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MARIA HELENA VIEIRA DA SILVA: In Collaboration with Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, Paris & Waddington Custot, London

Past viewing_room
April 2 - September 30, 2020
  • Maria Helena Vieira da Silva in her studio at rue de l'Abbé-Carton in Paris. Courtesy Galerie Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, Paris

    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva in her studio at rue de l'Abbé-Carton in Paris. Courtesy Galerie Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, Paris ©Wölbing-Van Dyck, Bielefeld et Ida Kar

    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva celebrates the dynamic range of the Portuguese-born modernist painter's body of work. A key member of the post-war avant-garde in Paris, Vieira da Silva is known for intricate paintings that reflect her remarkable sense of rhythm and pattern. Historically, scholars have approached her work through the lens of artiste informelle, tachiste, or International Abstract Expressionism. This exhibition looks beyond these categorizations to address Vieira da Silva's personal use of gestural and formal abstraction to construct pictorial spaces that are at once familiar and unknown. Organized in a first-ever international collaboration with Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, Paris, and Waddington Custot, London, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva unites a vibrant selection of works from private collections and foundations in Europe and the United States in the first exhibition dedicated to the artist in New York since 1971. 


    We are honored to present 
    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva as Di Donna's inaugural online viewing room, while the physical exhibition at our gallery has been postponed due to the current health crisis. We look forward to welcoming you to our New York gallery in the not-too-distant future. Until then, we invite you to explore this rare presentation of Vieira da Silva's compelling painting practice as a testimony to her uniquely layered approach to representation and lasting influence on subsequent generations of artists.

     

    DOWNLOAD PRESS RELEASE

  • THE EXHIBITION

    Vieira da Silva Installation Image 1 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Vieira da Silva Installation Image 2 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Vieira da Silva Installation Image 3 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Vieira da Silva Installation Image 7 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Vieira da Silva Installation Image 7 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Vieira da Silva Installation Image 8 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Vieira da Silva Installation Image 9 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Vieira da Silva Installation Image 10 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    (View more details about this item in a popup).
    • Le Jeu de cartes, 1937
      Le Jeu de cartes, 1937
    • Lisbonne, 1940/1952
      Lisbonne, 1940/1952
    • Les Joueurs de cartes, 1947–48
      Les Joueurs de cartes, 1947–48
    • Figure de ballet, 1948
      Figure de ballet, 1948
    • Le Palais des glaces, c. 1948
      Le Palais des glaces, c. 1948
    • Composition aux damiers bleus, 1949
      Composition aux damiers bleus, 1949
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  • Composition aux damiers bleus (detail), 1949
    Composition aux damiers bleus (detail), 1949

    "PERSPECTIVE FASCINATES ME. NOT SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE, BUT THE KIND THAT IS FOUND, MADE OF RHYTHM, OF MUSIC."

    • Normandie, 1949
      Normandie, 1949
    • Sans titre, 1949
      Sans titre, 1949
    • La Garde des anges, 1950
      La Garde des anges, 1950
    • Gris Corot, 1950
      Gris Corot, 1950
    • La Ville nocturne (Les Lumières de la ville), 1950
      La Ville nocturne (Les Lumières de la ville), 1950
    • Bibliothèque, 1952
      Bibliothèque, 1952
    • Sans titre, 1952
      Sans titre, 1952
    • Sans titre, 1952
      Sans titre, 1952
    • La Ville tentaculaire, 1954
      La Ville tentaculaire, 1954
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    • Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Sans titre, 1955
      Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Sans titre, 1955
    • Structure dynamique, 1956
      Structure dynamique, 1956
    • L'Eau, 1962
      L'Eau, 1962
    • Le Chemin, 1963
      Le Chemin, 1963
    • Red Houses, 1963
      Red Houses, 1963
    • Mémoire, 1966–67
      Mémoire, 1966–67
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  • Detail of Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Le Jardin d’ipomée, c. 1974, Stamped 'Viera' (lower left), Gouache on handmade paper, 30 by 33 cm (11¾ by 13 in.)
    Le Jardin d’ipomée (detail), c. 1974

    "When I paint a landscape...It's a thought form rather than a realistic form." 

