Untitled

Mira SchendelWW-1964-136503

1964·Monotype on Japanese paper·46.8 × 23 cm (18 7/16 × 9 1/16 in.)

<p>In 1964, Schendel began a series of monotypes, eventually producing 2,000 prints on Japanese rice paper. Each sheet of paper was placed on an inked piece of glass that had been covered with powder to prevent immediate absorption. Using her finger, or a pointed implement such as a nail, she pressed a drawing into the paper, which then absorbed the ink. The resulting works, more drawings than prints, record the spontaneity and immediacy of the artist’s gesture.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1964
Medium: Monotype on Japanese paper
Dimensions: 46.8 × 23 cm (18 7/16 × 9 1/16 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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