Lêda Watson

Born in Brazil, Lêda Watson is a visual artist whose career spans Latin America and Europe. She holds degrees in plastic arts from the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro, the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the Sorbonne and the University of Brasília (UnB). She specialized in metal engraving at the Escolinha de Arte do Brasil - Orlando DaSilva in Rio de Janeiro and at the Atelier Friedlaender in France. In 1969, she also graduated from the Cours supérieur de langue et littérature françaises at Nancy University. After several years in France, Lêda Watson received a particularly warm welcome from two French art publishers, who distributed numerous dated editions of her engravings, now represented in the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de Paris. She was also invited by the Société des femmes bibliophiles to illustrate a collection of short stories by Jules Laforgue, the previous edition of which had been illustrated by Salvador Dalí. On her return to Brazil, she opened her own studio in Brasília, while continuing to collaborate with French publishers. A committed educator, she teaches and lectures on metal engraving at several international institutions. In 1985, she founded the first Brasília Art Museum, then, in 1989, the Clube de Gravura, bringing together mainly professional engravers from the Federal District. For over six years, she worked as museum coordinator for the Federal District Government's Secretariat of Culture. In 1991, she was in charge of coordinating the Ministry of Culture's 2nd Brasília Fine Arts Prize / 12th National Fine Arts Fair, and in the same year, she curated Brazil's participation in the 10th International Biennial of Engraving in Valparaíso, Chile. From 1995 onwards, Lêda Watson chose to devote herself entirely to her work, pursuing an artistic career marked by technical rigor, the sophistication of metal engraving and great institutional recognition.