Who was the woman artist Maria Helena Vieira Da Silva?
The Portuguese-French artist Maria Helena Vieira da Silva was one of the few women painters to be part of the post-war abstract movement. Her meticulously constructed works, in which the space is broken into fragmented forms, are associated with the “abstract landscape” movement.
The works of the woman artist Maria Helena Vieira Da Silva bridge the border between abstraction and figuration. Vieira da Silva created illusionary spaces—labyrinths playing with perspective, made of intertwining imagery from memory and imagination. Indeed, the artist absorbed everything around her. For Vieira da Silva, the city was an endless source of forms—from the tubular framework of scaffolding to the metallic architecture of its stations and railway tracks. She was particularly fond of the Paris Metro with its white earthenware tiles, underground corridors, platforms and posters. Strongly influenced by Portuguese popular culture, the artist Maria Helena Vieira Da Silva developed a passion for azulejos, a form of multicoloured, decorative ceramic tilework. The square had a powerful presence in her artistic universe, particularly in chequerboard form. The structure of the library also inspired the artist, who was an avid reader.
If you would like to find out more about the woman artist and her works, please visit the painter Maria Helena Vieira Da Silva’s dedicated page.
