Independents (Oporto artist group)

The exhibitions' main organizer and coordinator, painter and architect Fernando Lanhas, coincidentally is the central figure of Portuguese abstractionism.

Then the II Independents Exhibition shows were held in February 1944 at the Atheneum Commercial of Oporto, with sculptures by Altino Maia, Arlindo Rocha, Eduardo Tavares, Joaquim Meireles, Manuel da Cunha Monteiro, Maria Graciosa de Carvalho, Mário Truta, M. Félix de Brito, Manuel Pereira da Silva and Serafim Teixeira.

The III Independents Exhibition took place in the same year, in the hall of the Coliseum of Oporto, with sculptures by Abel Salazar, Altino Maia, António Azevedo, Arlindo Rocha, Eduardo Tavares, Henrique Moreira, Manuel Pereira da Silva, Mário Truta and Sousa Caldas.

In the catalogue of the exhibition that toured Coimbra, Leiria and Lisboa in 1945, it was stated that the name of "Independents" is not a name at random but involves the awareness that art is a heritage of humanity and hence that "Our presence is varied, but should be understood that this enables us to build the future, as it also cannot deny us the right to remember the past.

First, because, together, painters and sculptors of different training (the reason for the word "Independents" had no affiliation with any "ism" in particular) also engaged in a collective action and immersed themselves in the same enthusiasm.