Eli Heil (1929–2017) was a Brazilian painter, sculptor,

ceramicist Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take forms including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is one of the visual arts. Whil ...

, tapestry maker and poet. She exhibited on numerous occasions in Brazil and abroad.

Early life

Eli Malvina Heil was born in 1929 in

Palhoça Palhoça is a municipality in Santa Catarina, Brazil. History Palhoça was founded in 1793, when the city was part of the way between Lages and Florianópolis in order to protect the capital state from possible invasions. Its name comes from ...

Santa Catarina State Santa Catarina (, ) is a state in the South Region of Brazil. It is the 7th smallest state in total area and the 11th most populous. Additionally, it is the 9th largest settlement, with 295 municipalities. The state, with 3.4% of the Brazilia ...

in Brazil. She spent her childhood and youth in the neighbouring municipality of

Santo Amaro da Imperatriz Santo Amaro da Imperatriz, or simply Santo Amaro, is a municipality in Santa Catarina located close to the state capital Florianópolis and is connected to Palhoça by BR-282 in the northeast. Location The municipality contains part of the ...

, becoming a physical education teacher. She eventually moved to Florianópolis, where she taught physical education at a college, before dedicating herself fully to artistic activity from 1962.

Artistic work

Heil was self-taught. Her work followed a unique style and galleries always found difficulty in classifying her, variously using "art brut", "naïve art", "primitive art", "innate art" or, even "unusual art". Initially, she drew animals and painted landscapes of hills with houses based on the urban landscape of Florianópolis, using thick layers of paint and saturated colours. In 1962, she held her first solo exhibition, in Florianópolis. She then began to develop three-dimensional objects, applying rag dolls to the surface of a canvas and creating imaginary beings with different materials, such as ceramics, cement, wood, mortar and melted plastics, resulting in hybrid beings composed of human, animal and mythological characters. She had a show at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo (MAC-USP) in 1966. Two years later, she started to exhibit in Europe. She participated in the First Latin American Biennial of São Paulo, in 1978, and in the 16th International Biennial of São Paulo in 1981. The

Santa Catarina Art Museum The Museu de Arte de Santa Catarina (MASC), was created in 1949 as Museu de Arte Moderna de Florianópolis (MAMF), and, since then, is the official institution for fine arts In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily f ...

(MASC) held a retrospective exhibition of her work in 1982.

''O Mundo Ovo''

In 1987, she created ''O Mundo Ovo'' (The Egg World) in Florianópolis where she set up her studio and a space for the permanent exhibition of her art, bringing together a collection of over 3000 works. Many of her sculptures are displayed in the museum's garden. These included totems called Adam and Eve,

polychrome Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors. Ancient Egypt Colossal statue ...

sculptures over three metres high, which stood at the entrance to the museum. However, they had to be removed in 1990 as a result of road widening. Heil then buried them in a "cemetery" in the garden. In 1994, her ''O Mundo Ovo'' Foundation officially opened. It also has an archive of books, catalogues, printed matter and other documents associated with Heil.

Death

Heil died in Florianópolis from a heart attack on 10 September 2017. She had suffered from asthma for years and had had severe respiratory attacks.

Solo exhibitions

Heil's solo exhibitions were: *1962 - Florianópolis - Galeria Baú *1963 -

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

- Instituto Brasil-Estados Unidos (IBEU) *1963 -

Brasília Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...

Alliance Française An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

*1964 - Rio de Janeiro - IBEU *1964 - Florianópolis -

Federal University of Santa Catarina The Federal University of Santa Catarina ( pt, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, UFSC) is a public university in Florianópolis, the capital city of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil. Considered one of the leading universities in Brazil ...

*1966 - Florianópolis - Santa Catarina Art Museum (MASC) *1966 -

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

SP - Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo - MAC/USP *1967 - Paris (France) - Individual, at Solstice Gallery *1967 - Florianópolis - Federal University of Santa Catarina. *1968 - Ibiza - Ivan Spence Gallery *1968 -

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

- Galerie M. Benezite *1968 -

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, , Brazilian ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of 1,488,252 inhabitants (2020) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, twelfth most populous city in the country ...

Rio Grande do Sul Museum of Art The Rio Grande do Sul Museum of Art (in Portuguese: ''Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul Ado Malagoli - MARGS'') is an art museum in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. It is located in the centre of Porto Alegre. Its eclectic building, national he ...

(MARGS) *1969 -

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

- Galeria Espace *1969 - Florianópolis - MASC *1971 - Florianópolis - MASC *1971 - Paris - Solstice Gallery *1971 - Rio de Janeiro - Galeria Barcinski *1971 - Amsterdam - Galerie Espace *1971 -

Blumenau Blumenau is a city in Vale do Itajaí, state of Santa Catarina, in the South Region of Brazil. It is away from the state capital of Florianópolis. The city was founded by the German chemist and pharmacist Hermann Bruno Otto Blumenau (181 ...

- Galeria Açu-Açu *1973 -

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

- Louisiana Museum *1973 -

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

- Sorya Henis Onstad Museum *1973 - Paris - Debret Gallery *1973 - Paris - L'Oeil de Boeuf Gallery *1973 - Paris - M. Benezite Gallery *1974 - Florianópolis - MASC *1974 - São Paulo - Galeria Oca *1977 - Paris - L'Oeil de Boeuf Gallery *1978 - Paris - L'Oeil de Boeuf Gallery *1982 - Florianópolis - MASC *1984 - Florianópolis - Retrospective at MASC *1984 - Paris - L'Oeil de Boeuf Gallery *1986 - Brasília - Retrospective at the Brasília Art Museum *1986 - Florianópolis - MASC *1989 - Paris - L'Oeil de Boeuf Gallery *1990 - Florianópolis - MASC *1992 - Florianópolis - “30 years of Art”, at the Santa Catarina Association of Plastic Artists (ACAP) *1993 - Florianópolis - AABB Cultural Space *1995 - Florianópolis - “66 Years of Life”, at the Development Bank of Santa Catarina (BADESC)

References

External links

Film about her work
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heil, Eli 1929 births 2017 deaths 20th-century Brazilian women 21st-century Brazilian women People from Santa Catarina (state) Brazilian women sculptors Brazilian women painters