“Very rare” work signed by Vieira da Silva and Arpad Szénes donated to a museum in Lisbon – Observer
A “very rare” painting, created by the artist couple Maria Helena Vieira da Silva and Arpad Szénes, was donated to the museum of her name, in Lisbon, by the Claude & Sofia Marion Foundation, the entity’s management revealed this Wednesday.
Its about “Le feu d’artifice” (“The Fireworks”), a work created in 1939 in 1939 in 74 gouache by 75.5 centimeters, which, on a background, presents a presentation of geometric figures and symbols, punctuated by stars and comets, with the sun in the center.
It is the only work he has known “by both artists. There may even be more, which I don’t know about, but they are very rare pieces.“, underlined the museum’s director, Marina Bairrão, contacted by the Lusa agency about the new exhibition season, which opens on Thursday.
The Claude & Sofia Marion Foundation, which carries out a distinguished activity in various areas, from culture to health and education, also donated another work to the Arpad Szénes-Vieira da Silva Museum, in the same dimensions, from the same year, and also in gouache on card, signed exclusively by the painter, entitled “Le signes du zodiaque”.
In this work also on a black background, the artist used the same color palette to represent the signs of the zodiac.
According to a director of the Vieira da Silva Museum, as possible works, the Vieira da Silva Museum was published a few months ago: from the pandemic”.
Created still in life Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908-1992), one of the most important Portuguese painters, and established by decree-law on May 10, 1990, Fundação Arpad Szenes – Vieira da Silva, which oversees the museum with the same name, has the mission of guaranteeing the existence of a space, in Portugal, where the public can always contact with the work of the couple of artists.
When France suffered the Nazi occupation, in World War II, Vieira da Silva and Arpad, who lived in Paris, tried to withdraw from Portugal, but the President of the Government at the time, António Oliveira Salazar, in Portuguese nationality to the painter and her husband, a citizen Hungarian of Jewish descent.
Vieira da Silva from then on to Brazil and Exiled Patterns between 190 and 1947remaining stateless until 1956, the French year in which permits were granted to.
The Arpad Szenes – Vieira da Silva Museum was inaugurated on November 3, 1994, in a building in Praça das Amoreiras, provided by the Lisbon City Council, and presents the presentation with the work of the couple or artists with whom they had a type of connection. friendship.
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation paid for the remodeling works and the Luso-American Foundation for the Development of Project Support in the Research Area.
The museum’s collection covers a vast period of the couple’s painting and drawing production: from 1911 to 1985, for Arpad Szenes (1897-1985), and from 1926 to 1986, for Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908-1992).
It was also a desire to Vieira da Silva bequeath a research space open to the publicaccomplished with the creation of the Research and Investigation Center that, in addition to developing internally, temporarily researchers and foreigners.
On Rua João Penha, next to Praça das Amoreiras and the museum, the painter’s former house-atelier is also open to the public, with its own program of exhibitions and conferences, reception of proposals by the community and residencies for artists and researchers.