Felícia Leirner

Sculpture by Felícia Leirner in the Museo de Arte Moderno de São Paulo

Bronze sculpture by Felícia Leirner (Colección del Palácio dos Bandeirantes São Paulo )

Felícia Leirner (* 1906 in Warsaw , Poland , † 1996 in São Paulo ) was a Brazilian sculptor .

life and work

Felícia Leirner moved in 1927 with her husband Isai Leirner (1903–1962; textile industrialist, art patron and later director of the MAM Museum ) from Warsaw to Brazil. She studied painting with Yolanda Mohalyi in São Paulo and began studying sculpture with Victor Brecheret in 1948 . In 1953 and 1955 she took part with her works in the international biennials in São Paulo and in 1955 she received the acquisition award of the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro . Her sculptures were added to the collections of the Art Museum of São Paulo (MASP) and the Museum of Modern Art in Paris in 1957, as well as the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Tate Gallery in London. In 1963 she was named the best Brazilian sculptor by the São Paulo Biennale . Museums like the Hermitage of Russia, the Royal Museum of Belgium and the Modern Gallery of Belgrade exhibit their works. In 1978 the Felicia Leirner Museum was opened in Campos do Jordão, to which she donated all of her works. In 1987 the International Sculpture Center of Washington counted the Felicia Leirner sculpture park among the most important in the world in its Sculpture magazine .

Their children Nelson Leirner and Giselda Leirner are also artists.

plant

Leirner's early work was influenced by the work of the sculptors Aristide Maillol , Marino Marini and Kenneth Armitage . She mainly created bronze figures with roughened surfaces, which thematically often dealt with family and motherhood. Later, her works became more abstract, via nested structures and organic, merging masses to useful sculptures made of white cement and flat, cut-out forms with a constructive character. Most recently, Leirner designed clay small sculptures cast in bronze, most of which were birds.

Works (selection)

• Figure ( Figura , 1950), Banco Itaú collection, São Paulo
• Composition ( Composition , 1962), Tate Modern collection, London
• Cruzes I ( Cruzes , 1963), Museo Felícia Leirner
• Estruturação II ( Estrutura II , 1964/65), Museo Felícia Leirner
• São Francisco ( Saint Francis of Assisi , 1966)
• Sculpture (1973), Sculpture Garden, Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo
• Colunnas (1975/76), Collection of the Palace of the Bandeirantes in São Paulo
• The birds ( Los pájaros , 1978/79), Plaza da Sé, in São Paulo
• Moon in the Window (1982), Felicia Leirner Museum

literature

• Michael Nungesser : Leirner, Felicia . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 84, de Gruyter, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-023189-2 , p. 16.
• Leirner, Felicia . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 6 , supplements H-Z . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1962, p. 200 .

Web links

• Website of the Leirner Museum
• Biography of Felícia Leirner and a detailed overview of the exhibition