Eurico Gonçalves

Born in 1932 in Abragão, Penafiel.

Working mainly in the field of painting, he is also a teacher and art critic, and in this capacity he has published several articles on subjects such as children's visual expression, Dadaism, Zen philosophy and writing.

In Paris he held a Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian scholarship between 1966 and 1969. In 1971 he received an Honourable Mention in the Prémio Crítica de Arte Portuguesa, awarded by Soquil. Between 1972 and 1992 he was a member of the governing bodies of the S.N.B.A. (Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes) and he is currently a member of A.I.C.A. (Associação Internacional de Críticos de Arte). In 1998 he received the Prémio Almada Negreiros and, in 2005, the Grande Prémio of the Bienal de Vila Nova de Cerveira.

He is the author of the books: Narrativas de Sonhos e Textos Automáticos (1950-51), published by CPS, 1995; A Pintura das Crianças e Nós- Pais, Professores e Educadores, 1978; A Arte Descobre a Criança e a Criança Descobre a Arte (4 volumes); and Dádá-Zen/Pintura-Escrita, 2005.

His artistic path includes an initial surrealist phase, rooted in Freudian theories in their fantastic vein, which then evolved towards a non-geometric, gestural abstraction that gives value to the patch of colour and to the free, impulsive line. This painting aims, as the artist himself said in 2003, to “reduce itself to very little or almost nothing, in favour of the liberating void”.