MARIA HELENA VIEIRA DA SILVA. ANATOMY OF A SPACE

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection celebrates Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908–1992), a central figure of 20th-century art, with a major retrospective curated by Flavia Frigeri, art historian and curator at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The exhibition explores the extraordinary ability of this Portuguese artist to transform the canvas into a universe of abstract spaces and optical illusions, blending complex geometries with profound visual suggestions. On display are approximately seventy works, sourced from international museums and private collections, which trace the evolution of Vieira da Silva’s pictorial language. The artist has a historical connection with Peggy Guggenheim, who included her in the Exhibition by 31 Women at the Art of This Century gallery in New York in 1943. Furthermore, Hilla Rebay, the first director of the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, purchased her painting Composition (1936) in 1937, which is now part of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s collection. After Venice, the exhibition will travel to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao in the fall of 2025, further solidifying Vieira da Silva’s role as a prominent figure in modern art.

Featured image: Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Figure de ballet 1948 © Jean Louis Los