Synopsis

Through anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and geometric signs, José de Guimarães recovers the miths and expression ways from different cultures – African, Native American,  Asian – with which the Portuguese people have connected with in bygone centuries, confronting them with Portuguese History itself. Just as Manueline art incorporated exotic elements – animals, flora, indigenous references – to national decorative elements, José de Guimarães bridges masks, skulls, mythologic beings and oriental calligraphy into canvases merging them with his modern plastic expression. In this way, as he navigates through the lands where the Portuguese navigators docked, collecting their spices, gold and diamonds, he promotes the syncretic encounter of the Minho ancestry and Europe’s Modernism with other countries’ cultures.