Tomie Ohtake, Japanese-Brazilian artist known for her bold, primary colored abstract paintings and gravity-defying monumental sculptures, has died at 101.

She was one of the leading Brazilian abstract artists. The Instituto Tomie Ohtake in São Paulo was founded in her honor.

A seemingly paradoxical relationship between silence and rhythm has permeated the works of Tomie Ohtake since the 1960s, when the artist became established in abstract art, notably paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. A few elements inhabit the spaces of her artwork, very concise and endowed with a methodical fluidity, images that flirt with the winding, sensual shapes of Japanese tradition.

She was part of several biennials, such as the São Paulo Biennial(1961, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1989, 1996, 1998, and 2003), the XI Venice Biennale, Italy (1972) the 1st and 2nd editions of the Latin American Biennial in Havana, Cuba (1984, 1986).

A constant research into color, texture, form, and transparency was revealed in all stages of her production and the various procedures she uses—from thin to thicker paint, from a sober palette to counterpoints of saturated, vibrant colors. One notes either alternating or simultaneous influences of suprematism, calligraphic abstraction, the anamorphic—facets which do not deny Ohtake’s relations with tradition, while also outlining an original trajectory of timeless, sensitive, fluid creations. Her sculptures bring into the three‑dimensional field the very issues she confronts in two dimensions—they emerge as manifestos of tactile calligraphies, dance moves turned to plasma into space, in which shape and color are important.

• Artists:
  Tomie Ohtake
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• Web:
  Instituto Tomie Ohtake