Modernist abstract panel

Maria Keil was born in Silves in 1914 and died in Lisbon in 2012; she married the architect Francisco Keil do Amaral in 1933. Her first azulejo experiments date from 1954, and O mar (1958-59), on Avenida Infante Santo in Lisbon, is her first major tile work, in mainly blues and greens with figurative references beside geometric patterns. Her largest commission was for the Lisbon Metro, from 1957 to about 1972: she designed the panels for every initial station except Avenida. English Wikipedia credits her with reviving the azulejo as an art form.

The Intendente station officially opened on 28 September 1966. The Metro's own page says some authors consider its tile cladding the most notable of the series made for the network between 1957 and 1982, and quotes António Rodrigues calling it a masterpiece of contemporary tile art; his reference is the Museu Nacional do Azulejo catalogue of 1989, the year of a major retrospective of her tile work. Not everything survived: from 1977 some panels were wholly or partly destroyed during station expansions, and Portuguese Wikipedia names Saldanha, Restauradores and Intendente. In May 2019 the Metro began a refreshment project at Intendente.