Artworks
Preto e Branco [Black and White]
painting
Date
1969
Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
- 99,5 x 130 cm100 x 130,5 cm
Having been part, for a short period, of the Portuguese surrealist - milieu
, the painting of Manuel d'Assumpção eventually became closer to the Abstraction of the Paris School. His departure for this city, in 1947, allowed him to study painting with Fernand Léger and art history with Jean Cassou. In some of his abstractions, in which he included fragmented architectures, the affinities with Alfred Manessier or Roger Bissière are evident. In his compositions, however, these characteristics are potentiated by a musical and rhythmic sense that results from the weaving of layers and the suggestion of movement.
In this oil dated from the same year of his death, Manuel d'Assumpção creates several levels of depth through the juxtaposition of various surfaces in contrasting shades. The lateral blue planes, relatively simple, are overlaid by increasingly elaborated planes directed to the centre, which acquires the importance of an emphasised foreground. The recurrence of circles and fragments of this geometric shape deepens at the centre, creating a textured effect on the pictorial surface. The neutrality of backgrounds surrenders to interlocked shapes of fragments which, anyway, appear to maintain a certain order of gravitation around aggregating nuclei.
The choice of a chromatic range in intense shades - red, pink, blue, pearly white - render the title enigmatic. Some of his works reveal the spiritual dimension with which Manuel d'Assumpção approached artistic creation. This oil can be one of those examples.
LC
, the painting of Manuel d'Assumpção eventually became closer to the Abstraction of the Paris School. His departure for this city, in 1947, allowed him to study painting with Fernand Léger and art history with Jean Cassou. In some of his abstractions, in which he included fragmented architectures, the affinities with Alfred Manessier or Roger Bissière are evident. In his compositions, however, these characteristics are potentiated by a musical and rhythmic sense that results from the weaving of layers and the suggestion of movement.
In this oil dated from the same year of his death, Manuel d'Assumpção creates several levels of depth through the juxtaposition of various surfaces in contrasting shades. The lateral blue planes, relatively simple, are overlaid by increasingly elaborated planes directed to the centre, which acquires the importance of an emphasised foreground. The recurrence of circles and fragments of this geometric shape deepens at the centre, creating a textured effect on the pictorial surface. The neutrality of backgrounds surrenders to interlocked shapes of fragments which, anyway, appear to maintain a certain order of gravitation around aggregating nuclei.
The choice of a chromatic range in intense shades - red, pink, blue, pearly white - render the title enigmatic. Some of his works reveal the spiritual dimension with which Manuel d'Assumpção approached artistic creation. This oil can be one of those examples.
LC