Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

Beatriz Milhazes

Brazilian artist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Remove ads

Beatriz Milhazes (born 1960) is a Brazilian artist. She is known for her work juxtaposing Brazilian cultural imagery and references to western Modernist painting. Milhazes is a Brazilian-born collage artist and painter known for her large-scale works and vibrant colors. She has been called "Brazil's most successful contemporary painter."[3]

Quick facts Born, Known for ...

Beatriz Milhazes's practice includes painting, drawing and collage. Characterized by vibrant colours, optical movement and energetic visual cadences, her abstract work fuses a diverse repertoire of images and forms, combining elements from her native Brazilian context with European abstraction.[4]

As a painter, Beatriz Milhazes uses a unique transfer technique, first painting on plastic sheets before peeling away the dried shapes and collaging them onto the canvas. When she peels the plastic away, the resulting image is superimposed onto the canvas. For these paintings, as well as her collages, prints, and installations, Milhazes draws on a wide range of aesthetic traditions, including folk and decorative art, European modernism, and Antropofagia, a movement founded in the late 1920s that proposed “cannibalizing” the supposedly high-minded European traditions to create a distinctly Brazilian Culture.[5]

Figurehead of the 80s Generation, period of the Brazilian art characterized by the return of young artists to painting, Beatriz Milhazes still lives in Rio, where she was born in 1960. It is in her studio with a view over the Botanical Garden that she polishes up her work.[6]

She has had innumerous international solo exhibitions including Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (2008); Fondation Cartier, Paris (2009); Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2011); Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2012); Museo de Arte Latinoamericano (Malba), Buenos Aires (2012); Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro (2013), Pérez Art Museum, Miami, USA (2014/2015), White Cube Gallery, London (2018), MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo (2020), Long Museum (West Bund), Shanghai (2021), Pace Gallery, NY (2022), Turner Contermporary and Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin (2023).

Milhazes is considered as one of the most important Brazilian artists, having participated at Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (1995); Sydney Biennial, Sydney (1998); Venice Biennale (2003); São Paulo Biennial (1998, 2004); and Shangai Biennial, Shangai (2006).[4]

Her work is included in important museums and public collections such as Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York;  MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York;  Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate Modern, London; SFMoMA – San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; MNBA – Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo; Instituto Itaú Cultural, São Paulo; Fundação Edson Queiroz, Fortaleza; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo Art Museum, Tokyo; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Fondation Beyeler, Basel; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.[6][4]

Milhazes is represented by Pace Gallery, New York; Galeria Fortes D’Aloia e Gabriel, Sao Paulo; Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin; and White Cube, London.[4]

She lives and works in Rio de Janeiro.[4]

Remove ads

Themes

Thematically, the work of Beatriz Milhazes has been described by one critic as "abstract, yet having something new to offer."[7][page needed] This description is something that she believes draws people into her style, especially from a Western audience.[citation needed] Her work is known to contain many Brazilian folk references and can be interpreted as complex in this regard.[8] These references, apparent in many of the vibrant colours and shapes, are often associated with the very poorest part of the population and are generally thought to be of little interest to the upper classes or intellectuals. These references have today changed in their meaning as the social elite has attached importance to them—the importance of being Brazilian and having Brazilian art. Finding the idea of a contradiction fascinating, it is another factor that influences the outcome of her art.[8]

Her installation Gamboa II, for instance, was strongly influenced by the carnival in her native country Brazil which includes dance, costumes and parades. These elements are evident in the work with its bright colours that also embraces a feminine style to the work.

Remove ads

Influence

Drawing from the optical reactions provoked by artists like Bridget Riley and Tarsila do Amaral, Milhazes believes that art is an essential way for people to aestheticize and exteriorize their thoughts and feelings.[7][page needed] Her work often serves as an exploration of the concept of conflict. Filled with intense colors and shapes, her work serves to inspire a strong dialogue as well as “challenging eye movements over easy beauty.”[9] Milhazes also draws her influences from many other female artists such as Sonia Delaunay, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Elizabeth Murray. She has also cited the canon of Brazilian art history as “empowering in its celebration of women artists such as herself.”[8]

Remove ads

Awards and medals

More information Year, Awards and medals ...

Didactic activities

Summarize
Perspective
More information Year, Universities ...

Milhazes' paintings are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art,[11] the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the picture Marotoloco (2014–25) is in the collection of the Pérez Art Museum Miami,[12] the Banco Itaú, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.[1]

Her 2000 painting "Meu Limão" "sold [in 2012] for $2.1 million dollars at Sotheby's in New York City, making her the highest-priced living Brazilian artist at auction."[13]

Painting is the tree trunk of my developments, but other techniques have been playing a bold dialogue between them. An approach of new methods and techniques is very important for the evolving process of the studio practice. I also have an important body of work in special collage, screenprint, sculpture and set design. More recently developing murals and glass facades for public art projects.[14] (Beatriz Milhazes, 2024)

Remove ads

Technique

Summarize
Perspective
Thumb
Marola (2015), National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.

