Maria Helena Vieira da Silva

María Helena Vieira da Silva (Lisbon, June 13, 1908 - Paris, March 6, 1992) was a Portuguese painter. He had to emigrate to Brazil during the Second World War, after which he returned to Europe, settling permanently in Paris.

Her work linked to the Second School of Paris helped her to be considered the most important Portuguese painter of the 20th century. His paintings are situated between abstract painting and figurative painting, between interest in primitivism and synthetic cubism. All of them are an amalgamation of styles, ideas and developments that merge in each painting. Because of this, they are so easy to identify.

Vieira da Silva's work was included in a group exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel in 1954 and in the Caracas Biennial four years later, 1958. His first retrospective was held at Kestner Gesellschaft, in Hannover, 1958. Also in the same year She exhibited at the Pittsburgh International (now Carnegie International) and was mentioned in the Guggenheim International Prize exhibition. In 1963 he made his first stained glass window for Saint Jacques de Reims and that same year he received the Grand National Prize for the Arts in Paris. She had retrospectives at the Musée de Grenoble, in France (1964); Civic Museum in Turin (Italy, 1964); Musée national d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris (1969-1970); Musée Fabre in Montpellier (France, 1971); Musée d'ar moderne de la Ville de Paris (1977) and Juan March Foundation in Madrid (1991). Also, she was the artist honored at the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1989.