The doctrines of Good Taste
BÁRTOLO, Carlos / MA / IHA/FCSH Universidade Nova de Lisboa + Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa / Portugal
Portugal / Propaganda / Nationalism / Education / Identity Regarded in the broadest sense as fascist, Estado Novo differenti- ated itself from other contemporary systems as an original hybrid This paper try to analyse the Good Taste Campaign (Portugal, regime that, trying to modernize a still underdeveloped country, 1940’s) and understand how it was generated and produced: the simultaneously kept it lost in a glorified, bucolic and pious past. intentions, sources and influences supporting it; how it derived Salazar, a somewhat non-charismatic and reluctant crowd pleaser, from these usually irreconcilable concepts (modern and tradition); sought to incarnate a stoic persona that carried out the divine duty and, despite the authoritarian background, its decisive conse- of fathering the country, giving up his personal freedom and happi- quences on the present Portuguese identity and in the formation ness in the name of the Nation (Rivero, 2010). of the discipline, as probably the most successfully implemented Portuguese national Design policy. To maintain this unquestionable power Estado Novo promoted na- tionalistic ideals based on the celebration of its history, ethnical uniqueness and global mission as standard in authoritarian re- 1. An original regime gimes regardless of their politic faction. This example of a dynamic It’s expected of an authoritarian regime, as Portugal was after May revolution tried to recreate a modern national identity moulded on 28th 1926, the formulation of a set of values that should rule the the traditional world of the bonhomous peasant, allegory of sanc- country and maintain its strength and perpetuity. tioned values, and on the culmination of decades of nationalistic exaltation and of an artistic and ethnographic identity quest (in This essay, part of my PhD research on the dictatorship idealization everything similar to other European movements developed since of a Portuguese Home concept, try to survey how the formulation the end of 19th century). The most effective method for this iden- and promotion of these political, moral and social values intercon- tity implementation was the previous indoctrination of established nected with the Design emergence in 1930’s and 1940’s Portugal. truths that should irrefutably prevail and suppress opposing truths.
The military coup d’état of 1926 was the outcome of an extended political crisis led by the failure on the implementation and stabi- 2. A cultural policy lization of a liberal and democratic system experienced since the The SPN/SNI1 creation in 1933 filled this need of indoctrination; a monarchy exactly one hundred years before. This coup was part propaganda service had become an important tool for govern- of a European predisposition, between the wars, for political ex- ments and a crucial one at an authoritarian regime. While refus- tremism from which derived the birth of authoritarian regimes all ing the idea of modernity, ironically it would be through these throughout the continent. modern instruments that the regime would publicize its ideology. ‘Propaganda emerged as a fundamental strategy of the society ac- In Portugal, after a brief and equally unstable beginning, the regime ceptance of itself, and presented as revelation of its own «core»’2 found its pace under the authority of António Salazar (1889-1970), (Melo, 2001: 54). a conservative catholic economy professor, invited in 1928 to straighten out the acute national debt as an all-powerful Finance Until 1949 SPN/SNI was run by António Ferro (1895-1956), a cos- Minister; he gradually secured a more prominent role in the govern- mopolitan writer associated with the Portuguese and European ment until he arose to the position of Prime Minister in 1932. modernist and futurist milieu since his youth3.
With the ratification of the1933 Constitution (establishing the 1 SPN-Secretariado de Propaganda Nacional [National Propaganda Bureau]. In power on a corporative regime entitled Estado Novo [New State]), 1945, on the aftermath of World War II, and probably due to the negative connota- Salazar held his position as a de facto dictator, balancing out the tion of the term propaganda, it would be renamed SNI-Secretariado Nacional de Informação, Cultura Popular e Turismo [National Bureau of Information, Popular different factions of the Portuguese far right. For the equilibrium of Culture and Tourism]. these forces (from the poles of the ancien régime Monarchists to 2 This quotation, as the others, is a free translation by the author. the pro-fascists National-Syndicalists) Salazar, himself a Conserva- 3 In 1915, with just 19 years old he was editor of Orpheu, the avant-garde tive Catholic close to the Integralist-Lusitan movement, created a magazine that laid the foundations of the Portuguese modernist movement with Fernando Pessoa, Mário de Sá-Carneiro and Almada Negreiros, among others. single-party regime. He brought together the reactionaries with António Ferro wrote novels, poems and plays (some of which created some public the authoritarian moderns while also answering to the yearnings outrage) while working as journalists for various newspapers and magazines. As an international reporter he interviewed personalities like d’Annunzio, Maurras, of different society sectors (the high-rank military, the old rural Pétain, Rivera, Mussolini and even Hitler but also Cocteau, Mistinguett or Poiret. landowners, the arising industry monopolists and the crescent Politically he began as a Republican Party sympathizer, evolving to the Sidonists administrative middle-class) against a unique enemy: the social- (authoritarian modern) and the Conservative Republicans, while gradually admir- ing the contemporary authoritarian regimes, especially Mussolini’s. In 1932 when liberal-democratic system (Rosas, 1989). interviewing Salazar they discussed the political role of the culture; months later his political career began when invited to SPN.
