Querubim Lapa (Portuguese, Born 1925)

Important ceramicist with many public and private comissioned installation work throught Portugal, Brazil, and South Africa.

A painter, drawer and engraver, he has also produced work in tapesty and a large number of works of ceramics. He studied at the António Arroio School, in Lisbon, and attended the course of sculpture at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts (1947-1953), obtaining a diploma in painting from the school in 1978. He has produced numerous ceramic works for public and private buildings, including the patterned tiles on the façades of the lower galleries of the Restelo Shopping Centre in Lisbon (1954), the panels for the Campolide Primary School (1956), the relief ceramics for the Portuguese Pavilion at the Comptoir Suisse International Fair in Lausanne (1957), the exterior and interior covering of the Casa da Sorte, Lisbon (1963), the large low-relief work at the office of the Banco Nacional Ultramarino in Lourenço Marques, now Maputo (1963), works at the offices of TAP in Luanda and Johannesburg (1965), and in Copenhagen and Frankfurt (1968), two low-relief ceramic works for the Portuguese embassy in Brasilia (1976), a panel for the Municipal Council of Cartaxo (1982), a panel for Coimbra Hospital (1984), another for the Bank of Portugal, Lisbon (1986), a public panel on Av. 24 de Julho, Lisbon (1994) and the covering of the Bela Vista station on the Lisbon Underground (1998), also in Lisbon. 

He currently teaches at the António Arroio School in Lisbon and works for the Viúva Lamego Factory, producing work both for Portugal and abroad. 

Examples from his extensive body of work can be found at the National Tile Museum, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and Lisbon City Museum, amongst other museums and private collections

EXHIBITIONS

1st solo exhibition of Painting, Engraving and Ceramics, Co-operative of Portuguese Engravers, Lisbon, 1960; 

Exhibition of Ceramics and Tapestry, Interior Gallery, Lisbon, 1964; 

Solo exhibition of ceramics, 101 Gallery, Johannesburg, 1965; 

Salon of Portuguese Ceramics, Estoril Casino Gallery, 1967; 

Exhibition of Modern Portuguese Decorative Ceramics, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, 1971 (included in the 1st International Symposium on Tiles); 

Exhibition of ceramics, Philadelphia, 1971; 

“5 Centuries of Tiles in Portugal”, organised by the National Tile Museum and presented in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and Caracas (1978); 

“Exhibition of modern ceramics”, Estoril Casino Gallery, 1981; 

“5 Centuries of Tiles in Portugal”, Caldas da Rainha, Évora, Setúbal and Oporto, 1981; 

“5 Centuries of Tiles in Portugal”, Copenhagen, Bonn, Vienna and Onsabruck, 1982; 

“5 Centuries of Tiles in Portugal”, Macao, 1984; 

“5 Centuries of Tiles in Portugal”, Hong Kong, 1985; 

“Tiles”, organised by Lisbon City Museum, Barbican Center, London, 1986; 

1st Óbidos Ceramics Biennial, Óbidos, 1987; 

“Tiles from the 17th-20th Century”, organised by Lisbon City Museum, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and São Paulo, 1987; 

“Portuguese Tiles from the 12th-20th Century”, Brazil, 1988; 

Retrospective exhibition of his ceramic works, National Tile Museum, Lisbon, 1994; 

“Tiles and the Oceans”, Culturgest, Lisbon, 1999; 

“Tiles in Portugal in the 20th Century”, CNCDO, 2000; 

“Querubim Lapa – recent works”, National Tile Museum, Lisbon, 2002