Temporary Exhibitions

Gallery 105

(October 16–February 22)

The exhibition dedicated to Portuguese abstract painter Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (b. 1908; d. 1992) is divided into several sections that cover her work from 1930 to 1980.

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva was an outstanding member of the School of Paris thanks to her unique language, oscillating between figuration and abstraction. In her paintings she created scenes that are halfway between fiction and reality, using projecting lines, grids, checkerboards, and motifs inspired in traditional Portuguese tiles, thus transforming the painting space within the canvas. In 1938, faced with the threat of World War II, she was forced into exile in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she produced paintings like Tragic Maritime Story or Shipwreck (História trágico-marítima ou Naufrage, 1944).

After the war, she returned to Paris, where she continued her work on real and imaginary structures and architectures, as in The City (La Ville, 1950–51). In her work, the artist painted labyrinthine interiors, colorful kaleidoscopes where figures merge into the ground.

In the final section of the exhibition, the vibrant hues of many of Vieira da Silva’s paintings give way to different shades of white, which reflect the Vieira Da Silva’s experiments with light—a constant throughout her career.