Matilde Pérez Cerda (December 7, 1916 – October 1, 2014) was a Chilean visual artist who specialised in kinetic art. She was a pioneer of

modern Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...

and kinetic art in Chile. Her best known public pieces include ''Túnel Cinético'' (Kinetic Tunnel) in 1970, and ''el Friso'', which was originally constructed at the Centro Comercial Apumanque in 1982, but is now located at the

University of Talca The University of Talca ( es, Universidad de Talca) is a Chilean university located in the cities of Talca, Curicó, Linares, Santa Cruz and Santiago. Its headquarters and largest campus are located in the city of Talca. It is part of the Chilea ...

Biography

She was born in

Santiago, Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital (political), capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated Regions of Chile, region, t ...

, on December 7, 1916. Studied Art in the University of Chile, where was student of

Pablo Burchard Pablo Burchard (November 4, 1875 – July 13, 1964) was a Chilean painter. His father was German architect Teodoro Burchard Haeberle, who arrived in Chile around 1855, and introduced the Gothic style, and his mother was María (Sofía) Luisa Egg ...

and Jorge Caballero, also receiving lectures by Pedro Reszka and Laureano Guevara. In the Fine Arts School she married Gustavo Carrasco Délano, and they had a son, the architect Gustavo Carrasco Pérez. She moved to Paris, France, during the early 1960s, where she became interested in kinetic art, which focuses on movement, including the work of

Victor Vasarely Victor Vasarely (; born Győző Vásárhelyi, ; 9 April 1906 – 15 March 1997) was a Hungarian-French artist, who is widely accepted as a "grandfather" and leader of the Op art movement. His work entitled ''Zebra'', created in 1937, is consi ...

. She joined the movement and became a kinetic artist herself. Her work shows the "experimentation with the possibilities of creation of virtual movement through the optical illusion", and "is based in the investigation of the visual effects of the abstract forms and the use of colour. Her paint combinates the study of the space, the line, the colour and the materials, which reveals a rigour in the composition, a rational control of colour and a respect to the support" Perez opened more than fifty art shows worldwide during the 2000s and 2010s, including ''El Ojo Latino, Colección Luciano Benetton'' at the Contemporary Arts Museum of Santiago (2008), ''Exposición Arte en América'' at the La Moneda Palace's Cultural Centre (2010–2011), ''Mavi la Colección'' at the Visual Arts Museum of Santiago (2011), and her participation in the Chilean Fine Arts National Museum's Official Hall in 1939, 1943, 1944, 1947 and 1947. In 2004, she received the

Altazor Award The Altazor Award of the National Arts or simply Altazor, is a Chilean award which is awarded annually. The winners are chosen by the own creators and performers of the arts. They were established in 1958, but were not awarded until 1999. The a ...

of National Arts in the Engraving and Drawing category for her work ''Serigrafías'', while in 2011 she received a new nomination to the same award by ''Acá en la Estructura''. In the 2013 version of this prize, she was nominated in the Painting category by ''Open Cube''. At the same year, she received the Academia Prize, otorgated by the Chilean Fine Arts Academy. In 2012, her retrospective exhibition opened at Pinta, the largest annual Latin American art show in London, when she was 95 years old. She was still creating new artistic works at the time and expressed no interest in retiring from her work. The BBC called her "one of the most widely acclaimed women in the international art world." In an interview with BBC Mundo, she was quoted, "One changes if you're bored. If you're not bored you don't change." Her last major exhibition, "Matilde X Matilde, Espacio móvil," featuring previously unpublished sketches and other materials, was held in 2013.

Death

Matilde Pérez died from cardiac arrest in Santiago, Chile, on October 1, 2014, at the age of 97. Her funeral was held at the Iglesia San Patricio in

Las Condes Las Condes is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region. The area is inhabited primarily by upper-mid- to high income families, and known in the Chilean collective consciousness as home to the country's economi ...

with burial at Parque del Recuerdo in Huechuraba.

Tribute

On 7 December 2015, Google Doodle commemorated her 99th birthday.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perez, Matilde 1916 births 2014 deaths 20th-century Chilean women artists 20th-century Chilean painters 21st-century painters 21st-century Chilean women artists Chilean sculptors Chilean women painters Chilean expatriates in France University of Chile alumni Artists from Santiago