Maria Helena Vieira da Silva facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva
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Self-portrait, 1942
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| Born | 13 June 1908 |
| Died | 6 March 1992 (aged 83) |
| Nationality | Portuguese French (citizenship since 1956) |
| Education | Academia de Belas-Artes |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Abstract art |
| Spouse(s) | Árpád Szenes |
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (born June 13, 1908 – died March 6, 1992) was an important Portuguese abstract painter. She was a key artist in a European art movement called Art Informel, which is a type of abstract expressionism. Her paintings often show detailed indoor scenes and city views. She used many lines to play with how space and depth look in her art. She also created art using tapestries and stained glass.
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Her Life Story
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva was born in Lisbon, Portugal. Her father was a diplomat, which meant he worked for his country in other parts of the world. Because of his job, she traveled a lot when she was young. This allowed her to see many different art groups, like the Italian Futurists and the Ballets Russes.
When she was eleven, she started seriously studying drawing and painting. She went to the Academia de Belas-Artes in Lisbon. As a teenager, she learned painting from Emília dos Santos Braga and Fernand Léger. She also studied sculpture with Antoine Bourdelle and engraving with Stanley William Hayter. She even worked with Fauve artist Othon Friesz.
Moving to Paris and Brazil
In 1928, Vieira da Silva moved to Paris, France, to study sculpture. But in 1929, she decided to focus on painting instead. By 1930, her paintings were being shown in Paris. That same year, she married a Hungarian painter named Árpád Szenes.
When World War II started in 1939, Vieira da Silva moved back to Portugal from France. The next year, she went to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There, she became well-known for her detailed and complex paintings.
Life After the War
After World War II ended, Vieira da Silva lived and worked in Paris for the rest of her life. She became a French citizen in 1956.
In 1966, she received the French government's Grand Prix National des Arts. She was the first woman ever to get this important award. In 1979, she was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, which is a very high honor in France. Maria Helena Vieira da Silva passed away in Paris on March 6, 1992.
Sometimes her name is written as "Elena," but the correct Portuguese spelling is "Helena." A crater on the planet Mercury is named after her to honor her work.
Her Amazing Art
Many people believe Maria Helena Vieira da Silva is Portugal's greatest modern artist. In 1988, for her 80th birthday, two big museums held special shows of her art. These were the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon and the Grand Palais in Paris.
Early Art Style
Vieira da Silva's first artworks had a decorative style with abstract patterns. She loved to play with the idea of space. She would create a feeling of false depth by painting on a plain background. Then she would add small bits of color to make it seem like the painting had different layers.
In the 1930s, she started making her famous paintings. These works had thick paint (called impasto) and many small, layered rectangles. In 1943, her art was shown in Peggy Guggenheim's exhibition called Exhibition by 31 Women in New York.
Developing Her Unique Style
As she grew as an artist, Vieira da Silva focused more on changing how space looked in her art. She used many different methods. She created detailed patterns to make fake buildings and shapes. She also used complex lines, bright spots, and patterned surfaces.
By the late 1950s, she was famous around the world for her detailed and complex paintings. Her art was influenced by artists like Paul Cézanne and by cubism. Cubism uses broken shapes, unclear spaces, and a limited set of colors. She is seen as one of the most important abstract artists after World War II. However, her art wasn't "pure" abstract because you could still see hints of real things.
Her work is connected to other art styles like French Tachisme, American Abstract expressionism, and Surrealism. Many artists in Paris after the war painted in similar ways. Her paintings often look like mazes, cities seen from above, or even library shelves. It's like she was showing a never-ending search for Knowledge.
Vieira da Silva also made many prints, designs for tapestries, ceramic decorations, and stained glass windows.
She showed her art widely and won a prize for painting at the São Paulo Art Biennial in São Paulo in 1961.
In 1966-76, she created a stained-glass window for the Saint Jacques church in Reims with Josef Sima. In 1974, she made the painting A Library Burning, which uses many ideas from that window.
In 1988, she decorated the new Cidade Universitária subway station in Lisbon. She used special azulejo tiles for the designs.
In November 1994, the Árpád Szenes-Vieira da Silva Foundation opened in Lisbon. This museum shows a large collection of paintings by both Maria Helena Vieira da Silva and her husband, Árpád Szenes.
Where to See Her Art
You can find Maria Helena Vieira da Silva’s art in many famous museums around the world. These include:
- The Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris in Paris
- The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam
- The National Museum of Women in the Arts
- The Museum of Modern Art, New York
- The Tate Gallery in London
- The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa
- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York
- The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Some of Her Famous Works
- As Bandeiras Vermelhas (1939)
- A Partida de Xadrez (1943)
- História Trágico-Marítima (1944)
- O Passeante Invisível (1949-1951)
- O Quarto Cinzento (1950, Tate Gallery, London)
- L'Allée Urichante (1955)
- Les Grandes Constructions (1956)
- Londres (1959)
- Landgrave (1966)
- Passage des miroirs (1971), Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao
- Terre de Sienne (1972), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
- Bibliothéque en Feu (1974)
- Disaster (War) (1942), Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
See also
In Spanish: Maria Helena Vieira da Silva para niños
- La gare inondée (The Flooded Station)
