José DE GUIMARAES (1939), "Femme à la robe miroir", acrylic sculpture on papier mâché and resin, signed in black behind the hip and dated 1985. On white plastic base. H. 102 cm Provenance: Catherine Clerc-de Goumoëns Collection Note: From the 1960s onwards, José de Guimaraes was influenced by European avant-garde movements, notably art brut and arte povera, but he quickly forged his own personal language: a world populated by stylised forms and symbols. Fascinated by non-European art, particularly African art, he spent several years in Angola, where his style was nourished by culture and mythology. Today, José de Guimarães can be found in numerous public and private collections around the world, including the Musée Würth - Künzelsau in Germany, the Museu d'Angola - Luanda in Angola, the Museo de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM Rio) in Brazil, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain, and the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in France. An art centre bearing his name, the Centro Internacional das Artes José de Guimarães (CIAJG), was inaugurated in 2012 in Guimarães, his home town, to showcase his work and his extensive collections of African, pre-Columbian and Chinese tribal art.