Beatriz Milhazes
I would say that the carnival parade of Rio is an event that motivates me to be an artist,’ Its wildness and freedom — it’s fascinating! I'm actually a conceptual carnavalesca. - Beatriz Milhazes
Beatriz Milhazes was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1960. Her mother taught art history at a university and her father was a lawyer.
She studied journalism at Hélio Alonso University but found the coursework unsatisfying. Her mother suggested that transfer to Parque Lage Visual Art School, which she found her niche.
Milhazes work is very colorful, very geometric and well-planned. She studied printmaking at school and combines printmaking, painting and collage in her work. She often begins a work by painting on sheets of plastic, which she glues to a canvas and then peels off, leaving paint on the canvas.
She says her work is inspired by Matisse, Mondrian and Brazilian artist Tarsila de Aguiar.
In 2012, her painting Meu Limão achieved an auction price of $2.1 million, making it the most expensive work by a living Brazilian artist ever sold.
Milhazes has had public art commissions in New York, Manchester, England and Inujima and Naoshima Islands in Japan.
Milhazes' paintings are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Banco Itaú, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.