Maureen Bisilliat

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Sheila Maureen Bisilliat (born February 16, 1931) is an English-born Brazilian photographer. [1]

Contents

Early life

She was born in Englefield Green, Surrey, daughter of the painter Sheila Brannigan (1914–1994) and a diplomat. She studied painting with André Lhote in Paris, in 1955, and at New York's Art Students League with Morris Kantor in 1957.

She came to Brazil for the first time in 1952, establishing herself in 1957, in the city of São Paulo. [2] In her own words, "Brazil was a search for roots which I did not have as a child. I was born in England, yes, but I lived in many places. My father was a diplomat, which forced me to live a sort of a chameleonic life. Fate tied me to Brazil. It was a willfull stay." [3]

From 1962, she abandoned painting and began to dedicate herself to photography. She worked as a photojournalist for Editora Abril, between 1964 and 1972 for the magazines Quatro Rodas and especially prominent in the defunct Realidade .

Together with her second husband, the Frenchman Jacques Bisilliat, and the architect Antônio Marcos Silva, she founded the O Bode folk art gallery in 1972 (until 1992). During this period, she travelled through Brazil in search of works by popular artists and craftsmen, to build the gallery's collection. In 1988, at the request of the anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro, Maureen, Jacques and Antônio Marcos were invited to work on the formation of the Latin American popular art collection of the Fundação Memorial da América Latina in São Paulo. They subsequently traveled through Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru and Paraguay, collecting pieces for the permanent collection of the Memorial's Creativity Pavilion, for which Maureen has since become a curator. [4]

Maureen Bisilliat was given a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1970, [5] and she received grants from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (1981–1987), the São Paulo Research Foundation (1984–1987) and the Japan Foundation (1987).

Since the 1980s, she has devoted herself to video work, notably the Xingu/Terra feature documentary, shot with Lúcio Kodato, in the Mehinako village in the Upper Xingu.

In December 2003, her complete photographic work was incorporated into the Instituto Moreira Salles photographic collection. It comprises more than 16,000 images, including prints, black and white negatives in 35 mm and 6 cm x 6 cm and color slides. [6] [7]

In 17 March 2010, she was awarded the Order of Ipiranga by the São Paulo state government. [8]

Published books

She published a number of photography books inspired by the work of Brazilian writers:

Other notable books by her are:

Exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Awards

In 1987, Maureen Bisilliat received the Best Photographer Award from the São Paulo Association of Art Critics. [9]

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References

  1. Artistas registram últimos dias do Carandiru at Estadão , 27 February 2002.
  2. "Cara Brasileira: a brasilidade nos negócios – um caminho para o "made in Brazil"" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-13. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
  3. Revista Nossa América.unsufficient ref.
  4. Enciclpédia Itaú Cultural de Artes Visuais
  5. "John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation 1970 Fellows Page". 2006-04-12. Archived from the original on 2006-04-12. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
  6. Rio &Cultura.
  7. Instituto Moreira Salles.
  8. "DECRETO Nº 55.576". Portal da Assembleia Legislativa do Estado de São Paulo. 17 March 2010.
  9. Coleção Archived 2009-07-17 at the Wayback Machine Pirelli / MASP de Fotografia.