Pedro Cabrita Reis

PEDRO CABRITA REIS (Lisbon, 1956).
“Self-Portrait III (The Blind),” 1995.
Pencil on paper.
It has a label on the back from the Juana de Aizpuru Gallery.
The frame shows slight damage.
Signed, dated, and titled in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 97 x 140 cm; 105 x 147 cm (frame).
With this Self-Portrait (The Blind), Pedro Cabrita Reis offers a profound reflection on identity and perception, deliberately moving away from the traditional conception of the self-portrait. Instead of depicting his physical features realistically, the artist constructs an apparently blurred, introspective image in which the face, reduced to its essentials, takes on an intense poetic dimension. The reference to “the blind” does not refer to the absence of sight, but rather to an inner gaze linked to knowledge and experience, as Cabrita Reis himself has pointed out. The work belongs to a series of drawings created in the mid-1990s, a particularly significant period in his career, during which he explored new ways of representing the human condition through an austere language of great expressive power. The motif of the blind became a recurring theme in his work, later developing into series such as *Os cegos de Praga* (1998), held by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
The year this work was created also marked a decisive moment in the artist’s career, as he represented Portugal at the 1995 Venice Biennale—the beginning of a well-established international presence that would lead him to participate in Documenta in Kassel, the São Paulo Biennial, and to exhibit at institutions such as the Tate Modern in London and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid. The drawings from this period are closely related to his sculptures and installations, sharing the same interest in architecture, space, memory, and the human experience—aspects that have made Pedro Cabrita Reis one of the leading figures in Portuguese contemporary art.
Pedro Cabrita Reis is one of the most prominent figures in Portuguese and international contemporary art. Although he has been highly active in painting and drawing, it was through sculpture and installation that he achieved widespread recognition beginning in the early 1990s. His work is currently represented in major collections, including the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Tate Modern in London, the Centre Pompidou, the MACBA in Barcelona, the IVAM in Valencia, and MoMA PS1 in New York, among many others.