The many colorful patterns seen in Maria Helena Vieira da Silva's abstract painting Composition derive from azulejo, decorative ceramic tilework common in Portugal and Spain, which the artist collected and admired. Despite finding her inspiration for abstract paintings in the material world, she described her compositions as evoking "a thought form rather than a realistic form." Vieira da Silva insisted on the merits of abstraction even as the political situation in 1930s Europe seemed to demand artworks with a clear political message. She actively engaged in debates with the leftist intellectual group Amis du Monde on the political risks and merits of painting abstractly at this moment.
