b. 11 July 1924, Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), Mozambique | d. 2012 Lived and worked in Rome, Italy Bertina Lopes was a Mozambican-born Italian painter, sculptor, and activist, widely celebrated as a founding figure of contemporary African painting. The daughter of a Portuguese father and African mother, she began her artistic journey by studying in Lisbon, where she engaged with Portuguese modernism and avant-garde influences. Returning to Mozambique in 1953, she taught art and embraced cultural nationalism, drawing inspiration from leading poets and political movements of the time. Facing persecution by colonial authorities, she left Mozambique in 1961, spent time in Portugal, and ultimately relocated to Rome in 1963. There, she forged deep connections within the Italian art world and served as Mozambique’s cultural attaché. Her Roman studio became a famed intellectual salon, hosting artists, diplomats, and cultural figures, and she remained a vital cultural bridge until her passing in 2012. Lopes’s work evolved through distinct phases: her early paintings incorporated African iconography and political narrative; her mid-career art reflected Mozambique’s independence struggles and civil conflict; and her later work embraced gestural abstraction, bold color palettes, and expressive experimentation. A significant presence on the global art stage, she exhibited in numerous retrospectives, participated twice in the Venice Biennale, and represented Mozambique in major international shows. Her legacy endures as both artist and activist—an emblem of artistic resistance, national identity, and modernist innovation.