Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Global contemporary artist Beatriz Milhazes (b. 1960, Rio de Janeiro) reflects on her work As quatro estações (The Four Seasons, 1997), included in the exhibition Beatriz Milhazes: Rigor and Beauty at the Guggenheim New York. The exhibition was organized by Geaninne Gutiérrez-Guimarães, Curator, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, New York.
In 1989 Milhazes developed an innovative technique she calls “monotransfer,” inspired by the monotype printing process, in which a painted image is transferred from a plate to paper, producing a mirror image. She begins her process by painting motifs onto clear plastic sheets with acrylic paint. Once the acrylic dries, she layers and adheres the painted films to canvas and then peels away the plastic, revealing the forms in reverse. The resulting compositions are vibrant and dynamic, combining abstract forms, organic patterns, and geometric structures on textured surfaces imbued with the memory of the artist’s actions.
As quatro estações (The Four Seasons) belongs to the Guggenheim’s permanent collection and draws inspiration from eighteenth-century Brazilian Baroque ironwork found in regional architecture and colonial-era churches, as well as the geometric facial paintings of Brazil’s indigenous Kadiwéu women, who mark their faces and bodies with symmetrical designs. Milhazes synthesizes these influences into abstract and representative motifs, with circles and arabesques, delicate crochet and lace, flowers and floral patterns, and ribbons, ruffles, and jewelry from colonial-era garments emerging throughout her compositions.
Learn more: guggenheim.org/exhibition/beatriz-milhazes
Beatriz Milhazes: Rigor and Beauty is the second installment in the exhibition series Collection in Focus, which highlights the museum’s permanent collection. The series is part of a reinvigorated effort to make the Guggenheim New York’s world-renowned holdings more accessible to the public.
Global contemporary artist Beatriz Milhazes (b. 1960, Rio de Janeiro) reflects on her work As quatro estações (The Four Seasons, 1997), included in the exhibition Beatriz Milhazes: Rigor and Beauty at the Guggenheim New York. The exhibition was organized by Geaninne Gutiérrez-Guimarães, Curator, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, New York.
In 1989 Milhazes developed an innovative technique she calls “monotransfer,” inspired by the monotype printing process, in which a painted image is transferred from a plate to paper, producing a mirror image. She begins her process by painting motifs onto clear plastic sheets with acrylic paint. Once the acrylic dries, she layers and adheres the painted films to canvas and then peels away the plastic, revealing the forms in reverse. The resulting compositions are vibrant and dynamic, combining abstract forms, organic patterns, and geometric structures on textured surfaces imbued with the memory of the artist’s actions.
As quatro estações (The Four Seasons) belongs to the Guggenheim’s permanent collection and draws inspiration from eighteenth-century Brazilian Baroque ironwork found in regional architecture and colonial-era churches, as well as the geometric facial paintings of Brazil’s indigenous Kadiwéu women, who mark their faces and bodies with symmetrical designs. Milhazes synthesizes these influences into abstract and representative motifs, with circles and arabesques, delicate crochet and lace, flowers and floral patterns, and ribbons, ruffles, and jewelry from colonial-era garments emerging throughout her compositions.
Learn more: guggenheim.org/exhibition/beatriz-milhazes
Beatriz Milhazes: Rigor and Beauty is the second installment in the exhibition series Collection in Focus, which highlights the museum’s permanent collection. The series is part of a reinvigorated effort to make the Guggenheim New York’s world-renowned holdings more accessible to the public.
