Born in Goias, Brazil, in 1943, Ana Maria Pacheco is an artist, perhaps best known for her multi-figure sculptures in wood. She studied Sculpture and Music at the University of Goias, then did postgraduate work at the University of Brazil before returning to Goias as a lecturer at the School of Fine Arts and School of Architecture. In 1973 she won a scholarship to Slade School of Fine Art in London. She studied under Reg Butler until 1975, when she was appointed Head of Fine Art at Norwich School of Art. By the early 1980s her growing reputation led to exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery, the British Museum and the National Gallery. She has also exhibited in Trondheim, New York, the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes and the Museu de Arte in Rio de Janeiro. Her most famous works include the sculptures Man and his Sheep and Dark Night of the Soul.
In 2002 Ana Maria Pacheco was made an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy.
"The Senate of Anglia Polytechnic University in partnership with the Norwich School of Art and Design has great pleasure in recommending the award of an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree to Ana Maria Pacheco. She is a working artist who, over the last thirty years since arriving from Brazil, has established herself as one of this country's most distinctive fine artists, working principally in sculpture, printmaking and painting. She has been associated with the University through the Norwich School of Arts and Design for the last seventeen years.
Ana Maria was born in Goias in central Brazil. She undertook her first degree (a BA in Sculpture and Music) at the University at Goias, which was followed by a post-graduate course in Music and Education. She was then appointed Lecturer at the Institute of Education at the same University. Later she took up a joint appointment as Lecturer at the School of Fine Arts and School of Architecture at her University of Goias and Lecturer, also, at the Institute of Art at the Federal University of Goias.
Then, in 1973, she won a British Council Scholarship to the Slade School of Fine Art in London. In 1985, Ana Maria was appointed as Head of Fine Art at Norwich School of Art where she stayed for five years, afterwards continuing to live in Norwich and maintaining her links with artists, tutors and former students from NSAD. In 1996 she was appointed Fourth Associate Artist at the National Gallery in London for a period of three years. She was awarded the honour of the "Ordem do Rio Branco" which was presented to her in London by the Brazilian Ambassador to Great Britain and two years ago she received an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of East Anglia.
Over the years, countless exhibitions of Ana Maria's sculpture, drawings, paintings and prints have been held in Britain, at well-known London art galleries like: the Hayward Gallery, Camden Arts Centre, the British Museum, the National Gallery, as well as in Birmingham, Blackburn, Oxford, Plymouth and here in Norwich. Also, exhibitions of her work have been held in Oslo and Trondheim in Norway, Ulster, Eire, Pennsylvania and New York in the USA, Senegal in West Africa and of course at the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes and the Museu de Arte in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Among the more well-known exhibition titles are: Women's Images of Men (1980) at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London; Some Exercise of Power (1991) at the Camden Arts Centre, London and the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford and The Longest Journey (1994) in the Gas Hall, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery.
Also, collections of her work are displayed at numerous galleries around the country at the British Museum, Tate Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Ashmolean in Oxford and in Brazil, USA, Japan, Germany and Norway.
As a working artist, she has developed a unique relationship based upon mutual trust, with Pratt Contemporary Art, which company has acted as a facilitator to enable her sometimes substantial creations to connect with appropriate art-lovers. Ana Maria is a member of several advisory bodies on art, including being a Member of the Board of Studies, Slade School of Art, UCL; Member of the Advisory Board of the CNAA and Member of the Standing Panel of External Experts in Fine art at the University of London. She also seeks to enthuse others as Visiting Lecturer in London including the Royal College of Art, Royal Academy of Arts, Slade School of Fine Art, Goldsmith's College, Chelsea School of Art and in Norwich, Oxford, Canterbury and Glasgow, among others.
There have been films produced of this artist's work for Anglia and Independent television and by the National Gallery, numerous essays and very many books written about her and her incomparable work. This outstanding artist has achieved a very high public profile and an international reputation. She has been and continues to be an inspiration to arts students, artists and art-lovers around the world.
It is for these reasons, therefore, that I invite you, Vice-Chancellor, to confer on Ana Maria Pacheco, an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree of this University."