Robert Diament

And I know that also helped her to develop as an artist because she was really interested in looking back to Portugal.

And she had a sense of pride of the culture there and she loves her family there and all that kind of stuff.

But actually living in the UK gave her a kind of distance from that reality that allowed her to be free to make her work and maybe to be bolder in the work.

I have always taken a real strength from her paintings, from her art.

And it's interesting to think that in a way, the work that she made helps other people to kind of hold on.

And I think in the way the world is going every week, because we're so much more aware of all these catastrophes that perhaps have always been going on, actually, but

They seem very extreme at the moment because it's all being live streamed.

I think it's really amazing to have art that can kind of encourage people to hold on and to know that there are other people like you in the world.

And I think I always saw her as this kind of almost like they're almost like talismanic kind of objects, her paintings.

But it's interesting that behind that was this very vulnerable person.

anxiety-ridden, in a way, person who had a lot of joy from the making and doing.

But the objects themselves became these very strong figures, even if it was the darkest of topics, like Backstreet Abortions, for example, which became a series.

But there were lots of very dark themes in the work constantly.

But at the same time, there was a defiance and a strength in these women, in these figures, that we as viewers can then gain strength from.

And I heard a really interesting sort of fact, which was that in America, they tried to adopt her images almost to kind of go the other way.

So instead of using her intention, which was to legalise abortion, there was some organisation in America that tried to use her images to say, like, abortions are bad, we have to cancel them and stop them.

And then she was really furious about that and managed to stand up for the meaning of her work.

It's unbelievable.

Yeah.

You kindly took me on a tour around the archive and I got to see a fabric sculpture, which is from the 60s, I believe.