Checkmate: dancers, chess players, and card players

Belgian critic and painter Michel Seuphor described Vieira da Silva’s work as “a space without dimensions, limited and limitless at the same time, a hallucinating mosaic of which each element is endowed with an inner strength that immediately transcends its own substance.” These words speak most eloquently to the body of work exhibited in this section, featuring dancers, chess players, and card players—here Vieira da Silva crafts a language of abstraction in which figurative forms are both concealed and revealed. Small, juxtaposed squares painted meticulously are the basis for these lively works. The range of colors is kaleidoscopic, leading the eye to wander between the checks as they project an impression of movement. While Vieira da Silva’s dancers are perpetually undulating, ebbing, and flowing, her players are instead locked into games of cards or chess that are constantly unfolding—a metaphor for the game of life as it takes place before our eyes.