María Freire (Uruguay 1917-2015), a pioneer in geometric abstraction in painting and sculpture, is a reference in Latin American concrete art. Her work, extensive and rich as her career, surprises with the research she carried out, developing her own language of abstract figures. Her disruptive work, her indomitable character and her active presence in the delivery of knowledge – as critic and teacher – made her transcend, through a unique and key creation to understand the ways in which the birth of contemporary art in her country and the region was prepared.
She was co-founder, along with her husband José Pedro Costigliolo, of the Non-Figurative Art Group (1952). Between 1954 and 1992 she exhibited in different cities of the world. She participated in the San Pablo Biennial of 1953 and 1957 where she won the Honor Prize and at the Venice Biennale in 1966. In 1996 she was awarded the Figari Prize for her career.
Her work integrates the permanent collections, among others, of the MoMA in New York City, the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, the MALBA in Buenos Aires, the National Museum of Visual Arts in Uruguay as well as in private collections in the world.