Portuguese artist born in Alhandra. Studied at Escola António Arroio and ESBAL Lisbon Art School). His first show was in 1953, in VII "Exposição Geral de Artes Plásticas", SNBA, Lisbon; in 1954, he was associated with abstract painting and took part in the "1st Exhibition of Abstract Art", Galeria de Março, Lisbon. Bertholo left Portugal in 1957 to live firstly in Münich and then in Paris, where he developed a comic-like artistic style of figurative art by depicting characters and objects of the urban landscape. Between 1958 and 1962, together with Lourdes Castro, João Vieira, José Escada, Jan Voss, Christo, Gonçalo Duarte and others, he co-founded the KWY Group that organized exhibitions and published a magazine. Towards the end of the 60s, Bertholo began creating mechanical and kinetic objects forming landscapes in movement, with playful dimension. He participated in exhibitions in the context of the "nouvelle figuration" that marked the history of that period, circulating internationally in countless individual and group exhibitions: 1963 III Biennale of Paris, 1964 "Peintres de l'Ecole de Paris", Seibu, Tokyo "Mythologies Quotidiennes", Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1965 Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Louisiana Museum, Copenhaga, Stedelijk Miseum Amsterdam, Tate Gallery, London, "Bertholo, Voss, Télémaque", Galerie Gummesons, Stockolm, 1967 "Novas Iconografias", Bucholz Gallery, Lisbon, Aktual Art International, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, EUA, 1968 Painting in France 1900-1967, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Art Institute, Chicago. 1971 The Renaissance Society, Chicago University, Chicago, 1976 "Arte Portoghese Contemporanea", Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Roma, 1992/93 Arte Portuguesa dos Anos 50, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon and Beja, 1994, "60's - Anos de Ruptura", Lisbon 94, Palácio Galveias, Lisbon, 1997 The Pop 60s, Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisboa, 1999 Circa 1968, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Oporto. For the last twenty years of his life, René Bertholo dedicated himself to the construction of a sound machine.
