Born in Guimarães in 1939, since 1995 he has been splitting his life between Lisbon and Paris. A stay in Angola would be decisive during the first decade of his artistic production, dedicated to Africa, but in his 40-year career, he devoted entire series to Chinese and Japanese cultures, to the art of Rubens, to the Camões literature or to particular definition of death in Mexico.
José Guimarães held numerous exhibitions, national and international, among which stand out: Museu de Arte Moderna, Mexico City, 1987; Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, and Fundação Serralves, Oporto, Portugal, 1992; Cordoaria Nacional, Lisbon, 2001; Fundação Carmona e Costa, Lisbon, 2012; Würth Museum, Künzelsau, Germany, 2001; Hillside Fórum, Tokyo, 2002; Art Forum Würth, Arlesheim and Chur, Switzerland, 2003; Fundação Cultural FIESP, São Paulo, Brazil, 2005; Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo, 2006; Museu Würth La Rioja, Spain, 2008; Centro Cultural Português, Luanda, 2009; Art Fórum Würth, Roma, Italy, 2010; Palais des Beaux-Arts, 1984, and Espace Européen pour la Sculpture, Brussels, Belgium, 2007; Yan Huang Museum, Beijing, China, 1994; Today Art Museum, Beijing, 2007; Suzhou Jinji Lake Art Museum, Suzhou, China, 2012; Art Museum of the Shaanxi Province, Xian, China, 2013. At the Centro internacional das Artes José de Guimarães, Guimarães he participated in the following exhibitions: “Para Além da História”, 2012, “Lições da Escuridão”, 2013, e “Provas de Contacto”, 2014. In 2012 he was elected President of the Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes, in Lisbon.