    • Artémis, 1968
      Artémis, 1968
    • Les Irrésolutions résolues VII, 1969
      Les Irrésolutions résolues VII, 1969
    • Le Chœur, 1971
      Le Chœur, 1971
    • Cosí fan tutte, 1971
      Cosí fan tutte, 1971
    • Le Jardin d’ipomée, c. 1974
      Le Jardin d’ipomée, c. 1974
    • Perspectives, 1981
      Perspectives, 1981
    • Chemins de la paix, 1985
      Chemins de la paix, 1985
    • Impression passagère, 1991
      Impression passagère, 1991
    • Vers la lumière, 1991
      Vers la lumière, 1991
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  • Maria Helena Vieira da Silva in Rio de Janeiro

    MARIA HELENA VIEIRA DA SILVA

    (b. 1908, Lisbon; d. 1992, Paris)

    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (b. 1908, Lisbon, Portugal; d. 1992, Paris, France) enrolled at the Academia Nacional de Belas Artes, Lisbon, in 1919 to study drawing with Emilia Santos Braga. She moved to Paris from Lisbon in 1928 to study sculpture under Antoine Bourdelle and Charles Despiau at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. There she met her future husband, Hungarian painter Árpád Szenes, and in 1929 gave up sculpture for painting. Living in Paris, she absorbed a variety of influences, from the geometric abstraction of the group Cercle et Carré (Circle and Square, 1929-33) and Joaquín Torres-García, to avant-garde Cubism. Vieira da Silva began to paint rectangular patches of color to recall the Hispano-Arabic Azulejo tiles, undulating cobbled pavements and tiered architecture of Lisbon. In 1933, Vieira da Silva had her first solo exhibition at Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris; the gallery remained her main dealer throughout her career.

     

    After the war, Vieira da Silva's paintings echoed the realities of post-war Europe. Works from this period reflect the flooded and razed cities, claustrophobic corridors and altered landscapes after the unprecedented violence. Vieira da Silva became a French citizen in 1956 and was awarded the Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1962. In 1966, she was the first woman to receive the French Grand Prix Nationale des Arts.

  • Maria Helena Vieira da Silva painting Mémoire, in her studio by Yèvre le Châtel, Loiret, 1966

    Throughout Vieira da Silva's career, major institutions have recognized her as an important figure within the modernist canon. In 1937, Hilla Rebay acquired Composition (1936) for the collection of the future Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. In 1954, Dance (1938) entered the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, following its inclusion in the museum's group show XXVth Anniversary. The French State acquired several of her paintings during the course of her career, three of which hang in the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris. Vieira da Silva's work is held in other distinguished collections throughout the world, including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, Tate, London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Retrospectives of Vieira da Silva's work have been mounted at Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, in 1958, traveling to Kunsthalle Bremen, and the Kunst- und Museumsverein Wuppertal; Musée de Grenoble, France, in 1964; Museo Civico, Turin, in 1964; Musée national d'art moderne, Paris, in 1969-70; Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France, in 1971; Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, in 1977; Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, in 1988, traveling to Grand Palais, Paris; and Fundación Juan March, Madrid, in 1991. Important exhibitions were presented at Fundação Árpád Szenes - Vieira da Silva, Lisbon in 2015, and at Musée d'Art moderne de Céret, in 2016. In 1994, Guy Weelen and Jean-François Jaeger's two volume catalogue raisonné and monograph of Vieira da Silva's work was published by Skira.

     

    Above left: Maria Helena Vieira da Silva in Rio de Janeiro. Courtesy Galerie Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, Paris © All rights reserved

    Above right: Maria Helena Vieira da Silva painting Mémoire, in her studio by Yèvre le Châtel, Loiret, 1966. Courtesy Galerie Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, Paris © Ursa Zangger

  • VIEIRA DA SILVA IN MAJOR INSTITUTIONAL COLLECTIONS

    Works by Vieira da Silva are held by leading institutions worldwide, including the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. We invite you to explore a selection of works from museum collections here.
    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Untitled, 1953 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, La Grande Fugue, 1954 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Rotterdam, 1956 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Aix-en-Provence, 1958 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, La bibliothèque, 1966 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Composition, 1936-37 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Dance, 1938 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, La Partie d'échecs, 1943 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, La Bataille des couteaux, 1948 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, The Corridor, 1950 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, The City, 1950-51 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Le Promeneur invisible, 1951 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, La Chapelle gothique, 1951 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Le Port, 1953 (View more details about this item in a popup).

    Maria Helena Vieira da Silva. Untitled. 1953. Oil on burlap, 76.5 by 125.1 cm (30⅛ by 49¼ in.)

    Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

For inquiries please contact 

Info@didonna.com

+1 212 259 0444

 

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