Mary Vieira facts for kids

Mary Vieira (born in 1927, died in 2001) was a talented artist from Brazil. She was a sculptor, which means she created amazing art pieces you can touch and walk around. Mary was the first Brazilian artist to win a big award at the São Paulo Art Biennial, a famous art show. She grew up in Minas Gerais and learned art from a teacher named Alberto da Veiga Guignard in Belo Horizonte. In 1947, she showed her art for the first time at an exhibition for young Brazilian artists in Belo Horizonte.

Mary Vieira's Life in Europe

In 1951, Mary Vieira moved to Europe. There, she met Carlo Belloli, an Italian poet and writer who became very important to her art.

Awards and Exhibitions

In 1953, Mary won the "Brazilian Sculpture" Award from the Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art. This happened at the second São Paulo Biennial. A famous artist named Max Bill invited her to join the last exhibition of a Swiss art group called Allianz.

Marriage and New Ideas

Mary Vieira married Carlo Belloli in 1957. Their talks and ideas helped her art grow a lot. They lived and worked in Switzerland, Italy, and Brazil. In Europe, Mary started making sculptures that could change shape. These were called "monovolumes," "multivolumes," "polyvolumes," and "intervolumes."

Kinetic Art Pioneer

Mary Vieira became known around the world as a major artist in kinetic art. Kinetic art is art that moves or seems to move. In 1966, she won the "International Marinetti Award." This award was for her amazing research into art that combined movement and visuals. She received it at a big art show in Paris.

Mary Vieira's Art Around the World

Many of Mary Vieira's sculptures are in public places. You can find her art in Brazil in places like Rio Branco Square in Belo Horizonte. She also has art in Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo. Another piece is at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brasília.

International Artworks

Her art is also in other countries. You can see her work at the Basel University Library in Switzerland. She also has art in Monte Castello, Italy, and in Zurich's Lake Seefeldquai Park.

Beyond Sculpture

Mary Vieira was not just a sculptor. She also worked on city planning projects. She designed graphics and even taught art. She showed her art in many exhibitions, both by herself and with other artists. These shows were in Europe, Brazil, and the United States. She won many important awards for her creative work. Mary Vieira passed away in Basel, Switzerland, in 2001.

Mary Vieira's Unique Artistic Vision

Mary Vieira liked to call herself a "plastic ideaer." She believed that different types of art, like drawing, painting, sculpture, and architecture, would eventually blend together. She thought that mixing different art forms was key to art's future. Her main ideas are still very important in art today.

From Concretism to Kinetic Art

In 1951, Mary moved to Switzerland with some art models she had created in Brazil. In 1952, she was asked to publish a series of drawings called Zeiten einer Zeichnung for Spirale. This was a major publisher of "concretist" art at the time. Concretism is an art style that focuses on simple shapes and colors. Mary's art grew from concretism into kinetic art, which she called "cinevisualism."

Art That Invites You In

Carlo Belloli, the Italian writer and poet, said that Mary Vieira's art "summons the spectator to art." This means her art invites people to really look at it and think about it. Mary's clear and complete artistic ideas were not always fully shown in her home country. The exhibition "Mary Vieira – O Tempo do Movimento" (The Time of Movement) helped bring her international art back to Brazil. Markus Kütter, an art expert, said that Mary "has always carried her Brazilian origin as a veil about her."