Sonia Ebling

It is my intention to study and ecploit the possibilities offered by the new plastics and some other new sculpture materials and also to explore further cement and oxides mixtures witch I employ at the present time. None of these new materials are available in Brazil.

My first contact with sculpture was in 1940 when I studied with Fernando Corona. In 1944 I joined the School of Fine Arts of Porto Alegre, where I studied Painting and Sculpture, and finished the course in 1951. Some of this time was also spent at the School of Fine Arts of Rio de Janeiro. In 1951 I studied printmaking at the Art Museum of Sao Paulo, in order to become acquainted with the technique, and also with the sculptor Bruno Giorgi at his Sao Paulo studio.

After having been awarded the International Travel Prize at the National Salon of Modern Art, I did extensive traveling in Europe, and studied in Paris with Zadkine.

I was surprised beyond belief, at first I didn´t believe it, after I cried and then didn´t want to go home, I didn´t know how to tell everyone, I felt as if I was ashamed, as if I didn´t deserve to be exhibited in an international exhibition such as the Bienal. It was to big (for my conception and experience) such praise! This was written in 1955, when I won the “Overseas trip Prize during the Salăo Nacional, in Rio de Janeiro”.