José de Guimarães

Portuguese painter (1939), he adopted the pseudonym of “José de Guimarães” as homage to the city that watched him born. José de Guimarães is considered one of the main Portuguese plastic artists of nowadays. With a remarkable work, particularly in painting, also made incursions in sculpture and other creative activities at an aesthetical level, both national and internationally. In his work, colour has a fundamental role and his main theme is the human body. It was through the study of other painters that José de Guimarães perfected his painting, his style and developed his own imagistic code. His inspiration in other author’s paintings so diverse as Klee and Kandinsky, Picasso and Miró appear to us as an initiatory journey through colour, through movement and, above all, through uprising, through spontaneity and through the thriving creativity that stands outs from his paintings. In his vast learning path it is of vital importance to refer his journeys through the main European capitals that turned out training. It is also essential to mention the importance and the fascination that the African art and culture had on him. Thus, in its genesis, José de Guimarães’ work can be considered fundamentally as a synthesis of the European art with the African ethnography. And if the African ethnographic world contributed a lot to Guimarães’ work, Portuguese history and literature also were a great source of inspiration. In 2012, the International Centre of Arts José de Guimarães opened in Guimarães.