All Them Swines

 

Born ninety-three years after Coca-Cola was invented and one hundred and twenty-six years after the birth of Vincent Van Gogh, on the twenty-ninth of March, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen seventy-nine, in Lisbon, under the auspicious zodiac sign of Aries and the Chinese Year of the Sheep, João Maria Gusmão quickly demonstrated an affinity for the arts over other, more practical professions.

While it’s true that he graduated from the FBAUL to pursue a career as a painter, a role he would have performed decently, he found it more rewarding to deepen his relationship with writing and thought, in order to align his artistic expression with the test of time. At that time, it must be said, painting was considered tacky and bourgeois. Today, it still is, although no one publicly comments on it anymore.

For a long time, Gusmão partnered with Paiva, and together they made many exhibitions, books, and all sorts of art, including films, photographs, and sculptures. Gusmão holds Paiva in high regard, but no longer collaborates with that friend. In recent years, he works alone, but that doesn’t mean he’s left unsupported. Over the course of his career, he has entered into many fruitful partnerships with various artists and art spaces, both here, there, and abroad.

If he didn’t have three children, he would make even more art. But not willing to disinherit his offspring, out of love and civic responsibility, he makes the art he can, which still seems to be quite productive.

The end.

Agenda

Jan

17
Exhibition All Them Swines · João Maria Gusmão
Exposição

Sala de exposições da Escola das Artes

Rua de Diogo Botelho 1327
Porto4169-005
Portugal
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