In terms of technique, Milhazes is predominantly concerned with the principle of collage, drawing from her combined knowledge of both Latin American and European traditions.[15] The cultural mixing of her native Brazil is something Milhazes is aware of and to some degree communicates in her paintings as well as being in ties with the Brazilian modernist movement.[8] Milhazes many other influences come from her own fascination with the decorative arts, fashion, and geometry.[2][16] Milhazes has described her own work in saying "I think of my work as geometric, yet I can't put everything into a square or a circle."[17] Her self-developed process of art making came about during her extensive researching of printing processes in the 1980s.[17]

A slow but steady process, time is key to everything for Milhazes. Many of her works start with the painting of plastic sheets, which are then glued to a canvas.[18] These plastic sheets are then peeled off of the canvas like a decal leaving behind paint.[7][page needed] Some of these plastic sheets have been reused by Milhazes for as long as ten years. Often if a particular motif or drawing is well liked by the artist it will be kept, repainted, and added to multiple compositions.[8] She describes these pieces of plastic affectionately, stating that they are imprinted with a memory, a memory that can cause irregularities.[8] These irregularities are happily accepted by Milhazes as something that just comes with her process. In her works, Beatriz focuses on achieving a smooth surface as opposed to visible brush strokes with thickness being an intriguing topic but far from integral to her work and its importance.[19] In this way she can play with the various sheen and levels of contrast that her materials provide in an attempt to further transform her canvas.[20] In her own words Milhazes likens her process to the working-class, saying "I tell my friends that I'm like a bank worker...I come to the studio five days a week and do my job. I pay attention to detail, and try not to make mistakes."[21]

Remove ads

Special projects

2004 "Gavea". "Brasil 40º" Project - Project created for the glass facade of the Selfridges & Co, Manchester, United Kingdom
2005/2006 "Peace and Love" - Vinyl panel created for Gloucester Road tube station - Platform for Art, London Underground, London, United Kingdom
2005/2007 "Guanabara" - Vinyl panel created for the Level 7 restaurant at Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom
2007 "O sonho" - Six panels created for the Taschen store in New York designed by Philippe Starck, USA
2008 "Bailinho" - Project created for the windows of one of the rooms of the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil
"Maracolouco" - Project created for the glass facade of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOT) - Tokyo, Japan
"Gamboa" - Mobile created for Prospect.1, New Orleans-US Biennial, Inc. - Louisiana State Museum, USA
2009 "Casa de Baile e Samambaia" - Project created for the glass facade of the Fondation Cartier, Paris, France
2009/10 "American Seasons" - Wall-painting created for the K&L Gates Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
2010 "Arpoador" - Creation of a garden for the Garden Festival of the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo, Brazil
"Saravá" - Project created for the glass facade of the Stephen Friedman gallery, London, United Kingdom
"O Sol" - Ceramics created for the floor of the Fondation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland
2011 "Aquarium" - Creation of a mobile for Atelier Cartier and Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, France
"Gamboa" - Mobile recreated for the Fondation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland
2012 "Jardim Verde" - Creation of a panel for the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
"Joaquim Maria" - Curtain created for MALBA - Fundacion Costantini, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2013 "Gamboa I" - Mobile created for the Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, RJ
2013/14 "Oceana Norte e Oceana Sul" - Ceramic mosaics created for two murals in the two towers of the Oceana Project, Key Biscayne by Eduardo Constantini, Miami USA.
2015/16 "Oilalá": - Vinyl panel created for Oi Futuro Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro
2016 "Gamboa II" – Mobile created for The Jewish Museum, New York, USA
2016/17 "Moon Love Dreaming" - Permanent project (wall-painting) developed for The Grace Farms Foundation – Nova Canaã/Connecticute, United States. The site's architectural design was developed by SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa).
"Tuiuti and Paquetá" – Permanent ceramic and wall-painting projects, respectively, developed for the driveway and lobby of New York Presbyterian Hospital.
2018/19 "Yellow Flower Dream" – work created for A-Art House, within the Art House Project, Inujima island, Japan.
2020 "Gamboa Seasons in La Jolla" – printed mural reproducing images from the Gamboa Seasons polyptico, part of La Jolla Murals, in the neighborhood of La Jolla, San Diego, CA. Opened in Jul 2020
"Artycapucine LV" – Creation of an exclusive design for the Capucines bag, an icon of the brand. Launch Sep 2020
2021 "Safety Curtain Project", mip-museum in progress and Vienna Opera. 21 October 2021 to 30 June 2022.
2022 "O Esplendor" - Project created for the glass facade of the Long Museum, Shanghai, on the occasion of the exhibition Beatriz Milhazes: Ballet em Diagonais
2023 "O Esplendor" – Project created for the glass facade of Turner Contemporary, Margate, United Kingdom, on the occasion of the exhibition Beatriz Milhazes: Ballet em Diagonais
Remove ads

Exhibitions

Summarize
Perspective

Milhazes has had solo and group exhibitions in a number of museums, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. From 4–21 July 2009, the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris presented a major exhibition of her work.[1]

Inspired by late Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, artist Beatriz Milhazes created Gamboa II, an installation suspended from the ceiling at the Jewish Museum in NYC from May 2016 to mid September 2016.[22][23]

In 2015, Milhazes presented her first United States career survey at the Pérez Art Museum Miami, in Florida. Beatriz Milhazes: Jardim Botânico introduced the US audience to her large-scale pieces from the 1990s.[24]

More information Year, Solo exhibitions ...
More information Year, Collective exhibition ...
Remove ads

References

Bibliography

External links

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads
Remove ads