During the last decade of her life, Ione Saldanha produced her Tábuas (Planks), a series that she considered an extension of her previous Ripas (Slats) and Bambus (Bamboos). If in her abstract paintings of the fifties Saldanha achieved a synthesis of popular and urbanist elements, it is in the spatial jump of her Planks, Slats and Bamboos that the deconstructed urban landscape achieves physicality.
Although very active while living, with over ten participations in the São Paulo Biennial — in addition to numerous exhibitions across Brazil, Colombia, Italy and Portugal —Saldanha’s fundamental role within twentieth century Brazilian art is yet to be duly recognized.
Ione Saldanha is participating posthumously in the 60th Venice Biennale, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, who in 2021 put together the largest retrospective exhibition dedicated to her work at the Museo de Arte de São Paulo (MASP).
IONE SALDANHA
b. Alegrete, 1919, d. Rio de Janeiro, 2021
A painter and sculptor born in south of Brazil, Saldanha participated in more than ten editions of the São Paulo Biennial, three editions of the Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira at MAM-SP – São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (1969, 1970 and 1975); 10ª Quadriennale di Roma (1977); 2ª Bienal de Arte Coltejer, Medellín, Colombia (1970); Brasil/60 anos de Arte Moderna, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (1982); Forma/Suporte, MAC – Niterói Contemporary Art Museum (2003), and Genealogias do Contemporâneo, MAM – Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro (2010).
Among her numerous solo shows, the following stand out: Bobinas, MAM - Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro (1971); Ione Saldanha, Brazilian Institute of Architects, Rio de Janeiro (1981); Ione Saldanha, Paço Imperial do Rio de Janeiro (1996); Ione Saldanha: The Time and the Color, MAM – Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, MON – Museum Oscar Niemeyer – Curitiba, Brazil, Iberê Camargo Foundation, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2012), and Ione Saldanha: The Invented City, MASP – Museum of Art of São Paulo (2021).
