Through a selection of about seventy works—on loan from leading international museums, private collections and galleries as well as the Comité Arpad Szenes-Viera da Silva, Paris, and Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva Foundation, Lisbon—the exhibition provides an in-depth exploration of the evolution of the visual language of Portuguese-born French artist Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908–1992).
Highlighting the important relationship between abstraction and figuration in her work, the exhibition explores key moments in Vieira da Silva’s career from the 1930s to the late 1980s. Particular attention is given to her interest in architectural space, where she dissolved the boundaries between real and imaginary urban landscapes and moved beyond formal references to Portuguese visual culture and avant-garde movements such as Cubism and Futurism.
After Venice, the exhibition will be on view at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao from October 15, 2025, through February 22, 2026.
