Background
Maria de Lourdes Alves was born on 7 August 1894 in Campanha, Brazil to a minister father and a pianist mother.
Maria de Lourdes Alves was born on 7 August 1894 in Campanha, Brazil to a minister father and a pianist mother.
During her time in New York, Martins studied with the sculptors Jacques Lipchitz and Stanley William Hayter.
Her first husband was a literary critic named Otavio Tarquinio de Souza, with whom she had a daughter. In 1941 Martins had a solo exhibition of her work, entitled Maria, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, District of Columbia In 1943 the Valentine Gallery in New York City organized a two-artist exhibition with Martins and Piet Mondrian, Maria: New Sculptures and Mondrian: New Paintings. Martins later bought Mondrian"s famous work from the exhibition, Broadway Boogie Woogie, for only $800, though she eventually donated it to the Museum of Modern Artist
In 1951 Martins returned to Brazil, where she helped to found the very first edition of the São Paulo Art Biennial.
Martins died on 27 March 1973 in Rio de Janeiro. Martins" work can be found in a number of public institutions, including:
Museum of Modern Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Brooklyn Museum.