An investigation of the ultrafast excited state dynamics of triporphyrin and hexaporphyrin arrays consisting of covalently linked Zn tetraphenylporphine (ZnTPP) and free base tetraphenylporphine (FbTPP) units is reported. The interchromophoric distance in the hexamers is of the order of 13 Angstrom, while it varies from 26 to 70 Angstrom in the trimers. These arrays exhibit several features that differ substantially from those of the monomeric units: a broadening of the Soret band, a shortening of the S-2 lifetime of the ZnTPP chromophores, and additional ultrafast decay components of the S, fluorescence. In the hexaporphyrin arrays, most of these features are attributed to the presence of excitonic states that result from the strong coupling between the B-x,B-y transition dipoles. The time constants for S-1 energy transfer between ZnTPP chromophores as well as between ZnTPP and FbTPP moieties, deduced from anisotropic and isotropic time-resolved fluorescence measurements, were found. to be of the order of a few tens of picoseconds. Moreover, back energy transfer from the FbTPP to ZnTPP units is also observed. At high to moderate excitation intensity, S-1-S-1 annihilation becomes an important decay mechanism of the excited state population of the hexaporphyrins. In the triporphyrins, the differences relative to the monomer are ascribed to the interaction with the phenylacetylene linkers, which lifts the degeneracy of the S-2 states. S-2 and S-1 energy transfer were found to take place in the triporphyrin with the shortest linker only. In the other triporphyrins, an efficient energy transfer from the linker to the porphyrin units was observed.