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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. -
THE EXHIBITION
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaLe Jeu de cartes, 1937Signed 'vieira da silva' and dated '37' (lower left)Oil and pencil on canvas72.9 by 92.2 cm (28¾ by 36¼ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaLisbonne, 1940/1952Signed 'Vieira da Silva', dated '40' and inscribed 'Rio' (lower left)Gouache on cardboard41.4 by 48.3 cm (16¼ by 19⅛ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaLes Joueurs de cartes, 1947–48Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '47' (lower right)Oil on canvas81 by 100 cm (31⅞ by 39⅜ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaFigure de ballet, 1948Signed 'da Silva' and dated '48' (lower right)Oil and pencil on canvas27 by 46 cm (10⅝ by 18⅛ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaLe Palais des glaces, c. 1948Stamped 'Vieira da Silva' (lower right)Oil on canvas38.2 by 46.3 cm (15⅛ by 18¼ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaComposition aux damiers bleus, 1949Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '49' (lower right)Gouache on paper49.6 by 65 cm (19½ by 25⅝ in.)
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Composition aux damiers bleus (detail), 1949
"PERSPECTIVE FASCINATES ME. NOT SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE, BUT THE KIND THAT IS FOUND, MADE OF RHYTHM, OF MUSIC."
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaNormandie, 1949Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '49' (lower right)Gouache on canvas40 by 47 cm (15¾ by 18½ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaSans titre, 1949Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '49' (lower left)Oil on canvas64.5 by 81 cm (25⅜ by 31⅞ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaLa Garde des anges, 1950Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '1950' (lower right)Oil on canvas60.5 by 92.3 cm (23⅞ by 36⅜ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaGris Corot, 1950Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '1950' (lower right)Oil on canvas53.5 by 81 cm (21⅛ by 31⅞ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaLa Ville nocturne (Les Lumières de la ville), 1950Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '50' (lower right)Oil on canvas81 by 100 cm (31⅞ by 39⅜ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaBibliothèque, 1952Signed 'Viera da Silva' and dated '52' (lower right)Oil on canvas72.4 by 91.4 cm (28½ by 36 in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaSans titre, 1952Signed 'Vieira da Silva' (lower right)Oil on canvas53.6 by 72 cm (21⅛ by 28⅜ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaSans titre, 1952Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated (lower right)Oil on canvas97 by 130 cm (38¼ by 51⅛ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaLa Ville tentaculaire, 1954Signed 'Vieira da Silva' (lower right)Oil on canvas65 by 92 cm (25⅝ by 36¼ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Sans titre, 1955
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaStructure dynamique, 1956Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '56' (lower left)Oil on canvas59.8 by 73.1 cm (23½ by 28¾ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaL'Eau, 1962Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '62' (lower right)Tempera on paper66.2 by 50.7 cm (26⅛ by 20 in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaLe Chemin, 1963Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '63' (lower right)Watercolor on paper99.2 by 61.2 cm (39⅛ by 24⅛ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaRed Houses, 1963Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '63' (lower right)Tempera on canvas laid down on canvas39.6 by 56.4 cm (15⅝ by 22¼ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaMémoire, 1966–67Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated (lower right)Oil on canvas114 by 146.9 cm (44⅞ by 57⅞ in.)
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Le Jardin d’ipomée (detail), c. 1974
"When I paint a landscape...It's a thought form rather than a realistic form."
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaArtémis, 1968Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '68' (lower right)Oil on canvas38 by 55 cm (15 by 21⅝ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaLes Irrésolutions résolues VII, 1969Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '69' (lower right)Oil and charcoal on prepared canvas195 by 97 cm (76¾ by 38¼ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaLe Chœur, 1971Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '1971' (lower right)Tempera on paper30.5 by 28.5 cm (12⅛ by 11¼ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaCosí fan tutte, 1971Signed 'Vieira' (lower left), signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '71' (lower right)Watercolor, tempera and China ink on paper58.5 by 39.7 cm (23⅛ by 15⅝ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaLe Jardin d’ipomée, c. 1974Stamped 'Viera' (lower left)Tempera on handmade paper30 by 33 cm (11¾ by 13 in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaPerspectives, 1981Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '81' (lower right)Oil on prepared kraft paper laid down on canvas47 by 141.1 cm (18½ by 55½ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaChemins de la paix, 1985Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '85' (lower right)Oil on canvas72.6 by 100 cm (28⅝ by 39⅜ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaImpression passagère, 1991Signed 'Vieira da Silva' and dated '1991' (lower right)Tempera on paper57.5 by 121.3 cm (22⅝ by 47¾ in.)
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Maria Helena Vieira da SilvaVers la lumière, 1991Stamped 'Vieira da Silva' (lower right)Oil on canvas116 by 72.6 cm (45⅝ by 28⅝ in.)
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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.
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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
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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: In Collaboration with Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, Paris & Waddington Custot, London
Past viewing_room
