Mira Schendel
(1919 - 1988)
Mira Schendel was born in Zurich and moved to Milan to study art and philosophy. She abandoned her studies during the Second World War and soon moved again to Brazil where she participated in the 1st Bienal Internacional de São Paulo in 1951. During the 1960s, Schendel made a series of drawings on rice paper which paved the way for a period of intense experimentation. She made a series of twisted rice paper sculptures called Droguinhas (Little Nothings), which she exhibited at the Signals Gallery in London in 1966 on the recommendation of noted curator and critic Guy Brett. Unlike her artistic contemporaries Schendel chose not to convey the tumultuous Brazilian political situation through her art, but to concentrate on formal issues alone.