About the artist:

Since 1937, the artist attended the Antônio Parreiras Nucleus in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. In 1940, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he enrolled in Argemiro Cunha's classes at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios but soon dropped out. He began painting with some former members of the Bernardelli Nucleus. In 1944, he moved to Fortaleza, where he met local artists and participated in the creation of the Sociedade Cearense de Artes Plásticas (SCAP). He returned to Rio de Janeiro in 1945 and exhibited with Aldemir Martins, Antonio Bandeira, and Jean-Pierre Chabloz at the Askanasy gallery.

In 1948, with the support of Candido Portinari, he held his first solo exhibition at the Institute of Architects of Brazil (IAB/RJ). In 1950, he won a national travel award at the National Salon of Fine Arts (SNBA) and, the following year, traveled and exhibited in Bahia. In 1952, he received an international travel award from the National Salon of Modern Art (SNAM). Between 1954 and 1956, in Paris, he attended courses at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and the École Normale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, and also attended classes by André Lhote and Gino Severini.

Upon returning to Brazil, he began producing abstract paintings, some of which were shown at the 5th São Paulo Biennial. In the first half of the 1960s, he moved to Belo Horizonte and returned to figurative painting. In 1998, the Inimá de Paula Foundation was created in Belo Horizonte, consolidating his legacy in the Brazilian artistic scene.