Noêmia Guerra was born in Rio de Janeiro and studied painting at the Municipal Institute of Beaux Arts with the French professor and artist, André Lhote, who had been invited by the Government of the former Federal District, in 1951, to teach composition in the painting arts. With her painting “Landscape” in the National Modern Art Salon of 1954, Noêmia obtained a certificate exempting her from submitting her work to judgment by a panel.

 

She moved to Paris in 1958. Continuing her studies in painting, she took part in several courses at the “Collège de France”, including those given by Professor René Huyghe and Professor Yves Bonnefoy.

 

During the time she lived in France, Noêmia Guerra traveled to Portugal, Spain, England, Italy, Lebanon, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Germany, the United States, Monaco, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and Japan, where she exhibited her works in individual or collective exhibitions.

   

In Portugal, she maintained an atelier in her house in Algarve for 30 years, where she frequently spent long periods of time dedicating herself to depicting on canvas the rocks and beaches of that region, in the South of Portugal.
   

Although she lived and produced most of her vast work in Paris, the artist Noêmia Guerra never distanced herself from Brazil, where she was launched as an artist while still very young. Brazil remained a source of inspiration throughout her artistic journey.    

 

During the 46 years she lived abroad, she visited Rio de Janeiro, where she was born, several times, besides Salvador, Recife, Maceió, Belo Horizonte, Ouro Preto and São Paulo, as well as other Brazilian towns.

 

Noêmia Guerra was also a member of the “Société Française d’Esthétique” and of the International Society of Aesthetic, and took part in the International Congresses of Nottingham, England; Madrid, Spain; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Budapest, Hungary; and Tokyo, Japan.

 

Philosophy was part of Noêmia Guerra’s life; she participated in courses offered at the “College de France” with Professors Merleau Ponti and Jean Hippolyte. She was an active member of the “College International de Philosophie”, in Paris, since its creation in 1981.

 

She was interested in social issues and took part, during the last 15 years of her stay in Paris, in the “Forums” in the town of Le Mans, France, organized by the newspaper “Le Monde”. Starting in the year 2000, Noêmia Guerra also dedicated herself to the study of oriental calligraphy, both Chinese and Japanese. She moved from Paris to Rio de Janeiro in 2004, where she lived the last three years of her life, and where she died in 2007.