Born in Trieste in 1921, #FioreDeHenriquez studied at the Academia di Belle Arti di Venezia under Arturo Martini and became well-known within her lifetime as a prolific sculptor and painter. Her debut occurred in Florence in 1947 and she had exhibitions throughout Europe and North America from the 1950s well into the 1980s.
Though involved in a Fascist Youth group as a child, she changed course in the 1930s (partially owing to her father’s work as an anti-fascist) and helped escort Jewish refugees to safety during World War II. After the war, she moved to England and became a British citizen in the mid-1950s. Primarily based out of England, de Henriquez also maintained a home in her native Italy which she would return to from time to time.
Born intersex with ambiguous genitalia, de Henriquez was known for expressing her gender identity in her work, with recurring motifs of conjoined or two-headed figures as well as ambiguously gendered creatures from mythology.
She died in 2004 and always celebrated her identity, stating that she was “proud to be a hermaphrodite [sic]” and “two people inside the same body.”
#LGTBQIA #PrideMonth #YouCannotEraseUs
Legends of Pride 