Maria Keil
Learn about the artist's universe through a text accompanied by a selection of works from the exhibition “All I want – Portuguese women artists from 1900 to 2020”
By Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Text by Lígia Afonso / Plano Nacional das Artes
Self-defined as a "worker in the arts", Maria Keil engaged with collaborative formats and the idea of integration across the arts. She dedicated herself to artistic expressions such as painting, tiles, illustration, engraving, tapestry and set, graphic and furniture design.
Pattern tile mural (replica of a section from the Parque subway station in Lisbon) (1959) by Maria KeilOriginal Source: Museu Nacional do Azulejo
Pattern tile mural (replica of a section from the Parque subway station in Lisbon), 1959
Faience, stamped and printed, mounted on acrylic board
168 x 70 cm
Museu Nacional do Azulejo, inv. 179 Az
Tile mural (replica of a section of the mural “The Sea”) (1959/1960) by Maria KeilOriginal Source: Museu Nacional do Azulejo
Tile mural (replica of a section of the mural “The Sea”), 1959-1960
Faience, stamped and printed, mounted on chipboard
168,5 x 84 cm
Museu Nacional do Azulejo, inv. 180 Az
She began to collaborate with architect Francisco Keil do Amaral, her husband, before joining the Technical Advertising Studio, where she worked alongside other modernist artists, taking part in a movement of design renovation in Portugal that would be co-opted by the authoritarian regime in its modernising impulse during the 1930s and 1940s.
Maria Keil carried out numerous commissions for state bodies, collaborating in the promotion of tourism – from the design of tourist guides to the interior design of inns – and in the museographical production of Portuguese pavilions participating in international exhibitions and fairs.
She later collaborated in the construction programme of the Lisbon metro, producing mural decorations in various stations with innovative graphic, geometric and abstract compositions whose subtle variations in colour and pattern establish a sensitive dialogue with their surrounding architecture. This work of public art was of an unprecedented scale and made a decisive contribution to the revitalisation, renovation and revaluation of tile work in Portugal.
Tile clading for the Restauradores metro station (Lisbon), 1959
Photograph by Mário Novais, not dated
Col. Estúdio Mário Novais I FCG – Biblioteca de Arte e Arquivos
Learn more about the artist:
Exhibition «De propósito-Maria Keil, obra artística» | Palácio da Cidadela de Cascais (in Portuguese)
Selection of works presented at the exhibition All I want: Portuguese women artists from 1900 to 2020, in its first moment at Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, within the scope of the cultural program that takes place in parallel to the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2021.
Exhibition organized by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture, Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage (DGPC) and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in co-production with the Center of Contemporary Creation Olivier Debré, Tours, and with the collaboration of the Plano Nacional das Artes (Portugal).
Curators:
Helena de Freitas and Bruno Marchand
Text by Lígia Afonso / Plano Nacional das Artes
Selection of online resources Maria de Brito Matias
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