BÁRTOLO, Carlos 2012. The doctrines of Good Taste. In Farias, Priscila Lena; Calvera, Anna; Braga, Marcos da Costa & Schincariol, Zuleica (Eds.). Design frontiers: territories, concepts, technologies [=ICDHS 2012 - 8th Conference of the International Committee for Design History & Design Studies]. São Paulo: Blucher, 2012. ISBN 978-85-212-0692-7. DOI 10.5151/design-icdhs-050 The doctrines of Good Taste
At the end of 1932 he presented his cultural ideas in a newspa- titled art and tourism Portuguese magazine, it was published per article where he defended that: by the SPN/SNI from 1941 on as Estado Novo culture organ: its purpose was to report and publicize the regime’s initiatives and The Art and Literature conscious and deliberated development is, after all, as needed to a nation progress as its sciences, values. A series of 16 articles labeled Campanha do Bom Gôsto public infrastructures, industry, commerce and agriculture [Good Taste Campaign] presented advices on good practices 4 development. […] The Política do Espírito [Policy of the Spirit ] […] on living and on doing in what was then called decorative and it’s not just necessary, although of the utmost importance in such point of view, to the Nation’s outer prestige. It’s also necessary to graphic arts. Other articles reported exhibitions and state initia- its inner prestige, its reason to subsist. A country that don’t see, tives, presented examples and models, defended guidance val- read, listen, feel, don’t walk out of its material life, become an ues, since all the editorial line of the magazine was understood useless and bad-tempered country. (Ferro, 1932). as a massive aesthetic doctrine campaign. These thoughts, discussed also in personal interviews he did with Salazar, led to the invitation to implement SPN/SNI one year later. The main goal of Campanha was promptly summarized in its There, he finally launchedPolítica do Espírito program, establishing first article (fig.1): culture as one of the Nation founding stones. These pages of Panorama are reserved, every month, to the instinctive and impartial promotion of examples of ornamental During these interviews he told Salazar ‘there are a bunch of good taste found all through the country within reach of our lads, full of talent and vigour, that wait, anxiously, to be useful cameras, because what only tempt us can as easily disappoint us. What grabs our attention is what enchants us. That’s why People’s to their Country!’ (Ferro, 2007 [1932]: 59). Working with these good taste is, in tourism, the best partner of the landscape lads, Ferro would merge regime principles with this new genera- picturesque. (Panorama, 1941a) tion influence (to which he belonged). This dubious attitude that strived for the new denouncing the decadent orthodoxy was at Good taste was understood as: the same time cherishing the essence of the vernacular, the au- a certain style, a certain grace, a certain touch of originality thentic, the primordial. This search for genuine, this return to the that makes a façade or a simple house window, a shop window, roots, had been fundamental for much of the artistic research a poster, a corner of a waiting room, a restaurant table, etc, produced since mid 19th century, and by the recent [re]discov- discreetly attract our senses and, affectionately, fondle them. The fair note of comfort and sympathy is given by the harmonious ery of primitive and local folklore valued by modernists artists convergence of the visual elements (colours and shapes) with as an escape to academic discipline. logic and strict compliance to the designed purposes [and that] will not been done because it’s modern art since good taste isn’t modern or ancient. Influenced by the power of analysis and synthesis brought by Modernity (although far from the radical interpretations close to Although immediately it was mentioned that: Functional and Abstract rationalism) this assorted group of art- 5 proof is that we would always prefer, for instance, an interior ists would work with SPN/SNI transposing the regime ideals in decorated with old objects and furniture, to another with modern several different media. They would purify formal features of folk ones — just as long as, in the first case, everything is right arts reducing them to an assortment of recognized formulas that (attractive, friendly and civilized) and, on the second case, everything wrong (the contrary of what we said). were subsequently applied to communicate official values. In this article, if on one hand abstract principles of rational and From 1933 onwards, the SPN/SNI developed numerous activities: functional harmony were mentioned (the ‘strict compliance of several popular competitions; the creation of theatre and ballet companies; traveling cinema and libraries services; diverse editorial lines (from tourism guides and art catalogues to propa- ganda pamphlets in various languages); an extensive program of national prizes; the development of an ethnographic collection presented all around the world (housed since 1948 in Museu de Arte Popular [Popular Art Museum]); the production of a large number of exhibitions; and the significant task of presenting Portugal abroad in many different events.
