Julião Sarmento (1948-2021) is one of the central figures in Portuguese contemporary art. He began his career in 1968, at the National Society of Fine Arts exhibition, won recognition from the Portuguese public in the following decade, and from 1990 onwards, he consolidated his international career, when doing so seemed like a pipe dream. Among the most important works of Julião Sarmento, we can highlight the series Portraits of Women
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Julião Sarmento (1948-2021) is one of the central figures in Portuguese contemporary art. He began his career in 1968, at the National Society of Fine Arts exhibition, won recognition from the Portuguese public in the following decade, and from 1990 onwards, he consolidated his international career, when doing so seemed like a pipe dream. Among the most important works of Julião Sarmento, we can highlight the series Portraits of Women from 1975 to 1985 and Faces, where he represents women in a sensual and provocative way, questioned social and cultural conventions,standards of beauty, sexuality and identity, in a provocative way. Other pieces to highlight are Wasting My Time With You (1994), Memory Piece (Two Friends) 1976, Untitled (Bataille) 1976 and Quatre Mouvements de la Peur 1978 — film, —Legs 1975 and Faces 1976 — or combining different techniques — as in Secrets of the Animal World, a series of works that had a sense of animality, in which he mixed people with animals. Over the last five decades, the multidisciplinary work of the Portuguese artist has addressed themes such as eroticism, sexuality, voyeurism, literature, cinema, questioning concepts such as desire, absence, time and language, through different media such as painting. , drawing, sculpture, collages, installation, video, photography and performance. He represented Portugal at the 46th Venice Biennale (1997), at Documenta 7 (1982), at Documenta 8 (1987), at the Venice Biennale (1980 and 2001) and at the São Paulo Biennale (2002). He was also known for his contribution to the teaching and training of contemporary artists, having taught at several art teaching institutions and universities. He continues to be considered one of the greatest artists in the history of Portuguese contemporary art and his work is appreciated and exhibited in exhibitions and museums around the world, including the Tate Modern in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
