João Cutileiro was born in Lisbon. In 53-54 studied at Fine Art School of Arts, after a period of training in the studios of Jorge Barradas and António Duarte, where he was stonemason’s assistant and learnt to work with stone. He left for London where he studied at the Slade School of Art. In 1970 returns to Portugal and lives in Lagos, and later in Évora. Cutileiro is one of the most important sculptors of the 60-70 decades and responsible for the turnpoint of the Portuguese sculpture of the 80’s, because of the rupture with the official statuary and as a teacher he influenced the new sculptors of stone (Croft, Campos Rosado, Manuel Rosa, Sérgio Taborda). The statue of King Sebastian (Lagos, 1973) is a reference, because it was an official order, and it challenged the historical representation canon-law of the dictatorship government.