3. An aesthetic doctrine The aim of this paper is to centre attention on Panorama; sub-
4 Ferro mentioned the homologous conference presented days before by Paul Valéry at the Université des Annales, November 15th of 1932, “La politique de l’esprit, notre souverain bien” (published in 1936). 5 Among the team of artistas-decoradores [decorator-artists] were Bernardo Marques, Carlos Botelho, Eduardo Anahory, Emmérico Nunes, Estrela Faria, José Rocha, Manuel Lapa, Maria Keil, Fred Kradolfer, the Novais brothers, Paulo Ferreira, Figure 1. A Tom poster, SPN windows by José Rocha and a restaurant interior by and Tom. Maria and Francisco Keil (Panorama, 1941a).
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies 266 BÁRTOLO, Carlos
the designed purposes’), on the other (on the old versus modern quarrel) it looked like the intention went on the exact opposite di- rection, and if at first this seemed as some kind of an obligatory rule, in reality the opposite was safeguarded (if the old is wrong and the modern is correct then this should be chosen).
However the last phrase of this article wasn’t that ambiguous: ‘Good taste is the contrary of artificial, of dissimulated, of mass- produced, and.... of the tacky ’. The mass-produced (a reference to the industrial production) was then usually perceived as a synonym of modern following the Ruskin legacy.
Good Sense was the expression most commonly used as an al- ternative to good taste and later it was explained that the overall campaign wasn’t named like that because ‘it looked more clear and direct to our goal the use of GOOD TASTE’ (Panorama, 1943). Figure 2. Ferro’s house by Paulo Ferreira (Mascarenhas, 1943). It’s important to highlight that half of Campanha articles were dedicate to discussing graphic arts questions, addressing prop- examples without many details. The most used epithets were er shop windows presentation, posters, advertising, publishing, moderate and honest, that can be related to the pobrezinho mas photography, etc in texts that showed a clear knowledge of the honesto [poorly but honest] maxim defended by the regime as discipline in tune with the international tendencies. There was a role model for Portuguese people. As for objects and spaces also a clear pressure for employing professionals on projects of they were friendly and welcoming, clear attempt of humaniza- decorative and graphic arts: ‘an authentic advertising technician tion. When some constructions escaped desired norms (in an is a specialist […] like any other specialist, such as a physician, earlier vanguardism) their functional features were praised, the an architect, an engineer’ (Pinto, 1941). wideness of spaces indicated and/or the boldness of the act re- ported. In the article about the lavish Aviz Hotel, a case of eclec- This group of SPN/SNI artists (responsible for initiatives reported tic decorative excess, it was even referred as a haven ‘offered to insistently at Panorama) had their independent work equally the most high-ranking foreigners’ (Cunha, 1943), tactfully sepa- publicized at the magazine, an assumed preferential treatment. rating the social status. The magazine presented mainly interior decors (both private and public) according to a Gesamtkunstwerk aesthetic where Since 1940 SPN/SNI was also entrusted with Portuguese tour- furniture, materials, bibelots, art and the building itself were un- ism services, and one of the most emblematic actions was the derstood as a unit goal and rarely analysed per se. construction of Pousadas (1940-1949), state-owned inns built all over the country mending the inefficient private offer. These first Mainly it defended the ‘vernacular truthfulness […] incompatible seven were thought on ‘the idea of the small cosy house, without with the fake and purposeless vernacular restyling’ (Panorama, an hotel character, with «different» furniture, «different» ambi- 1941b) on essays that praised rural well-being and simplicity, ance, «different» culinary, an accommodation for everybody always advocating the escape from mass-produced, from indus- that looks that it is for each one’ (Ferro, 1949: 113) hoping that ‘if try banality and from urban horror. When there were examples a guest by entering these inns has the impression they didn’t en- of old meeting modern some care was took in mentioning its ter a tourist establishment where he is known by his key number, discretion and moderation as an ‘antithesis of the nouveau rich but has entered his own country cottage where his servants wait style’ (Panorama, 1941b). for him, we got what we wished for’ (Ferro, 1949: 68-69). While aiming for contemporary comfort standards these regional- In 1943, in an article about Ferro’s home renovation (fig.2), em- themed small hotels, furnished with traditionally-inspired objects phasis was put on the old ‘frantic spirit of the owner, prototype and furniture, were thoroughly reported on Panorama (fig.3) and of his own generation’ with his recent ‘official responsibilities’ announced as having been ‘built and fitted with the main purpose reaching the conclusion that the ‘house had suffer the owner’s of serving as model for this new orientation of Portuguese hotel evolution’ developing a neo-classic harmony achieved by taming business, lively prototypes, scattered all through the country, modern elements: ‘a question of taste and intelligence’, a model where it would be easy to harvest teachings, to learn and to gen- of classic superiority over modern (Mascarenhas, 1943). erate certain ideas’ (Ferro, 1949: 68). In 1940 and after the crea- tion of Brigadas de Revisão dos Hóteis [Hotels Revision Brigades] The need for an explicit and uncomplicated discourse led to the teams of decorators travelled the country visiting establishments preference of an emphatic language in articles that described and helping owners to improve conditions and ambiances.
