Helene Love-Allotey
Head of Department
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Lot 3
Bertina Lopes(Mozambican, 1924-2012)Fiesta
2 May 2019, 14:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$7,575 inc. premium
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Bertina Lopes (Mozambican, 1924-2012)
Fiesta
signed and dated 'Bertina 90' (lower right); signed, dated and inscribed 'Bertina Lopes 91' (verso), signed, titled, dated and inscribed 'Bertina 75-89 "fiesta"' (verso)
oil on canvas
120 x 140cm (47 1/4 x 55 1/8in).
signed and dated 'Bertina 90' (lower right); signed, dated and inscribed 'Bertina Lopes 91' (verso), signed, titled, dated and inscribed 'Bertina 75-89 "fiesta"' (verso)
oil on canvas
120 x 140cm (47 1/4 x 55 1/8in).
Footnotes
Born in Maputo in 1924 to a Mozambican mother and Portuguese father, Bertina Lopes left for Lisbon to pursue a degree in painting and sculpture. It was in Lisbon where Lopes met and socialised with famous artists such as Carlo Botelho, Albertina Mantua, Costa Pinheiro and Nuno Sampayo. She was influenced by avant-garde painting of Portuguese modernism. In this period the National Society of Fine Arts held an exhibition of Western painters and South American artists which also had a profound impact on Lopes.
In 1953 Lopes returned to Mozambique to teach at General Machado Girls' Technical School. However, during this period Lopes became politically involved, socializing with both Edoardo Mondane, the founder of FRELIMO (Frente de Liberaçao do Moçambique), and Samora Machel, the future President of the Republic of Mozambique. She also married Virgilio de Lemos, whose anticolonial poem resulted in a trial for the desecration of the Portuguese flag in 1954. As a direct result of her increasing political activity, Lopes was forced to flee Mozambique for Portugal. After a significant amount of upheaval, in the early 1970s Lopes moved to Italy where she would stay for the remainder of her life.
In the early 1990s, Lopes developed a fascination for the Cosmos. The present lot is one of this series, characterised by the heavy drips of paint and kaleidoscope of colour. With the finely painted stripes glowing from underneath the poured paint, this is an abstract depiction of the universe. The development of this new body of work was clearly escapism from everyday life. To this day Lopes is considered one of the most important modern female artists from Mozambique.