The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum presents an exhibition on the work and collections of the 17th century Moroccan and Japanese ceramics of the Swiss painter Helmut Federle, which is placed in dialogue with the Museum’s Islamic art ceramics, both in the space of the Islamic art Hall, at the permanent exhibition, as in the Lower Gallery.

This exhibition, which will be held from the 9th June to the 18th September 2017, includes fourteen paintings selected by the artist himself, in close cooperation with our curatorship, and around thirty ceramics from both collections.

The main focus of this exhibition is to stage dialogues between the 17th century Safavid ceramics from the Founder’s Collection and the Moroccan and Japanese from Helmut’s collections, but also the way they can relate to his contemporary artistic work and how all is permeated by a general sense of abstraction. The double condition of Helmut Federle as both an artist and a collector is also addressed, both in the exhibition as in its publication.