Birth Centenary

Francisco Pereira Coutinho

(1922-2026)

25 November - 8 December 2022 | Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes

Scroll down

Home
Exhibitions
Francisco Pereira Coutinho

Back to Exhibitions

Francisco Pereira Coutinho (1922-2006)

Centenário do Nascimento

Francisco Pereira Coutinho founded Galeria São Mamede. On the centenary of his birth, we remember him as an art dealer, an antiquarian and a collector of antiques and modern art, as well as a cultured man of the world.

Pereira Coutinho received a well-rounded education and showed an early affinity for art and antiques. He turned his passion into a business, educating and shaping the antiques market in which he worked. Galeria São Mamede would become his most significant project.

Opened in 1968, the gallery was established by Pereira Coutinho to champion modern and contemporary art, particularly Portuguese art, with a distinctive programme promoting artists associated with Surrealism in Portugal. With support from Cruzeiro Seixas, he brought outstanding artists to São Mamede. Alongside Seixas, those who exhibited at the gallery included António Areal, Eurico Gonçalves, Armanda Passos, Cargaleiro, Carlos Calvet, Carlos Botelho, Cesariny, d’Assumpção, Escada, Gonzalez Bravo, Jorge Barradas, Jorge Vieira, Júlio (dos Reis Pereira), Justino Alves, Manuel Amado, Mário Botas, Nadir Afonso, Nuno Siqueira, Paula Rego, Poliakoff, Raúl Perez and Vieira da Silva, artists who made São Mamede Lisbon’s most luxurious gallery.

The exhibition presented at the Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes commemorates his work and honours the sensitivity and discernment that guided his choices and his support for artists. It also pays tribute to the cultural legacy that Galeria São Mamede inherited from Francisco Pereira Coutinho, which continues into a second generation through his son, Francisco.