Mary Vieira (1927âÂÂ2001) was a Brazilian sculptor. She was born and raised in Minas Gerais. She at the studied with Alberto da Veiga Guignard in Belo Horizonte. She also studied sculpture with Franz Weissmann and Amilcar de Castro. In 1947, she exhibited in Belo Horizonte MunicipalityâÂÂs Hall of Brazilian Young Artists.
In 1951, Mary Vieira settled in Europe to work with the Swiss artist Max Bill. In 1953, Vieira won the Rio de JaneiroâÂÂs Museum of Modern Art âÂÂBrazilian Sculptureâ Award in São PauloâÂÂs 2nd Biennial. In 1954, at Bill's invitation, she participated in the Constructivist Gruppe AllianzâÂÂs last exhibition. In 1957, Mary Vieira married Italian poet and critic Carlo Belloli, intensifying a key intellectual dialog for her aesthetic journey. The couple lived and worked between Switzerland, Italy, and Brazil. In Europe, she delved into her proposals of dynamic shaped sculptures that are successively classified as: monovolumes, multivolumes, polyvolumes, and intervolumes. One of her best known pieces, "Polyvolume: Meeting Point," was fabricated between 1960 and 1970 for installation in the Itamaraty Palace in Brazil's new capital, BrasÃÂlia. The artist is recognized by international critics as one of kinetic artâÂÂs major representatives. In 1966, she was given the âÂÂInternational Marinetti Award for Plastic Research on Kinevisual Expressionâ on the occasion of the 20th foundation anniversary of the âÂÂSalons des Réalités Nouvellesâ in ParisâÂÂs Municipal Museum of Modern Art.
Many of her art pieces are installed in public places in Brazil, such as Belo HorizonteâÂÂs Rio Branco Square; São PauloâÂÂs Ibirapuera Park; and BrasÃÂliaâÂÂs Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and abroad, such as the Basel University Library; ItalyâÂÂs Monte Castello; and in ZurichâÂÂs Lake Seefeldquai Park. Further to her sculptures, she developed a number of projects as urbanist, graphic designer, and teacher. She took part in individual as well as collective exhibitions in Europe, Brazil and United States, being awarded a number of important prizes for her work. Mary Vieira died in Basel in 2001.
Mary Vieira used to call herself a plastic ideaer. She anticipated divisions between the categories of drawing, painting, sculpture and architecture would be extinguished, and considered interdisciplinarity to be key for the evolution of art. The main concepts in her work are absolutely contemporary. Taking along some models she had idealized before in Brazil, she moved to Switzerland in 1951. In 1952, she was invited to publish the Zeiten einer Zeichnung series for Spirale, major concretist publishers of the time. And there lies the whole essence of her oeuvre, which unfolds from concretism to kinetic art, or, more precisely, to cinevisualism. As Italian critic and poet Carlo Belloli pointed out, Mary VieiraâÂÂs oeuvre summons the spectator to art. The coherence, the precision, and the comprehensiveness of the artistâÂÂs aesthetic view have never been totally displayed in her home country.
The Mary Vieira Archive is managed by ISISUFâÂÂIsituto Internazionale di Studi sul Futurismo, Milano, Italy.