João Vieira (1934)
Portugal

"He began studying painting at ESBAL (1951-1953) but abandoned the course, finding in Grupo do Café Gelo (1956) the avant-garde counterpoint to the academic and politically compromised teaching that he abhorred. Vieira then left for Paris, where he resumed his studies and co-founded the KWY Group (1958-1968), assimilating the abstract and gestural languages that consolidated his early interest in lettrist painting, while discovering new procedural practices for redefining the idea itself. of artistic object. Upon his return to Portugal, after a period among the Portuguese artistic community in London (1964-1965), experimentalism became the dominant note in his work. Vieira uses unusual materials such as rigid polyurethane, flexible foams or car paint, creating assemblages, literary illustrations, happenings and performances (the “spectacle actions”, as he called them) pioneers in the country, and transposing poems and lyrics onto thickly colored canvases or onto three-dimensional objects, giving rise to large-scale environments. The plastic paths of exploring the spatial surroundings and the presence of the body led him to dedicate himself mainly to theater between the 60s and 70s, first as a set designer and then as a director, without however ever abandoning the lyrical experiences that so much paintings, installations or recent multimedia works have always been a driving force in his creative journey. João Vieira passed away in Lisbon at the age of 74."
(Source, website, Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian)