Untitled

Mira SchendelWW-1964-048844

1964·Tempera on canvas·91.5 × 130 cm (36 × 51 1/4 in.)

<p>Mira Schendel's <emUntitled</em> is part of a series of strikingly spare paintings rendered in earth tones and with no decorative embellishments. The work, which may be presented either vertically or horizontally, alludes to Schendel's interest in architecture. When viewed horizon-tally, the dark rust-color shape suggests an architectural form, evoking a weathered shed or an iron strongbox with a keyhole. Schendel's adept play with material and space made her one of the leading artists associated with the Neo-Concrete movement of 1950-6os Brazil, which used interactive and kinetic practices to engage with viewers on a social level.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1964
Medium: Tempera on canvas
Dimensions: 91.5 × 130 cm (36 × 51 1/4 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Mira Schendel

Artist

Mira Schendel

Painting

Mira Schendel was a Brazilian artist who worked across drawing, printmaking, and sculpture, creating delicate geometries and mark-making that engaged with language, spirituality, and abstraction. Born in Zurich and based in São Paulo from 1953 onward, her practice emerged from postwar experimentalism, producing small-scale works on paper and translucent materials that explored the threshold between legibility and void. Her monotypes, graphite drawings on rice paper, and white-on-white compositions of the 1960s and 1970s established her as a singular voice in Brazilian modernism.

Zurich, Switzerland

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