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U.Porto Memory

University of Porto Famous Alumni

Luís Demée

Luís Demée 1929-2014 Painter and university teacher

Luís Luciano Demée was born in Macau on 8 November 1929. He was the son of Clemente Demée and Comba Morgado.
In his adolescence years, between 1944 and 1945, he was taught by his master and friend George Smirnoff (1903-1947), a Russian architect and painter.
In 1951, he held his first solo exhibition, which received good reviews, and participated in exhibitions of the Hong Kong Art Club, in Macau.
The following year, he received a scholarship from the Caixa Escolar de Macau, which enabled him to enrol in the Painting course at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts. In 1953, he asked to be transferred to the Porto School of Fine Arts, where he continued his studies.

In the 50s, he participated in the 20^th Aesthetic Celebration Mission of the National Society of Fine Arts (1957), run by Abel Viana and in Viana do Castelo, and his work was sent to the 1^st Paris Biennial (1959), where he received a scholarship from the Federation of Art Critics of Paris. When he completed the Degree in Painting, he moved to Paris on a scholarship awarded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

In 1960, he presented his thesis at the ESBAP, which earned him full marks (1960), with distinction and honours. The following year, he was invited to teach at this school as Assistant Professor.
Luís Demée travelled abroad to study: England, Greece, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland and the Middle East. At the invitation of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, he visited in 1964 the exhibition Painting and Sculptures of a decade, organised by the Tate Gallery, in London, as well as the exhibition WESTKUNST in Cologne (1981).

Initially, he drew buildings and streets as his teacher had taught him, but was soon attracted by Macau's port and the sea. At some point in time, his painting became abstract.
Luís Demée was the author of a unique form of European art, well depicted in his acrylic paintings, watercolours, fresco murals, tapestries and serigraphies (for example, he participated in the publication of serigraphies at the ESBAP, Cooperativa Árvore and the Grupo Série).
Luís Demée returned to Macau to show his work, which achieved remarkable results. Between late 2006 and mid 2007, he exhibited at the Museum of Art of Macau 73 watercolours and 16 sketches produced between 1945 and 1958.

In addition to these exhibitions, the painter participated in many others throughout his career, in Portugal (Porto, Lisbon, Amarante, Viana do Castelo, Matosinhos and Vila Nova de Cerveira), and abroad (France, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg and Brazil).
His work is shown at the Contemporary Art Centre, National Museum Soares dos Reis and the Serralves Foundation - Contemporary Art Museum, in Porto; at the Modern Art Centre of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Scientific and Cultural Centre of Macau – Ministry of Education and Science, in Lisbon; the Museum of Ovar; the Municipal Museum Amadeo de Souza Cardoso, in Amarante; the Luís de Camões Museum, in Macau; and is part of private collections in Portugal, Brazil, England, Germany and the U.S.A.

Luis Demée died in Porto on July 15, 2014.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2014)