Menez

Menez or Maria Inês Ribeiro da Fonseca, GOSE (9 September 1926, in Lisbon – 11 April 1995) was a Portuguese painter. Her major body of work consists of paintings and drawings but she also produced ceramics, engravings, silk-screen prints and tapestries.

Early life Maria Inês Ribeiro da Fonseca was born in Lisbon on 9 September 1926. The maternal granddaughter of former Portuguese president General Óscar Carmona and his wife Maria do Carmo Ferreira da Silva Carmona, Menez had a cosmopolitan childhood, having lived in Buenos Aires, Stockholm, Paris, Switzerland, Rome, following her father's diplomatic appointments, and in Washington, D.C., with her husband. She returned to Portugal in 1951.

Artistic career Menez never attended art school. She only started painting regularly at the age of 26, as a self-taught artist. Her first exhibition was at Galeria de Março, Lisbon in 1954. Subsequently, she exhibited infrequently, with her time taken up by bringing up her children and the tragedy of the early deaths of the two eldest, in 1976 and 1977. She exhibited individually at Galeria Pórtico (1958); Diário de Notícias Gallery, Lisbon (1959, 61, 63); Galeria Divulgação, Lisbon (1964); Gallery 111, Lisbon (1966, 81, 85, 87, 90, 94); SNBA, Lisbon (1966); Judite Dacruz Gallery, Lisbon (1972); Quadrum Gallery, Lisbon (1977); Portuguese Cultural Centre, Paris (1977); Zen Gallery, Porto (1981, 83, 89); and Gilde Gallery, Guimarães (1988).

Personal life Menez married Rui Burnay Morales de Los Rios da Silva Leitão, with whom she had two sons and a daughter before divorcing.

Awards In 1990 Menez was awarded the Pessoa Prize. In 1995, she was posthumously made Grand Officer of the Military Order of Saint James of the Sword.

Death Menez died in Lisbon on 11 April 1995.