British artist (b. Oct. 26, 1904, Molesey on Thames, Surrey, Eng.—d. July 20, 2005, Blackpool, Eng.), crafted bold life-size and larger naturalistic sculptures, often with religious themes. Vasconcellos, the daughter of a Brazilian diplomat and an English Quaker, studied art in London, Paris, and Florence and gained her first major commission at age 20. She married an artist and Anglican lay preacher in 1930, converted to his faith, and assimilated her newfound beliefs into her art. Vasconcellos produced her best-known piece, Reunion (1977)—a massive sculpture of a man and woman embracing across a piece of barbed wire—for Bradford University’s department of peace studies. The work was later rededicated as Reconciliation, and in the 1990s casts of it were placed at peace-related sites in Hiroshima, Japan; Coventry, Eng.; Belfast, N.Ire; and Berlin. She was made MBE in 1985. Josefina de Vasconcellos: Her Life and Art was published in 2002.
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