By Luciano Migliaccio
The picture Portrait of Camões belongs to the series “Variations on Camões,” the set of which was published in an album by the Official Press – The Lisbon Mint with a preface by José Augusto França (1980). The ironic celebration of myths of Portuguese nationalism is a constant theme in Guimarães’ work. The influence of Picasso’s paintings, inspired by surrealism and ancient Mediterranean art, the knowledge of the Mozambican and Angolan African cultures form the basis for Guimarães’ pictorial metaphor which transforms the symbols of the Nation’s past into icons of contemporary Portugal and its cultural and political situation.

— Luciano Migliaccio, 1998

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