José de Guimarães
From Artist to Anthropologist - The Würth Collection and Works on Loan
Extended until 18 July 2021
José de Guimarães, Mexico Series: Punched Paper, 1996, laminated paper on canvas, acrylic with sand and glitter , 101 x 72 cm, Sammlung Würth, Inv. 3634, © José de Guimarães / 2021, ProLitteris, Zurich
For sixty years, José de Guimarães (*1939) has been drawing his inspiration from sources which are as special as they are personal. His anthropological approach and his artistic viewpoint become manifest in an idiom that is distinctive, colourful, graphic and at the same time extremely material-based. The entrepreneur Reinhold Würth has collected almost 290 paintings and sculptures by this exceptional artist for the Würth Collection.
José de Guimarães engages again and again with the existential theme of life and death, which is dominant in most cultures, transforming this theme into an expression of unbounded vitality through an expressive application of paint that has an almost magical intensity. The exhibition at the Forum Würth Rorschach documents the artistic development of this cultural border crosser. Part of his important collection of African sculptures is confronted here with his own works from the Würth Collection or with works on loan from the artist. The result is a unique and inspiring dialogue.