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies 267 The doctrines of Good Taste
Figure 3. Serém Pousada by Carlos Botelho and Rogério Azevedo (Cunha, 1942). Figure 4. Golfinho guesthouse interior (Tello, 1948).
4. An unexpected Design policy ferent Portugal at the end of the 1950’s.
By the end of the decade, Campanha results were announced Acknowledgment and exposed private initiative examples that to some extent re- I would like to acknowledge my research center IHA-Instituto de sulted from campaign lessons and Brigadas actions (fig.4). The História de Arte (FCSH-Universidade Nova de Lisboa) and Fun- question of if main goals were achieved or not was elaborated by dación Historia del Diseño-Design History Foundation (Barce- Ferro at the 1948 exhibition Catorze Anos de Política do Espírito lona) that helped me attend the ICDHS 2012. [Fourteen years of the Policy of the Spirit]: References To which point a well done shop window, a carefully book presentation, a tasteful ornament or a theatre decoration, hasn’t Cunha, A. 1942. Campanha do Bom Gôsto: Pousada de Santo António no been influenced by that spirit, hasn’t been a result of that work Serém. Panorama. 2 (12): 20-22. system and of that attitude? This doubt involves precisely everything that is imponderable in a work whose contours is difficult to define but whose results – concrete and real – are ______. 1943. Os grandes valores turísticos nacionais: Aviz Hotel. Pan- there to be seen by everybody. (Ferro, 1948) orama. 3 (14): 34-35.
After Ferro left SPN/SNI in 1949 and with a rising sense of dissat- Ferro, A. 1932. Política do Espírito. Diário de Notícias. (Nov. 21st 1932): 1 isfaction towards the regime orientation (mainly due to the Allied victory) the bureau gradually lost its impact, but the influence of ______. 1948. Apontamentos para uma Exposição: Discurso (...). Lis- this cultural policy proved worthy. boa: SNI.
Paradoxically this policy resulted in a somewhat unexpected ______. 1949. Turismo: Fonte de Riqueza e de Poesia. Lisboa: SNI. Design policy even while following distant intents from indus- trial progressive globalism and with more positive results than ______. 2007 [1932]. Entrevistas a Salazar. Lisboa: Parceria more contemporary ones done in a country where Design is still A.M.Pereira. a strange word. Mascarenhas, D. 1943. A casa de António Ferro. Panorama. 3 (18): 21-25. It was then that a definition of a Portuguese visual identity was achieved; many decades later we still live surrounded by nation- Melo, D. 2001. Salazarismo e Cultura Popular (1933-1958). Lisboa: ICS. al concepts, images and stereotypes that were then generated. But more important was discipline development that led to the Panorama. 1941a. Campanha do Bom Gôsto: Atrair não basta é preciso so-called birth of Portuguese Design. prender. Panorama. 1 (1): 10-11.
This generation of pioneers, the SPN/SNI artistas-decoradores, ______. 1941b. Campanha do Bom Gôsto. Panorama. 1 (2): 20. were in fact the grandfathers of it, conceiving the first idea of a profession, instituting methods and practices, establishing the ______. 1943 [Panorama, com o presente...]. Panorama. 3 (15-16): 2-4. first creative agencies, tutoring at their ateliers those who later were perceived as the first generation ofdesigners born on a dif- Pinto, C. 1941. A consciência da Publicidade. Panorama. 1 (4): 19-20
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies 268 BÁRTOLO, Carlos
Rivero, Á. 2010. Salazar and Charismatic Leadership.
Rosas, F. 1989. A crise do Liberalismo e as origens do «Autoritarismo Moderno» e do Estado Novo em Portugal.
Tello, R. 1948. O Golfinho: Frutos da Campanha do Bom Gosto.Panorama . 6 (34): [43-44].
About the author Carlos Bártolo teaches Design at Universidade Lusíada (Lisbon). A graphic designer with a master degree in Equipment Design, and now an Art History PhD student at Universidade Nova (Lis- bon), he’s been interested in the study of the Design object as communication support, especially in the extreme political sphere. <[email protected]>
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