Myrrha Dagmar Dub (Zurich, Switzerland, 1919 - São Paulo, SP, 1988). Designer, painter, sculptor. Moved to Milan, Italy, in the 1930s, where she studied art and philosophy. Abandoned her studies during World War II (1939-1945). She settled in Rome in 1946, and in 1949 she got a permission to move to Brazil. She settled in Porto Alegre, where she worked in graphic design, paintings, sculptures ceramics, poems, and in the restoration of baroque images, signing them with her married name Mirra Hargesheimer. Her participation in the 1st Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, in 1951, allowed her contact with international experiences and the insertion in the national scene. Two years later she moved to São Paulo and adopted the surname Schendel.
In the 1960s, she produced drawings on rice paper. In 1966, she created the series Droguinhas, made with twisted and braided rice paper, which was presented in London, at the Signals Gallery, on the recommendation of the art critic Guy Brett (1942). That year she visited Milan, Venice, Lisbon, and Stuttgart. She met the philosopher and semiologist Max Bense (1910 - 1990), who contributed to the realization of her exhibition in Nuremberg, Germany, and was the author of the text featured in the catalog. In 1968 she began to produce works using acrylic, such as Objetos Gráficos and Toquinhos. Between 1970 and 1971, she produced a set of 150 notebooks, divided into several series.
In the 1980s, she produced black and white tempera paintings titled Sarrafos, and began a series of paintings with brick dust. After her death, many exhibitions presented her work in Brazil and abroad, and in 1994 the 22nd Bienal Internacional de São Paulo dedicated her a special room. In 1997, art dealer Paulo Figueiredo donated a large number of the artist's works to the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM/SP).
MIRA Schendel. In: ENCICLOPÉDIA Itaú Cultural de Arte e Cultura Brasileiras. São Paulo: Itaú Cultural, 2021. Available at: <http://enciclopedia.itaucultural.org.br/pessoa2450/mira-schendel>. Accessed on: June 25, 2021. Encyclopedia entry. ISBN: 978-85-7979-060-7