João Hogan
João Navarro Hogan (Lisbon 1914-1988) was portuguese painter and printmaker.
João Hogan attented the Academy of Fine Arts for one year and then the National Society of Fine Arts in Lisbon while becoming a wood carver. This job will lead to the production of many woodcuts. His first exhibition was in 1947, in the 7th Exhibition of Mordern Art of the national cultural secretary of the time.Afterwards he participated in many national and international exhibitions including the 2th and 4th São Paulo Art Biennial and in the International Exhibitions of Brussels and Lausanne(1957)along with shows in other places such as Buenos Aires, Tokyo and Capri.
Mainly a landscape painter is style can be considered as neo-figurative although is synthetesis of forms lead considerable abstract approach to nature depiction. His landscapes are always meditative and silent with an "earthy" feeling within it (being often only one quarter of the painting occupated by the sky) using for example in his prepatory studies close-up photographs of particular rocks that would later form moutains or rocky landscapes.
He was also an important printmaker, specially in woodcut, and giving along with other contemporary artists an impulse to the growth and teaching of this art form, almost forgotten in his time in Portugal. His prints often depict fantastic motifs (sometimes eery) rather than landscapes.
He his represented in the collections of National Museum of Contemporary Art of Gulbenkian Foundation and in National Museum Soares dos Reis as well in several private collections.