About Me
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva – born in Lisbon on June 13, 1908 - died in Paris, on March 6, 1992.
At the age of eleven Vieira da Silva began seriously studying drawing and painting at that city's Academia de Belas-Artes. In her teen years she studied painting with Fernand Léger, sculpture with Antoine Bourdelle, and engraving with Stanley William Hayter, all masters in their respective fields. She also created textile designs.
By 1930 Vieira da Silva was exhibiting her paintings in Paris; that same year she married the Hungarian painter Ãrpád Szenes. After a brief sojourn back in Lisbon and a period spent in Brazil during World War II, Vieira da Silva lived and worked in Paris the rest of her life. She adopted french citizenship in 1942.
Vieira da Silva received the French government's Grand Prix National des Arts in 1966, the first woman so honored.
She was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1979.
By the late 1950s Vieira da Silva was internationally known for her dense and complex compositions, influenced by the art of Paul Cézanne and the fragmented forms, spatial ambiguities, and restricted palette of cubism and abstract art.
She is considered to be one of the most important Post-War abstract artists however she is not a "pure" abstract painter. Her work is related to French Tachisme, American Abstract expressionism, and Surrealism — as were many of her contemporaries who were painting in Post-War Paris during the mid to late 1940s and early 1950s.
Her paintings often resemble mazes, cities seen in profile or from high above or even library shelves in what seems to be an allegory to a neverending search for Knowledge or the Absolute.
She exhibited her work widely, winning a prize for painting at the Biennial in São Paulo in 1961.
She decorated in 1988 the new Cidade Universitária subway station of Lisbon with azulejo panels.
In November 1994, the Ãrpád Szenes-Vieira da Silva Foundation was inaugurated in Lisbon, a museum that displays a large collection of paintings by both artists
Fundação Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva
All images are used for personal viewing only. Not for commercial purpose. Images are copyrighted by their respective owners
Authorization for the reproduction of the works by Vieira da Silva as well as the authentication of her works are the sole responsibility of the Comité Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva housed at 34, rue de l’Abée Carton – 75014 Paris –France- Tel./Fax: (33 1) 45 42 23 06. The Comité and this Foundation / Museum collaborate on a regular basis.
Copyright © 1998 Foundation Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva-
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