Cybèle Varela
Cybèle Varela (born 1943, Petrópolis) is a Brazilian mixed-media artist. She is a painter, video artist, and photographer.
Also recorded as Cybèle Varela Lopes Braga · Cybele Varela · Cybele Varela Lopes Braga
Cybèle Varela
- Name
- Cybèle Varela
- Born
- 1943
- Birthplace
- Petrópolis
- Known for
- Painting, Video art, Photography
- Nationality
- Brazil
- Occupation
- photographer · painter
- Fields
- painting
- Education
- École du Louvre
- Languages
- Portuguese
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Documentary summary
Cybèle Varela (born 1943, Petrópolis) is a Brazilian mixed-media artist. She is a painter, video artist, and photographer.
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Note VALÉORINE
Cybèle Varela (born 1943) is a Brazilian painter and photographer. The painter was born in Petrópolis.
Cybèle Varela studied at École du Louvre. The painter is active in painting. Languages used include Portuguese.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 30 September 2026
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wikidata · Q1439610 · wikipedia · Cybèle Varela
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Cybèle Varela • Born — 1943 • Birthplace — Petrópolis • Known for — Painting, Video art, Photography
Career
Career
From 1962 to 1966, Cybèle Varela studied visual arts at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro. She began her career as a painter and sculptor, winning the Young Contemporary Art Prize at the Museum of Contemporary Art, University of São Paulo in 1967 with the triptych: "Of all that could have been, but that wasn’t". The same year she exhibited for the first time at the Sao Paulo Art Biennial. Varela was awarded a scholarship by the French government to study in Paris at the Ecole du Louvre in 1968–69. In 1971-72 she stayed at the Cité internationale des arts, and in 1976-78 studied at the École Pratique des Hautes Études. The French art critic Pierre Restany wrote “Cybèle Varela does not paint landscapes. The utter commonplace of the mirror-image is for her nothing but a pretext”. In Geneva in the 1980s, her work focused on themes from nature, in the 1990s it became more figurative, augmented with photography, digital printing and video, and since 2000 has moved towards pop surrealism. In 1997, the Brazilian Government donated one of her paintings to the United Nations.
Exhibitions (selected)
Exhibitions (selected)
• "elles@centrepompidou": National Modern Art Museum, Paris, 2009 • "Outros 60's": Museum of Contemporary Art, Curitiba, 2006 • São Paulo Museum of Modern Art: 2005 • National Museum of Fine Arts: Rio de Janeiro, 2003 • Art Museum of the Americas: Washington DC, 1987 • Sao Paulo Biennal: Brazil, 1981 • Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts, Lausanne, 1980 • "Mix-media": Musée Rath, Geneva, 1980 • São Paulo Biennale: Brazil, 1969 • São Paulo Biennal: Brazil, 1967 • Museum of Modern Art: Rio de Janeiro, 1964
Identity and overview
Identity and overview
The following is established of the heading itself.
Works and production
Works and production
The following works and productions are recorded by name or by count. Recorded with the occupation photographer. The same evidence establishes that cybèle Varela is recorded with the occupation painter. The same evidence establishes that cybèle Varela is recorded as a citizen of Brazil. Recorded with the gender female. Institutional cataloguing adds that cybèle Varela was born on 28 August 1943.
Collections and holdings
Where the work is held
Collections and holdings
Institutional holdings are recorded as follows.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Cybèle Varela”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1439610: Cybèle Varela
General reference · Wikidata
Sources and further reading
Sources and further reading
• Benezit, E. Dictionary of Artists. Paris: Grund, 2006. • Cavalcanti, Carlos and Ayala, Walmir (ed). Dicionario brasileiro de artistas plasticos. Brasilia: MEC/INL, 1973–1980. • Cybèle Varela: peintures, 1960-1984: Jean-Jacques Lévêque, Frederico Morais, Jean-Luc Chalumeau and Pierre Restany. Geneva: Imprimerie Genevoise S.A., 1984. • Cybèle Varela, Surroundings. Rio de Janeiro, MNBA, 2003. • Cybèle Varela. Bruno Mantura and Cybèle Varela. Rome: Gangemi, 2007.. • Jost, Karl (ed). Künstlerverzeichnis der Schweiz, 1980-1990. Zürich: Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, 1991. • Leite, José Roberto Teixeira. Dicionario critico da pintura no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Artlivre, 1988. • Leite, José Roberto Teixeira. 500 anos da pintura brasileira. CD-Rom, LogOn, 2000. • Pontual, Roberto. Dicionario das artes plasticas no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Civilizaçao Brasileira, 1969. • Restany, Pierre (ed.), Les Hyperréalistes. Évreux: Centre culturel international de Vascoeuil, 1974.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
Teachers, collaborators, publishers and institutions recorded against this person, each on a stated basis.
Studied at
1- École du LouvreOrganisation
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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