Maria de Lourdes Ribeiro, known as Maluda, was born on November 15, 1934, in the city of Pangim, in the former Portuguese State of India. From 1948 onwards, she lived in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), where she began her work as a self-taught portrait painter. It was also there that she formed the painting group “Os Independentes” with Garizo do Carmo, João Paulo, and João Ayres, collectively exhibiting in 1961, 1962, and 1963.
In 1963, she received a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and traveled to Portugal, where she worked with master Roberto de Araújo in Lisbon. Between 1964 and 1967, she lived in Paris as a Gulbenkian scholar and studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière with masters Jean Aujame and Michel Rodde. During her time in Paris, she interacted with artists such as Maria Helena Vieira da Silva and Arpad Seznes.
Her first solo exhibition took place in 1969 at the Diário de Notícias gallery in Lisbon. In 1973, she held a major solo exhibition at the Gulbenkian Foundation, which was tremendously successful, attracting approximately 15,000 visitors and catapulting her to fame.
Between 1976 and 1978, she received another scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation and studied in London and Switzerland. From 1978 onwards, she dedicated herself to the theme of windows, using them as a metaphor for the public-private composition.
In 1981, she published her book “Maluda” with a preface by Maria Helena Vieira da Silva.
Throughout her career, she received numerous awards, including the “Painting Award” from the National Academy of Fine Arts in Lisbon in 1979, the World Government Stamp Printers Conference in Washington in 1987 and in Périgueux (France) in 1989, and the prestigious “Bordalo Pinheiro Prize” awarded by Casa da Imprensa in 1994. In the same year, as part of “Lisbon Capital of Culture,” she held a solo exhibition at the Cultural Center of Belém in Lisbon. On October 13, 1998, she was awarded the grade of Grand Officer of the Order of Infante
