How come I don’t know anything about the Portuguese artist Helena Almeida?!
I must hasten to add: Helena Almeida is highly regarded – by those who know her, but if you try to do any research on her work you’ll find your sources to be … sparse (to put it mildly). There is, I believe, two reasons for her relative anonymity in the art world, none of them have anything to do with aesthetic quality:
- She is a woman
- She is Portuguese
Fame and recognition in the art world is still mainly reserved for white men, situated in the US or central Europe.
One of the best presentations of Helena Almeida I have found so far, is this video from Jeu de Paume:
If you happen to know anything about her – please let me know!
Helena Almeida, born in Portugal in 1934. Helena Almeida has developed a body of work that marries unconventional materials with photography, drawings, and performance. Presented at the Venice Biennale in 2005 with the exhibition Intus.
sub rosa 
Very interesting – thank you for the introduction! I enjoyed that little film too.
Out of curiosity, I tried a search on Google Scholar in German… not much luck. I tried a search on Google Images. Maybe there’s something there? One of the first hits was <> … likely you’ve seen it, but maybe not. or this? <> and no doubt this <> Out of curiosity, I tried a search on Bing… some different images and exhibitions showed up, or at least were closer to the top of the list. So, I tried Google Scholar in Portuguese. A number of citations to scholarly articles and books showed up. Here’s one: http://www.openbibart.fr/item/display/10068/895860. For example, I tried “Almeida helena fotografia arta” and got <> and this doctoral thesis <> Note: changing the search terms and search language really changes what shows up Worth a try? I don’t have access to a library with these titles. Perhaps you do? Thanks for inspiring my little search.
Thank you, Harold! I’m working my way S L O W L Y through everything I can find, links very much appreciated!
out of enthusiasm, inspired by your blog, this final note: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ8gFEFtKR4 no doubt, you’ve seen it, but did you notice that there are 3 other videos referenced? No doubt you did. Just sharing.
So exciting! I am not surprised that I never heard of her as I am just learning about the art of the last century now but I worry that she is the tip of an iceberg that may already have been lost, a massive silence of women artists. *shudders* No, I won’t go there in my ponderings. (on my breast bone my father’s words are engraved “a woman can paint but only like a woman”) *shudders*
I have done alot of research about Helena Almeida. I have a show in Portugal in January and the work is partially inspired by Almeida. Send me your email and I will send you an invitation. Best, Sherry Wiggins
email: sherrywiggins55@hotmail.com
https://sherrywigginsblog.com/