Artists: Maria Helena Vieira da Silva - Alicia Penalba

A&R Fleury gallery is pleased to present “Vieira da Silva / Penalba. The Path to Consecration”, an exhibition curated by Victoria Giraudo.

This historic project revisits a key period in the careers of Maria Helena Vieira da Silva and Alicia Penalba, from their rise on the post-war Parisian scene to their international consecration. This unique selection brings their works together for the first time, exploring the many artistic and personal similarities between their practices.

A painter and a sculptor, respectively, both also engravers, Vieira da Silva and Penalba were born five years apart. Over the course of their careers, the two artists played an active part in the cultural hub that was École de Paris, a shared context that fostered their friendship. Their paths converged in the early 1950s, when Vieira returned from Brazil and Penalba left Argentina for Paris. In 1959, they were among the few women invited to participate in the prestigious Documenta II in Kassel. Two years later, the VI Bienal de São Paulo awarded them important prizes, marking a crucial milestone in their professional lives.

Neither figuratives nor entirely abstract, the correspondences are multiple: they appear in the structure of the works, their sources of inspiration and their Latin culture, and extend to the shared, deep, absolute commitment of the two women to their artistic practice.