Júlio Pomar was born in 1926 in Lisbon and died in 2018 in the same city.
He studied at the School of Decorative Arts António Arroio and the Fine Arts Schools of Lisbon and Porto. He made drawing, engraving, sculpture, illustration, tapestry and tile, dedicating himself above all to painting and writing. In 1963, he moved to Paris. Twenty years later, he returned to Lisbon, working since then in both cities.
Because of his importance to the history of Portuguese art, in 2013, the Lisbon Municipality opened a museum named the Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar, whose mission is to preserve, divulge and deepen the knowledge on the work of Júlio Pomar in its diverse aspects, as well as to foment critical reflection and debate on contemporary arts and culture.
Pomar exhibited individually in museums and galleries in Lisbon, Porto, Paris, Brussels, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Beijing, Macao and Istanbul.
Works for public buildings: the frescos in the Cinema Batalha (Porto, 1946); the Gran' Circo Lar tiles (Brasília, 1987) – both already destroyed; Alto dos Moinhos Subway Station of Lisbon (1983 – 1984) and the Portuguese Language Square of the National Library, in Brasília (Niemeyer project, 2009). Produced by Ratton, Pomar did the tile intervention for the Corroios Railway Station (1998); the Judicial Court of the District of Moita Palace (1994), the Cultural Center of Belém do Pará, Brazil (2004); the Beer Museum (2014) and the Casa Portuguesa do Pastel de Bacalhau (2015), both in Lisbon.