be read as a manifesto: not in the narrow political sense, but as a carefully constructed statement of artistic purpose.
Copies are held in museum and archive collections. Few examples in mint condition have survived. The Estate is releasing only five copies, each accompanied by a certificate of provenance.
Details
Artist: ESPIGA Pinto
Title: Round Book
Date: 1973
Format: Artist’s book / circular catalogue-book
Publisher: Galeria Alvarez, Porto
Provenance: Estate of ESPIGA Pinto
Availability: Estate release of 5 copies
Certificate: Each copy includes a certificate of provenance
