File:Man-Sun (1998) - Jorge Vieira (1922-1998) (49875985881).jpg

Parque das Nações, Lisbon, Portugal

Material: Iron Collection:

BIOGRAPHY

Jorge Vieira was born on 16 November 1922, in Lisbon.

He attended the School of fine arts of Lisbon, between 1944 and 1953, initially enrolled in architecture, but later following the course of sculpture, becoming a pupil of Simões de Almeida (uncle) and Leopoldo de Almeida.

His learning was complemented in the “ateliers” of the sculptors António Duarte, Francisco Franco, Antonio da Rocha and the architect Frederick George.

In the year 1948, undertook a trip to Paris and London, and in 1950 travelled to Italy.

His first solo exhibition was held in 1949, at the National Society of Fine Arts.

In 1953 Jorge Vieira took part in an international sculpture contest sponsored by the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, with a project for the monument the unknown political prisoner, who would go on to be selected and exhibited in the Tate Gallery.

This work, only came to be executed a few decades later, erected in 1994, in the city of Beja.

In the year of 1954, he settled in London and enrolled at the Slade School, where he worked with Reginald Butler, F. E. McWilliam and Henry Moore.

In 1958 he participated in the international fair of Brussels, selected to be shown in the exhibition "50 Ans D'art Modern."

During the year of 1976, he became an Assistant at the School of Fine Arts of Oporto, transiting in 1981 to the School of Fine Arts of Lisbon, where he remained until 1992. 

In the year 1982, he acquired a house on the outskirts of Estremoz.

Meanwhile, he designed sculptures for public spaces: Group of bas-reliefs for the Free water Block (1956); a Varina in bronze placed on Avenida Infante Santo, in Lisbon (1957); an abstract sculpture in cement and in bronze for the Redondo Court (1965); a steel piece to the national laboratory of Civil Engineering (1972); a sculpture dedicated to Aquilino Ribeiro, Soutosa (1981); the monument to the miner, in Aljustrel (1986-1988); or the Ladybugs placed in front of the Town Hall of Lisbon (1998).

The work of Jorge Vieira is not a specific school or style, and his sculptures are connected with varied influences, like surrealism or primitive art, with approaches to abstraction.

The late sculptor's career is marked by the opening of a major retrospective of his work at the Museum do Chiado (1995) and by the order made for Expo ' 98, which gave him greater public visibility (Man-Sun, 1998). The sculptor died that year in Estremoz