Maria Polo (Veneza, Itália 1937 - Rio de Janeiro RJ 1983)
Maria Polo was an Italian painter, draftswoman, printmaker and stained-glass artist. She studied at the Istituto d'Arte in Venice from 1949 to 1955, where she developed her technical skills and laid the foundations of her artistic career. In 1959 she moved to Brazil, settling in São Paulo, where she held her first solo exhibition at the invitation of Pietro Maria Bardi, marking the start of her artistic career in the country.
In the 1970s, Maria Polo broadened her artistic repertoire to include tile work and stained glass, standing out for her technical complexity, her sensitive use of color and her harmonious compositions that capture light in a unique way. Her work combines influences from Italian art with elements of Brazilian art, making her a reference for collectors as well as for researchers and art students.
Throughout her career, Maria Polo took part in numerous exhibitions and earned recognition from critics and the public. Her legacy remains relevant in modern art, influencing new generations of artists and confirming her place as one of the important figures in Brazilian and international art history.
Critiques
"Her current phase differs considerably from the one Maria revealed at the start of her career as an abstract artist. The colors, once cool and based on gray tones, have taken on the strong light and the joyful, vibrant tone of the tropics. A wide variety of colors breaks the traditional rectangle of the canvas through the combination of broad round and oval forms. Her technique in handling pigment is also very careful. The artist knows how to take advantage of combining various ways of applying paint, achieving great expressiveness through the effects obtained from her chromatic studies. She uses a wide range of tones, composing vibrant but not aggressive canvases (...)."
Equipe Editora Abril
ARTE nos séculos. São Paulo: Abril Cultural, 1972.
"... Maria Polo's painting is violent and at the same time grave; it launches into the aphoristic adventure of forms, composes patches, bringing together garish, shouting colors. She is a shy woman with fire inside. The many critics who have written about her have not discovered that Maria Polo is a Mediterranean: the colors come from the Adriatic sun that lights Ungaretti's immensity, but through a calm, harmonious module. Maria Polo sometimes mixes the light of her homeland with that of the tropics, and from this union come the strangest and most curious coloristic novelties (Gauguin, fusing the climates of Brittany with those of Tahiti, found his color solutions)."
Pietro Maria Bardi
CAVALCANTI, Carlos; AYALA, Walmir, org. Dicionário brasileiro de artistas plásticos. Apresentação de Maria Alice Barroso. Brasília: MEC/INL, 1973-1980. (Dicionários especializados, 5).
Solo Exhibitions
1960 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Masp
1961 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Astréia
1961 - Minnesota (United States) - Solo, at Galeria Select Design
1962 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Academia de Belas Artes de Porto Alegre
1962 - Caxias do Sul RS - Solo, at Clube Italiano
1964 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Maria Polo: Pinturas Recentes [Maria Polo: Recent Paintings], at Barcinski Galeria de Arte
1965 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria São Luiz
1966 - Houston (United States) - Solo, at Kiko Galleries
1966 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Museu de Arte de Belo Horizonte
1966 - Rome (Italy) - Solo, at Galeria da Casa do Brasil
1966 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Copacabana Palace
1967 - Washington D. C. (United States) - Solo, at Instituto Cultural Brasileiro Norte-Americano
1967 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Cosme Velho
1967 - Salvador BA - Solo, at Galeria Concicirum
1968 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Hotel Nacional
1968 - Florianópolis SC - Solo, at MAM/SC
1969 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Banco Nacional de Minas Gerais S/A
1970 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Mini Galery
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Chica da Silva
1972 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Chica da Silva
1973 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Mini Galery
1977 - Rome (Italy) - Solo, at Galeria D'Arte Italo Brasiliana
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Bonino
1979 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Cosme Velho
1980 - Florianópolis SC - Solo, at Ceisa Center
1981 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Studio José Duarte de Aguiar
1981 - São José dos Campos SP - Solo, at Casa das Artes
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Maria Polo: Porcelanas [Maria Polo: Porcelains], at Galeria Aktuell
1982 - Curitiba PR - Expo 82: Maria Polo: Pinturas [Expo 82: Maria Polo: Paintings], at Museu Guido Viaro
Group Exhibitions
1958 - Rome (Italy) - Via Margutta International Art Fair
1960 - São Paulo SP - Women's Contribution to the Visual Arts in Brazil, at MAM/SP
1961 - Curitiba PR - Outubro 1961 [October 1961], at Galeria Paulo Valente
1961 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 10th National Salon of Modern Art
1961 - São Paulo SP - 10th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia - small silver medal
1962 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 11th National Salon of Modern Art
1963 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 12th National Salon of Modern Art
1963 - São Paulo SP - 7th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1964 - Córdoba (Argentina) - 2nd American Art Biennial
1965 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Esso Salon of Young Artists, at MAM/RJ
1965 - São Paulo SP - 1st Esso Salon of Young Artists, at MAC/USP
1965 - São Paulo SP - 8th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1966 - Belo Horizonte MG - 21st Belo Horizonte Municipal Fine Arts Salon
1966 - Salvador BA - 1st National Visual Arts Biennial
1967 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1969 - São Paulo SP - 1st Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1970 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1973 - São Paulo SP - 5th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1976 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Caracas Honorários, at Clube dos Decoradores
1976 - São Paulo SP - National Biennial 76, at Fundação Bienal
Posthumous Exhibitions
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Retrospectiva Maria Polo [Maria Polo Retrospective], at MNBA
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at MNBA
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Bolsa de Arte
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st On the Way to Niterói: João Sattamini Collection, at Paço Imperial
2004 - São Paulo SP - Gesto e Expressão. O Abstracionismo Informal nas Coleções JP Morgan Chase e MAM [Gesture and Expression: Informal Abstraction in the JP Morgan Chase and MAM Collections], at MAM/SP
Source: Itaú Cultural
