José de Guimarães

José Maria Fernandes Marques was born on November 25, 1939 in the city of Guimarães, where he lived until 1957. In 1958, already in Lisbon, he began studying painting and drawing with Teresa de Sousa and Gil Teixeira Lopes. He attended engraving courses at Sociedade Cooperativa de Gravadores Portugueses, where he met Hogan, Júlio Pomar, Almada Negreiros, Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos, among others.

He left for Paris in 1961, and there he came into contact with Fauve painting, which would influence his future work. This same year, he adopted the pseudonym of José de Guimarães, in honor of his homeland. The following year he traveled to Italy, where he had the opportunity to see frescoes by Michelangelo and paintings by Morandi and Giorgio de Chirico. After another year in Paris, he visited Munich and found Klee, Kandinsky, the Bauhaus and the Die Bruecke.

In 1967, in Africa, he joined a military service commission in Angola, where he remained until 1974. There, he became interested in African ethnography and art. At the heart of José de Guimarães’ art are his travels and 20th century influences, as well as his continued search for new artistic realities. In his journeys to Japan, China, Mexico or Tunisia, he collected important data and perspectives that permeate his works.