Julio Pomar

Selected Works

galerie_p_trigano_Pomar_Le-Radeau-de-la-Méduse.jpg

Julio Pomar
Le radeau de la Méduse, 2009
Acrylic, charcoal and pastel on canvas
228 x 282 cm

contact the Gallery

Julio Pomar
Le pantin ou le bal des cuisiniers, 2009
Acrylique, charbon et pastel sur toile
228 x 146 cm

contact the Gallery

Julio Pomar
Le Jugement de Paris, 2002
Acrylic on canvas and wood, paper mache, mirror, and objects.
162 x 245 cm
(8 elements : (81 x 65 cm) x 6 + 163 x 50 cm)

contact the Gallery

Some of the works depicted are no longer available.

Biography

A committed artist, Pomar opposed the Portuguese dictatorial regime, which led to his exile in Paris in the 1960s. In Paris, his interactions with numerous artists and intellectuals nurtured the evolution of his style towards a more abstract, modern expression.

Júlio Pomar ( 1926- 2018) was interested in painting and sculpture from an early age. He studied at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts in 1942, then at the Porto School of Fine Arts. At the end of the Second World War, while still a student, he was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the neo-realist trend, following in the footsteps of the Mexican muralists and American realist painters. His early works often reflect his social and political concerns. During his studies under the Salazar regime, he was part of a protest movement, and his political commitment earned him a four-month prison sentence in 1947.

Júlio Pomar subsequently traveled to Spain and Italy, where he discovered the work of Goya and the Italian Renaissance masters, in particular Uccello and Piero Della Francesca, two artists who would leave their mark on his work.

In 1963, he moved to Paris and held his first solo exhibitions at Galerie Lacloche. Here he presented his series of paintings Tauromachies and Les Courses, in which figuration takes a gestural turn and focuses on the movement of forms. His work then took on new directions, developing through thematic series and internal ruptures: Rugby and Mai 68, Études d'après Ingres, Collages érotiques and Tigres. These series made him one of the most important Portuguese painters of the 20th century.

In Paris, he exhibited at galleries such as Bellechasse, Gérald Piltzer and Patrice Trigano. Several retrospectives have been devoted to him around the world, notably in Lisbon (Gulbenkian Foundation, 1978), Brussels and Charleroi, as well as in Rio, Brasilia and São Paulo (1986 and 2008). In Portugal, his most recent anthological exhibitions were presented in 2004 at the Sintra Museu de Arte Moderna - Colecção Berardo and in 2008 at the Museu de Serralves in Porto.

Bibliography

Júlio Pomar, Jan Guichard-Meili et autres, Ed. Art moderne international, 1981. Pomar - Peintures, Michel Waldberg, Ed. L'Autre Musée-La Différence, 1992. Discours sur la cécité du peintre, Júlio Pomar, Ed. La Différence, 1985, ré-édition 1992. Et la peinture ? - Les essais, Júlio Pomar, Ed. La Différence, 2000. Anthologie des écrits de Júlio Pomar sur l'art, Les mots de la peintures, Ed. La Différence, 2002. Edição & Utopia ù Obra gráfica de Júlio Pomar, exposition à l'Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar, Ed. Documenta, 2015.