Artworks
Sem título [Untitled]
painting
Date
1973
Technique
Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions
130 x 150 cm
Menez's production can be divided into two main moments, although with various periods within each of them: a first abstract phase, extending from her first exhibition in 1954 until the end of the 1970s; and a second phase marked by a figurative turn, which would characterise her production in the 1980s and 1990s.
However, all of Menez's work is inhabited by a tension between abstraction and figuration, in which figurative elements are sometimes intertwined with abstract compositions.
In this 1973 oil we clearly notice this apparent paradox. Menez begins by constructing a pink background, which immediately offers a possibility of depth - whether by its vertical demarcation or by the suggestion of clouds. Over this background she paints her fluid forms, woven of entangled patches of various shades. Without almost any volumetric simulation, the artist manages only with the distribution of colours and lighting to create her space - a purely pictorial space. However, contrary to this two-dimensional structuring, she introduces two distinct forms: an illuminated rectangle in the right centre of the work (where a tree seems to appear) and a parallelepiped that emerges from the lower edge of the canvas, where on its front face the outline of a set of figures is displayed.
Thus, simultaneously different forms of constructing the space coincide on the same plane, showing the plastic possibility of their coexistence. Menez reveals the blurring between abstraction and figuration, assuming the pictorial space as a threshold of passage between the real and its representation or creation.
LC
However, all of Menez's work is inhabited by a tension between abstraction and figuration, in which figurative elements are sometimes intertwined with abstract compositions.
In this 1973 oil we clearly notice this apparent paradox. Menez begins by constructing a pink background, which immediately offers a possibility of depth - whether by its vertical demarcation or by the suggestion of clouds. Over this background she paints her fluid forms, woven of entangled patches of various shades. Without almost any volumetric simulation, the artist manages only with the distribution of colours and lighting to create her space - a purely pictorial space. However, contrary to this two-dimensional structuring, she introduces two distinct forms: an illuminated rectangle in the right centre of the work (where a tree seems to appear) and a parallelepiped that emerges from the lower edge of the canvas, where on its front face the outline of a set of figures is displayed.
Thus, simultaneously different forms of constructing the space coincide on the same plane, showing the plastic possibility of their coexistence. Menez reveals the blurring between abstraction and figuration, assuming the pictorial space as a threshold of passage between the real and its representation or creation.
LC
