Guilherme Parente

Guilherme Parente (1940-2025) was a Portuguese painter born in Lisbon, recognised as one of the most singular figures in contemporary Portuguese painting. He began his artistic training at the Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes, where he studied with Roberto Araújo, complementing it with studies in engraving at the Cooperativa Gravura. Between 1968 and 1970 he held a Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian grant at the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art in London.

His work is characterised by a lyrical, narrative universe peopled with human figures, animals, boats, landscapes and imaginary architecture, built through an intense and deeply poetic chromatic language. Over more than six decades of activity he developed a painting marked by creative freedom, by fantasy and by a constant celebration of the imagination.

A member of the artistic group 5+1, alongside João Hogan, Teresa Magalhães, Sérgio Pombo, Júlio Pereira and Virgílio Domingues, he took part in numerous exhibitions in Portugal and abroad, presenting his work in cities such as London, Paris, Brussels, Madrid, Rome, Tokyo and Macau. He was awarded the Prémio Malhoa in 1975 and the Painting Prize of the Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes in 1989.

Represented in important public collections, including the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, the Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea and the Museu Machado de Castro, Guilherme Parente is recognised today as a major figure in Portuguese painting, the author of a body of work marked by the power of colour, by a poetic imaginary and by the capacity to turn the everyday into a territory of dream.