Maria Keil will become one of the main figures of modern renovation in this area. ДЄnother striking aspect of her work and where she most distinguished herself was the tile, in which she began to work in the early 1950s. Multifaceted, Maria Keil wrote and illustrated books for children and adults, having publications entirely of her own (text and image) or illustrating works by Matilde Rosa AraГєjo, Aquilino Ribeiro, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, JosГ© Gomes Ferreira, Augusto Abelaira, MГЎrio DionГsio, JosГ© Rodrigues MiguГ©is, Ilse Losa, among others. ДЄmong the areas to which she devoted herself with greater continuity, the illustration should be highlighted. There follows a long hiatus in which she dedicates herself to a multiplicity of activities, to exhibit again individually from 1983. She held an individual exhibition in 1945 and, again, in 1955: 'this is a historical exhibition, as it marks, within the scope of Portuguese art, levels of pioneering innovation in the fields of furniture and, above all, tiles' (this exhibition she highlighted the work of designing furniture for domestic interiors and, also, for commercial spaces related to restaurants and hotels, to which she dedicated herself since the beginning of the 1940s and until the middle of the following decade). Д«etween 19 she regularly participates in the General Expositions of Plastic Arts, SNBA, Lisbon. In 1940, she designed sets and costumes for the ballet Lenda das Amendoeiras, presented at the debut show of the Companhia de bailado Verde Gaio. She participates in the SPN shows of the next two years, winning the Souza-Cardoso Revelation Prize in 1941 with Self Portrait, 1941. She exhibits individually for the first time in 1939 (since there are no art galleries, the exhibition takes place at Galeria Larbom, a furniture store on Rua do Ouro, Lisbon) in that same year she participates in the S.P.N IV Modern Art Exhibition. In the next year, she made a stay in Paris during the construction of the Pavilion of the International Exhibition of Paris (of which Keil do Amaral was an architect), for which she made a decorative motif in Sala IV - Ultramar (Salle IV - Outremer). In 1936 she became a member of the ETP (Technical Advertising Studio, then formed by JosГ© Rocha), establishing friendship with Carlos Botelho, Fred Kradolfer, OfГ©lia Marques and Bernardo Marques. In 1933 she married architect Francisco Keil do Amaral and two years later her only son, Francisco Pires Keil do Amaral (or Pitum Keil do Amaral) was born. Throughout her life she will engage in a multitude of areas, including painting and drawing, illustration, graphic arts, printmaking, tiles, tapestry, furniture, decoration, scenography and costumes. Her artistic practice has been characterized, since the beginning, by the diversity of techniques and means of expression. From 1929 she attended the Preparatory Course at the School of Fine Arts in Lisbon and then the painting course (which never ends), where she is a student of Veloso Salgado.

Maria Keil was born in Silves, in the Portuguese region of Algarve, daughter of Francisco da Silva Pires and Maria JosГ© Silva.

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