Ricardo José Minotti da Cruz-Filipe was born in Lisbon on February 16, 1934. In 1957 he graduated from Instituto Superior Técnico, where he was an assistant professor between 1958 and 1968.

He began his artistic activity in 1956 as a self-taught painter and exhibited individually for the first time in 1957.

He participated in numerous solo exhibitions, including: Galeria Pórtico, Lisbon (1957); Divulgation Gallery, Lisbon (1966, 1968); Cooperativa Árvore Gallery, Porto (1968); Gallery 111, Lisbon (1970); Buchholz Gallery, Lisbon (1973); Quadrum Gallery, Lisbon (1977, 1981); Center for Contemporary Art, MNSR, Porto (1977); Galerie du Dôme, Paris (1978); Galerie Patrick Cramer, Geneva (1981); JN Gallery, Porto (1984); Modern Art Centre, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (1986); Center Culturel Portugais, Paris (1987); Van Reekun Museum, Appeldoorn, Netherlands (1987); Mateus House, Vila Real (1988); The Murray and Isabella Rayburn Foundation, New York (1990); Valentim de Carvalho Gallery, Lisbon (1992); Forty years of painting, retrospective exhibition, Culturgest, Lisbon (1995); Forty years of painting, retrospective exhibition, Serralves Foundation, Porto (1996); Cruz-Filipe, National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon (2001).