Her paintings, many of which focused on women’s experiences and perspectives, might depict fear or menace. But it was up to the viewer to fill in the blanks.
For the opening of its new venue in Rome, this London gallery introduced Bertina Lopes, a little-known artist with a multicultural upbringing who inhabited many different social and political milieus. Born in 1924 in Mozambique then a Portuguese colony and of mixed race, she was sent to study in Lisbon at the age of twelve, first at the António Arroio School of Decorative Arts and later at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts. After returning to Mozambique in 1953, she taught art and began exhibiting her work in 1956, influencing local artists. On account of her increasing involvement in anticolonial