Marianna Pineda


Marianna Pineda was an American sculptor who worked in a stylized realist tradition. The female figure was typically her subject matter, often in a striking or expressive pose. Major work included an eight-foot bronze statue of the Hawaiian Queen Lili’uokalani, for a site between the Hawaii State Capitol and Iolani Palace, which she used as the subject matter of Search for the Queen, a 1996 documentary she produced on the life of her subject and the sculpture-making process. Other significant work includes the figure of a seated woman in The Accusative for a site in the Honolulu, Hawaii offices of the Commission on the Status of Women.
Born in 1925, in Evanston, Illinois, Pineda made her first plasticine torso by eight years old, was teaching a summer camp art class by 15, as well as taking drawing lessons on the weekend. She attributed her early interest in sculpture to the many she saw at multiple World's Fair visits, as well as on travels with her mother to Greece and Egypt, both places where sculpture dominates.

Education

She studied with Carl Milles in the summer of 1942 at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, with Simon Moselsio, 1942–43; at Bennington College with Raymond Puccinelli from 1943–45; at the University of California, Berkeley, with Oronzio Maldarelli from 1945-46 at Columbia University; and with Ossip Zadkine in Paris from 1949-50.

Career

Solo Exhibitions

Slaughter Gallery, San Francisco, 1951, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1952, Currier Gallery, Manchester, NH, 1954, De Cordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, 1954, Premier Gallery, Minneapolis, 1963, Swetzoff Gallery, Boston, 1953, 56, 64, Honolulu Academy Art, 1970, Alpha Gallery, Boston, 1972, Newton College, MA, 1972, Bumpus Gallery, Duxbury, MA, 1972, Contemporary Art Center, Honolulu, 1982, Hanalei Palace, Kona, HI 1982, Lyman House Museum, Hilo, HI, 1982, Pine Manor College, MA, 1984, Rotenberg Gallery, Boston, 1990, 93, 94, College of William and Mary, 1992, Wiggins Gallery, Boston Public Library, 1993.

Commissions

Pineda became a member of the Sculptors Guild, in 1952, and the National Sculpture Society in 1985. She was also a member of the National Academy of Design: In 1982 she was elected an Associate, and in 1990 she was elected an Academician.
She was awarded a gold medal by the National Academy of Design in 1987 and 1988. She was similarly awarded gold medals and prizes in 1986, 1988 and 1991 by the National Sculpture Society. The Art Institute of Chicago also awarded her a prize at the 62nd American Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture in 1957.

Publications

Born with the surname Packard, Pineda renamed herself after watching Frederico Garcia Lorca's play about Mariana Pineda, the 19th century liberal heroine executed for helping her revolutionary lover escape execution. Pineda developed her sense of adventure by traveling with her mother in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and to such far-flung places as Galapagos, the Marquesans, Polynesia and New Guinea. It was on trips to Greece and Egypt where Pineda first became entranced by sculpture, and not only became a sculptor herself, but also married sculptor Harold Tovish.
Marianna Pineda died November 24, 1996 of pancreatic cancer at home in Boston.