MIRA SCHENDEL

Provenance:
- Purchased in 1980 in Brazil.
- By descent to the present owner, since then private collection USA.


Born in Zurich in 1919 to a Jewish family of Italian-German origins, Myrrha Dagmar Dub grew up in Milan. The growth of Fascism in Europe forced her to flee first to Sofia in 1930 and then later to Sarajevo. In 1944 she returned to Italy and then emigrated to Brazil in 1949. Only then did the former philosophy student begin to dedicate herself to art.
In Brazil in the 1950s there raged a passionate debate about the significance of art in a modern post war society. On the one side stood the defenders of figurative art, which was seen as the symbol of nationalism and revolution; on the other side were the supporters of abstraction, which was seen as a unique opportunity for the renewal of art after the experiences of the war.

Mira Schendel was influenced by both sides, but in the end turned to neither group. Starting with figurative work, she turned again and again to abstraction, in which her distinct interest in materiality played a great role. Above all, for her the making of a work – the handmade element – represented a connection between the real world and the artist. The present work from 1982 powerfully demonstrates her love of experimentation, with the use of various types of paper, and the meaning of materiality within her work.

The present piece from 1972 is a fine example of her expert use “of a reduced concrete formal language, in order to fathom the existential dimensions of emptiness, of the ephemeral and of stillness.” (quote Philipp Meier, in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Südliche Spielarten, 19.12.2009).

Alongside Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica, Mira Schendel is one of the most important Brazilian artists of the second half of the 20th century.