Maria Helena Vieira da Silva
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 6 March 1992 | (aged 83)
Nationality | Portuguese French (citizenship since 1956) |
Known for | Painting |
Movement | Abstract art |
Spouse | Árpád Szenes |
Signature | |
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (13 June 1908 – 6 March 1992) was a Portuguese abstract painter.[1] She was considered a leading member of the European abstract expressionism movement known as Art Informel. Her works feature complex interiors and city views using lines that explore space and perspective. She also worked in tapestry and stained glass.[2]
Life
Vieira da Silva was born in Lisbon, Portugal. At an early age, she traveled around the world because her affluent father was a diplomat. During this time, she came in contact with various avant-garde groups, such as the Italian Futurists and the Ballets Russes.[3] At the age of eleven she had begun seriously studying drawing and painting at the Academia de Belas-Artes in Lisbon.[1] In her teenage years she studied painting with Emília dos Santos Braga in Lisbon and Fernand Léger, sculpture with Antoine Bourdelle, and engraving with Stanley William Hayter. Vieira da Silva also worked with Fauve artist Othon Friesz.[4]
In 1928 Vieira da Silva left Lisbon to study sculpture in Paris, but decided in 1929 to focus on painting. By 1930 she was exhibiting paintings in Paris; that same year she married the Hungarian painter
Her name sometimes appears written as "Elena", but the correct version, in Portuguese, is "Helena".
A crater on Mercury has been named in her honor.[5]
Work
Vieira da Silva is considered to be Portugal's greatest contemporary artist by many. In 1988 in honor of her 80th birthday, the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon and the Grand Palais in Paris had major retrospectives of her work.
Vieira da Silva’s initial work featured a decorative style of abstract patterning.[6] She enjoyed toying with the idea of space and creating a false perception of space by having her painting set on a neutral background with flecks color giving a sense of depth.[2]
In the 1930s Vieira da Silva began producing her characteristic works which were heavily impastoed, and overlaid with a complex arrangement of small rectangles.
She exhibited her work widely, winning a prize for painting at the São Paulo Art Biennial in São Paulo in 1961.[1]
In 1966-76 she made a stained-glass window for the Saint Jacques church in
In November 1994, the
From 2019 to 2020, a substantial survey exhibition of her paintings and works on paper toured from Jeanne Bucher Jaeger in Paris, to Waddington Custot in London, and Di Donna Galleries in New York.[8]
In 2023 her work was included in the exhibition Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.[9]
Public collections
Vieira da Silva’s work is included in the collections of many art museums worldwide, such as the
See also
Bibliography
- Wat, Pierre and Kent Mitchell Minturn (2019). Maria Helena Vieira da Silva. Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, ISBN 978-2-918316-21-3
- Rosenthal, Gisela (1998). Vieira da Silva, 1908-1992 : the quest for unknown space. OCLC 40609565.
- Vallier, Dora (1982). Vieira da Silva, chemins d'approche. Ecritures, figures. Galilée. OCLC 260009109.
- Weelen, Guy (1961). Vieira da Silva. Painters of today. OCLC 12337320.
References
- ^ a b c "Maria Helena Vieira da Silva 1908–1992". National Museum of Women in the Arts. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
- ^ a b c "Maria Helena Vieira da Silva: Art Informel Painter". www.visual-arts-cork.com.
- ^ a b "Collection Online: Maria Helena Vieira da Silva". Guggenheim. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
- ^ ISBN 0-89659-748-2.
- ^ "Vieira da Silva". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. NASA. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
- ^ a b "Maria Elena Vieira da Silva - French artist". Encyclopedia Britannica.
- ISBN 9780870707711.
- ^ Carey-Kent, Paul (8 January 2020). "Post-Cubism? Maria Helena Vieira Da Silva". www.fadmagazine.com.
- ^ "Action, Gesture, Paint". Whitechapel Gallery. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
- ^ "Maria Helena Vieira da Silva". gulbenkian.pt.
- ^ "Maria Helena Vieira da Silva". www.museuartecontemporanea.gov.pt.
- ^ "Maria Helena Vieira da Silva". www.museoreinasofia.es.
- ^ "Maria Helena Vieira da Silva". www.mam.paris.fr.
- ^ a b "Maria-Helena Vieira da Silva, 83, Portuguese-Born Painter, Is Dead". The New York Times. 11 March 1992.
- ^ "The Town - National Museum of Women in the Arts". nmwa.org.
- ^ "Maria Helena Vieira da Silva. The City. 1950-51 - MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art.
- ^ "Maria Helena Vieira da Silva". www.artic.edu. 1908.
- ^ Tate. "'The Corridor', Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, 1950". Tate.
- ^ "Maria Helena Vieira da Silva". www.gallery.ca.
- ^ "Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Le promeneur invisible (The Invisible Stroller), 1951 · SFMOMA". www.sfmoma.org.