Beatriz Milhazes (b. 1960)

'Milhazes draws the basic motifs of her oeuvre from the history and culture of her homeland as well as from Western art history. Serving as sources of inspiration are the Brazilian movements of Tropicalismo and Modernismo (especially their leading exponent, artist Tarsila do Amaral), in which folkloric elements coalesce with influences from the Americas and Europe, as well as Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian, Sonia Delaunay-Terk, and Bridget Riley. Milhazes has developed an artistic vocabulary that touches on Brazil's landscapes and folklore as well as on the flower-power aesthetic of the nineteen-seventies, even integrating motifs from the Op Art movement. Incidentally, the intense chromaticity manifesting within her works, though an attribute of traditional Brazilian culture, is nevertheless untypical for the art of Brazil in which Milhazes occupies the position of lone wolf.' (M. Kono quoted in Beatriz Milhazes, exh. cat., Fondation Beyeler, Basel, 2011, p. 32).