BRAZILIAN Mira Schendel Untitled circa 1965 tempera and mixed media on wood 19 5/8 x 18 1/8 in. (50 x 46 cm) Signed "MIRA" on the reverse.
Provenance Private collection of Lourdes Cedran Sao Paulo Galeria Brito Cimino, Sao Paulo Catalogue Essay Celebrated as one of the most significant Brazilian artists of the 20th century, Mira Schendel’s art represents the ideal marriage between philosophical and material engagement. Her life experiences as a young woman constantly on the move—from Zurich to Sofia, Sarajevo, Rome, and eventually Porto Alegre—ignited within her a profound interest in the concept of reality at its most basic level. As the ground beneath her shifted, she gradually became aware of the elemental concepts and connections that all humans share. According to her, human reality is composed of spatial relationships between forms that interact with each other in subtle yet powerful ways. She dedicated her life and career to exploring the world through colors, lines, planes, and materials, in hopes of revealing an all-encompassing dimension of reality. Although Schendel lived in a time when Brazilian art was largely defined by artistic movements and collectives, her body of work remained overwhelmingly unique and individual. She was certainly interested in the ongoing debates about Neo-Concretism, which broadcasted a vision of art that had everything to do with the subjective and experiential. However, while her conceptual and intellectual approaches have various elements in common with the Neo-Concretes, Schendel was less concerned with turning her delicate forms into definable ideas. Each of her works represents a series of aesthetic and material interactions that are both unique and relatable. Her art ultimately answered to itself rather than to any specific movement or overarching philosophy. Always driven by her intellectual curiosity, Schendel’s body of work cannot be fragmented into stylistic periods or stages of specialization. She continuously revisited a wide array of mediums and devices, maintaining an unfailingly experimental approach throughout her life-long practice. Working with tempera, oil, acrylic, paper, and Letraset, Schendel constantly forged an intimate relationship with her materials. She took great pleasure in the physical craft of art making, enjoying the touch of her materials and developing a special trust with their textures and applications. In doing so, she discovered that any given medium can be shown and experienced in different ways, depending on the formal relationships established within it. Her work in painting is representative of these efforts. Schendel’s paintings vary greatly in formal content and technique, and yet they all share a common purpose: in them she seeks to isolate the most minimal interventions necessary to activate their spatial contexts and revolutionize the viewer’s experience. The present lot is an important example of Schendel’s philosophy of art-making and artistic exploration. She delicately applied subtle layers of paint in varying directions, gradually superimposing them and building them up into a composition that is in dialogue with itself. Each brushstroke ignites the texture of the wood support, forever changing and radicalizing it. We are privy to the soft transitions between shades and textures that comprise an intricate and illuminating visual conversation. While the painting may seem abstract in style, to Schendel each brushstroke represents an individual form actively existing within a specific plane. They become independent from her unilateral creative action, and they almost seem to be emanating from the wood rather than from her brush. They are effervescently real, and there is a constant oscillation between fluidity and tension, between aesthetic subtlety and material concentration. As her viewers, we are invited to take part in this exchange that extends to all of Schendel’s forays into form and space. Read More Artist Bio Mira Schendel Brazilian • 1919 - 1988 Born in Zurich and of Jewish heritage, Mira Schendel escaped Switzerland during World War II to settle in Sarajevo and Rom
BRAZILIAN Mira Schendel Untitled circa 1965 tempera and mixed media on wood 19 5/8 x 18 1/8 in. (50 x 46 cm) Signed "MIRA" on the reverse.
Provenance Private collection of Lourdes Cedran Sao Paulo Galeria Brito Cimino, Sao Paulo Catalogue Essay Celebrated as one of the most significant Brazilian artists of the 20th century, Mira Schendel’s art represents the ideal marriage between philosophical and material engagement. Her life experiences as a young woman constantly on the move—from Zurich to Sofia, Sarajevo, Rome, and eventually Porto Alegre—ignited within her a profound interest in the concept of reality at its most basic level. As the ground beneath her shifted, she gradually became aware of the elemental concepts and connections that all humans share. According to her, human reality is composed of spatial relationships between forms that interact with each other in subtle yet powerful ways. She dedicated her life and career to exploring the world through colors, lines, planes, and materials, in hopes of revealing an all-encompassing dimension of reality. Although Schendel lived in a time when Brazilian art was largely defined by artistic movements and collectives, her body of work remained overwhelmingly unique and individual. She was certainly interested in the ongoing debates about Neo-Concretism, which broadcasted a vision of art that had everything to do with the subjective and experiential. However, while her conceptual and intellectual approaches have various elements in common with the Neo-Concretes, Schendel was less concerned with turning her delicate forms into definable ideas. Each of her works represents a series of aesthetic and material interactions that are both unique and relatable. Her art ultimately answered to itself rather than to any specific movement or overarching philosophy. Always driven by her intellectual curiosity, Schendel’s body of work cannot be fragmented into stylistic periods or stages of specialization. She continuously revisited a wide array of mediums and devices, maintaining an unfailingly experimental approach throughout her life-long practice. Working with tempera, oil, acrylic, paper, and Letraset, Schendel constantly forged an intimate relationship with her materials. She took great pleasure in the physical craft of art making, enjoying the touch of her materials and developing a special trust with their textures and applications. In doing so, she discovered that any given medium can be shown and experienced in different ways, depending on the formal relationships established within it. Her work in painting is representative of these efforts. Schendel’s paintings vary greatly in formal content and technique, and yet they all share a common purpose: in them she seeks to isolate the most minimal interventions necessary to activate their spatial contexts and revolutionize the viewer’s experience. The present lot is an important example of Schendel’s philosophy of art-making and artistic exploration. She delicately applied subtle layers of paint in varying directions, gradually superimposing them and building them up into a composition that is in dialogue with itself. Each brushstroke ignites the texture of the wood support, forever changing and radicalizing it. We are privy to the soft transitions between shades and textures that comprise an intricate and illuminating visual conversation. While the painting may seem abstract in style, to Schendel each brushstroke represents an individual form actively existing within a specific plane. They become independent from her unilateral creative action, and they almost seem to be emanating from the wood rather than from her brush. They are effervescently real, and there is a constant oscillation between fluidity and tension, between aesthetic subtlety and material concentration. As her viewers, we are invited to take part in this exchange that extends to all of Schendel’s forays into form and space. Read More Artist Bio Mira Schendel Brazilian • 1919 - 1988 Born in Zurich and of Jewish heritage, Mira Schendel escaped Switzerland during World War II to settle in Sarajevo and Rom
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.jpg?w=400 "Quelle: Christie's")
