João Rodrigues Vieira was born in 1934 in Vidago, Trás-os-Montes, and he passed away in September 2009, in Lisbon. He entered the Painting course at the Lisbon Fine Arts Superior School, but due to his dissatisfaction with the artistic teaching’s academy character and conservatism, he only attended the course for two years. His trajectory was marked by his connection to the Café Gelo Group, situated under the studio that he shared with artists José Escada, René Bertholo and Gonçalo Duarte, and where traditionally there were surrealist round tables. In 1957, he went to Paris, where he was a student of Henri Goetz at Le Grande Chaumière Academy, and as a grantee of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, he worked with painter Arpad Szenes. He was also part of the well-known KWY group with other important Portuguese artists. After a brief stay in London, where at the end of 1964 he taught at the Maidstone College of Art, he returned to Portugal in 1967, where he dedicated himself almost exclusively to the work of set designer and theatre director, for which he won various prizes. Throughout his career, he had many solo and group exhibitions, such as “! Exposição dos Artistas de Hoje”, in 1957, his first solo exhibition in 1959, in Lisbon, at the Diário de Notícias Gallery or Alternativa Zero, Lisbon, 1977, the Venice Bienale, Venice, Italy, 1980, where he represented Portugal, and KWY Group, Grupo Cultural de Belém, Lisbon 2001. He also did public work at the Lisbon subway, at the Terreiro do Paço station and in Budapest at the Deák Ter central station. João Vieira is represented in various public and private museums and foundations, such as the Contemporary Art National Museum or the Modern Collection of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
JFB, July 2022
