Artworks
Sem Título (homem com bandeira) [Untitled (man with flag)]
sculpture
Date
c. 1962
Technique
Iron
Dimensions
146,5 x 30 x 20 cm
Iron is, together with clay, a dominant material in Jorge Vieira's work. The artist's interest in this material lies both in its potential and its aesthetic-symbolic possibilities, namely those related to the tensions between resistance / fragility.
An active observer of the world and the people who inhabit it, Vieira was interested in representing the human body, conceiving the mimetic function as an element that should be subordinated and submitted to his plastic and conceptual reflections. In this sculpture, in which the anthropomorphic referent is recognisable and refers to a possible real action (a man holding a flag), the emphasis is on a formal grammar of constructive content, marked by the dynamic articulation of lines and planes. Some elements, like the torso, the head, and the flag, are easily recognizable. They are composed through a technique developed by the sculptor in the 1960s, in which the form is defined by small modules and welded metallic filaments, in an agglomeration process that allows the glimpse of empty or hollow spaces. Similarly, the integration of simple and linear structural components (the legs, arms, neck, flagstaff) reinforces the organic synthesis between the filled and empty areas. The dialectic between the sculpture and the space that surrounds it is further reinforced by the absence of a plinth or pedestal: the object can be seen without stratification of levels, in the continuity of the space that crosses it, also highlighting the anti-apologetic or anti-monumental character that characterises Jorge Vieira's sculpture.
JB
An active observer of the world and the people who inhabit it, Vieira was interested in representing the human body, conceiving the mimetic function as an element that should be subordinated and submitted to his plastic and conceptual reflections. In this sculpture, in which the anthropomorphic referent is recognisable and refers to a possible real action (a man holding a flag), the emphasis is on a formal grammar of constructive content, marked by the dynamic articulation of lines and planes. Some elements, like the torso, the head, and the flag, are easily recognizable. They are composed through a technique developed by the sculptor in the 1960s, in which the form is defined by small modules and welded metallic filaments, in an agglomeration process that allows the glimpse of empty or hollow spaces. Similarly, the integration of simple and linear structural components (the legs, arms, neck, flagstaff) reinforces the organic synthesis between the filled and empty areas. The dialectic between the sculpture and the space that surrounds it is further reinforced by the absence of a plinth or pedestal: the object can be seen without stratification of levels, in the continuity of the space that crosses it, also highlighting the anti-apologetic or anti-monumental character that characterises Jorge Vieira's sculpture.
JB
