Lot 17: MARÍA MARTINS (1900-1973)

PROPERTY FROM MALBA-COLECCIÓN COSTANTINI MUSEO DE ARTE LATINOAMERICANO DE BUENOS AIRES

TAMBA TAJÁ

measurements
33 7/8 by 27 3/4 by 9 3/4 in.

alternate measurements
(86 by 70.5 by 24.8 cm)

bronze

Executed in 1946.

PROVENANCE

Estate of the artist
Ana María Martins Turner, Sao Paulo
Galería Jean Boghici, Rio de Janeiro

EXHIBITED

New York, André Emmerich Gallery, The Surrealist Sculpture of María Martins, March 19-April 18, 1998, no. 10, p. 67, illustrated in color
Buenos Aires, Malba-Colección Costantini, Arte en América Latina, September 21-November 25, 2001
Buenos Aires, Malba-Colección Costantini, Visiones, February 23, 2002-May 26, 2003
Buenos Aires, Malba-Colección Costantini, Arte Latinoamericano del siglo XX, August 26, 2003-March, 2005

LITERATURE

Eduardo F. Costantini, Augustín Arteaga and Marcelo E. Pacheco, Malba-Colección Costantini, Mexico, Landucci Editores, 2001, p. 211, illustrated in color

NOTE

"I know that my Goddesses and I know that my Monsters

will always appear to you as sensuous and barbaric.

I know that you would like to see in my hands reign

the immutable measure of eternal leagues.

That I am from the tropics~"

With this bold statement--delivered by Maria Martins in a poem apparently addressed to her lover, Marcel Duchamp--the Brazilian sculptor hit on an aspect of her life and work that has long intrigued her audience.

Taught to cast in bronze by Jacques Lipchitz, many of her works were inspired by Brazilian mythology and folklore. Tamba --Tajá is a plant with triangular dark green leaves, with a second small leaf on its verso, of a shape similar to the female organ. The union of these two leaves is a symbol of great love between couples within the tribe of the Macuxi.

Martin's sensibility and passionate approach to life and work, infused her sculptures with a matchless organic intensity. She may be considered one of Surrealism's great sculptors. Certainly her many admirers considered her so: Duchamp dedicated several works to her including his last major project, Etant donnés, now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and André Breton, who wrote the catalog essay for her 1948 exhibition at the Valentine Gallery in New York, described her as the "shining star" of post-war art. Lavishly praised during the artist's lifetime, Maria Martins' sculptures are extremely rare.