Portuguese painter and sculptor, born in 1932 in Portugal, died in 2023, based in France from 1963.
Life
Mário Chichorro studied architecture at the School of Fine Arts in Porto. In 1963 he settled in Perpignan, and from then on pursued most of his career in France. In 1968 he lost his job after being recognised at a demonstration against the employers: he then devoted himself entirely to his art.
His first Paris exhibition took place in 1974 at the Atelier Jacob, with the support of Jean Dubuffet, who included him in his “annexe collection”, today’s Neuve Invention collection in Lausanne. In his lifetime he never exhibited in Portugal: a posthumous tribute was paid to him at the Centre for Arts and Performance in Figueira da Foz, with a space devoted to his brother, the painter Heitor Chichorro.
The work
His work oscillates between painting and low-relief sculpture. Bright colours, absence of perspective, irreverent humour: his compositions combine figures and scenes in an allegorical imaginary, sometimes tinged with eroticism.
“I am for irreverence, insubordination, unrealism, reverie, utopia, desire.” (Mário Chichorro, translated from the Portuguese)
Exhibitions and collections
- Atelier Jacob, Paris, 1974
- “Lusofolia: A Beleza Insensata”, Centro de Arte Oliva (Portugal), 9 November 2019 to 11 October 2020
- Posthumous tribute, Centre for Arts and Performance (CAE), Figueira da Foz (Portugal)
- Collections: Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne; La Fabuloserie (France); Centro de Arte Oliva (Portugal)