Brazilian Artist Teresinha Soares, Known for Provocative Works on Gender and Politics, Dies at 99

Teresinha Soares, a significant Brazilian artist whose practice in the 1960s and 1970s confronted societal norms around gender, sexuality, and political repression, passed away on March 31 in Belo Horizonte at age 99. Her death followed hospitalization for a broken femur. Soares was a central figure in Brazil's New Figuration movement, creating paintings, installations, and performances characterized by bold colors, simplified forms, and an explicit engagement with eroticism and the female body. Her work directly challenged patriarchal structures and the conservatism of Brazil's military dictatorship, which began in 1964. She described her art as an 'erotic art of contestation,' focusing on themes of desire, freedom, and women's rights. Key works include the interactive installation 'Camas' (Beds, 1970) and the assemblage 'Caixa de fazer amor' (Lovemaking box, 1967). Her relatively brief career, spanning from 1965 to 1976, has gained international recognition in recent years through major exhibitions. She was featured in Tate Modern's 'The World Goes Pop' (2015) and the Hammer Museum's 'Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985' (2017). In 2017, the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) mounted a major retrospective, 'Who's Afraid of Teresinha Soares?', her first institutional solo show in over four decades. Her gallery, Gomide & Co., noted her lasting legacy in investigations of desire and expression. Independent curator Fernanda Morse wrote that Soares used the body to reorganize affections and reposition women from objects to subjects. Born in Araxá, Minas Gerais in 1927, Soares was also the first woman elected to her hometown's city council in the 1940s. She studied art in Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro, where she engaged with contemporaries like Ivan Serpa and Anna Maria Maiolino. She participated in multiple São Paulo Bienals. After ceasing art production, she focused on family life and farming. Her daughter is artist Valeska Soares.