Shades of white

This final room is a tribute to the entirety of Vieira da Silva’s career. Serving as a mini-retrospective within the larger exhibition, it brings together works from different stages of her artistic journey, all united by a single element: the color white. As a painter, Vieira da Silva was skilled in her use of color—reds, blues, yellows, and darker tones dominate her oeuvre, as this exhibition clearly shows. However, the perceived neutrality of white and its myriad shades is just as significant as the brighter hues. Vieira da Silva explained that some colors were tied to the seasons for her: “It’s funny, I have summer colors and winter colors; when it’s hot, I like to paint blues and greens… and when it’s cold, I love red.” In contrast, she felt white could be used all year round, perhaps because of its neutral nature or because it allowed her to express an inner emotion that no other color seemed able to capture. Towards the end of her life, Vieira da Silva turned almost exclusively to white as a means of imparting a spiritual dimension to her work.