Wanda Pimentel

Wanda Pimentel (1943 – 23 December 2019) was a Brazilian painter, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her work is distinguished by "a precise, hard-edge quality encompassing geometric lines and smooth surfaces in pieces that often defy categorization as abstract or figurative.
“My studio is in my bedroom,” Pimentel said in an interview. “Everything has to be very neat . . . I work alone. I think my issues are the issues of our time: the lack of perspective for people, their alienation. The saddest thing is for people to be dominated by things.”
Pimentel held her first solo exhibition in 1969 at Rio’s Galeria Relêvo and went on to participate in the Seventh Paris Biennale and the Eleventh Bienal de São Paulo (both 1971) and “International Pop” at the Walker Art Center (2015). Her work is in the collections of the Modern Art Museum of Rio de Janeiro; the Contemporary Art Museum, Rio de Janeiro; The Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires; and Art Institue of Chicago. Her work was included in the Brooklyn Museum’s 2018 exhibition “Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985.” 
She departed from her well-known Pop works when she created series titled “Bueiros” (Manholes) and “Portas” (Doors) in the late 1970s, “Invólucros” (Capsules) and “Linhas” (Lines) in the 1990s, “Animais” (Animals) in the 2000s, and “Memórias” (Memories) in the 2010s, among others.
Early life and education.
Pimentel was born in 1943. Her father died when she was 12 years old. She began painting around the age of 20.
In 1964, she began studying art at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro as a student of Ivan Serpa, one of the pioneers of constructivism in Brazil during the 1950s. Serpa founded and led Grupo Frente alongside Lygia Clark, Helio Oiticica, and Franz Weissman. He was known for his rigorous geometric abstractions. Under his influence, Pimentel developed her plain constructivist spatial organization as well as her consistent use of precise and straight lines in her artworks. Her smooth brushwork was inspired by the neofiguration period. During the 1960s, she experimented with different styles, such as pop art in the United States and England, nouveau réalisme in France, and neofiguration and new objectivity in Brazil.
Selected artworks.
"Sem Título" (Untitled), from the series "Envolvimento" (1968).
Medium: Vinyl paint on canvas
Wanda Pimentel primarily uses four colors in this painting: red, green, white, and yellow. There are two fragmented female legs as well as everyday objects. These include two chairs, a hair dryer, and an open purse which includes the following: a hair comb, lipstick, several bobby pins, a toothbrush, nail polish, and hair spray. They all appear to be in an indoor setting. There is a dual relationship represented in this painting: "it might seem that a young woman is simply making use of the world of objects, but at the same time the female body is objectified."
Abstrato Verde (Green Abstract), from the series Envolvimento (1969).
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
In this painting, Wanda Pimentel uses two primary colors: green and red. There is a fragmented bare foot on a table in this painting as well as another table with kettles on it. The female appears to be in the kitchen, a place traditionally dominated by women. The way the female's foot is positioned suggests that she is merely watching as chaos ensues in the kitchen. The title of the artwork may be intended as subtle irony since Pimentel was never concerned with distinguishing figuration from abstractionism.
"Sem Título", 1970.
Medium: Vinyl on wood
Continuing the theme of fragmentation, Wanda Pimentel uses wood pieces to represent fragments of urban life. This is one of Pimentel's experiments with using three-dimensional art to extend the range of geometric lines and indefinite spaces. This piece goes up three steps and is colored gray and black.
Art critic Frederico Morais wrote in 1979:Wanda started running through the spaces of the house – bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, living room — portraying in them objects that, soon, were seen as if from inside, radiographed or dissected: drawers, archives, falling plaster on the wall. And as if anticipating her contact with the outer world, she began to portray objects that also were means of communication: telephone, television, photographic cameras. And between timid and frightened, she one day opened the door to the street. Before, in a formal level, she had already moved from canvas to reliefs, cutting out of the very support the shape of the portrayed objects, thus arriving at the construction of "objects": door with doormats, staircases, corners of rooms and pieces of sidewalks, in which she introduces different kinds of manholes.
Selected series.
"Envolvimentos" (1968–1984).
The "Envolvimentos (Involvement)" series, which includes 27 paintings, remains the most iconic series of Pimentel's work. It is primarily made up of pieces created during 1968 and 1969, but the work continued until 1984. This series was seen as the "clashing of two irreconcilable references: lines and abstract, geometric shapes as well as the desire to represent the contemporary and everyday world in transformation as it is experienced and perceived." Wanda Pimentel questioned an "impersonal and mechanized world, in an epoch when mass media communications and the aesthetics of spectacle, embodied by television, had already declared victory over the silence of intimacy."
In the 1960s, art all around the world was used in mass media and consumer culture as well as in the women's rights movement. In 1968, Artur da Costa e Silva's military junta introduced the Institutional Act #5 (AI-5), which abolished the national legislature and prohibited every sort of political protest. In this context, Pimentel's "Envolvimentos" can be viewed as a subtle, yet critical, strike against the system.
Wanda Pimentel used "rich colors and surgical precision" in her "Envolvimento" paintings which include fragmented female bodies in domestic environments. The body parts are mixed with the interiors geometric shapes and lines. Her paintings do not have shading. She used everyday objects, furniture, and utensils like shoes, teapots, umbrellas, etc. to surround the fragmented body parts of women. She does this as a critical response to the mores of consumer society and of the sexual repression and misogyny of Brazil's military dictatorship. To avoid censorship from the AI-5, Pimentel used partly nude body parts and regular household objects to conceal the political messages the art represents.
"Geometria/Flor" (2015).
The "Geometria/Flor" series was created as a celebration of all the work Pimentel has done since the 1960s. Although this series is completely new, some paintings contain elements such as geometric forms and stairs that echo previous works. Pimentel focuses on her own personal memories, in some of which she is searching for memories of her father. She uses the color gold extensively in this series as a reference to Baroque art and as a reminder to celebrate life. She uses flowers in this series as well as shades of white and red.
The series also includes four works that Pimentel created in 1965 as a student of Ivan Serpa, which had never been shown previously. These drawings were made with a ballpoint pen and sheets of paper.
While creating this series Pimentel came across a poem by Fernando Pesseoa called "O Último Sortilégio" ("The Last Spell") that she included in her exhibition instead of a traditional critical text. Pimentel commented "The poem has a lot to do with these works. I wanted something sensitive, so I chose this poetry. Portuguese from Portugal is very dense, very beautiful when written. And my father was very fond of Fernando Pessoa".
Exhibitions.
Individual exhibitions.
1974 Galeria de Arte Global, São Paulo, SP 
Group Exhibitions.
Janeiro, RJ
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