USIAREVIEW

Yayoi Kusama at Serralves: Between Infinity, Art, and Social Transformation. Review by Fábio Cruz 6th February 2025

The exhibition Yayoi Kusama: 1945 – Today, held at the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, highlights the profound and multifaceted impact of the Japanese artist on contemporary society. Over the course of seven decades, Kusama has built a powerful and, in part, highly philosophical body of work that invites the viewer to explore the boundaries of infinity, radical connection, and the cycles of life and death. This exhibition successfully conveyed the central themes of her work, from accumulation and highly expressive self-portraits to immersive and kaleidoscopic experiences.

Organized both chronologically and thematically, the exhibition clearly portrayed Kusama’s artistic and personal evolution. From her early teenage drawings to the vibrant canvases of the My Eternal Soul series, each work reveals the artist’s emotional depth and her relentless pursuit of transforming pain into beauty. The inclusion of archival materials and sculptures such as the Accumulations underscores the technical and thematic innovation that Kusama has brought to the contemporary art scene.

The installation Dots Obsession – Aspiring to Heaven's Love stood out as the exhibition’s climax, offering visitors a singular sensory experience. The mirrored environment creates an illusion of infinity and reinforces Kusama’s obsession with the dissolution of the “self” into the cosmos. This space encapsulates the artist’s characteristic repetitive aesthetic while also inviting the audience to reflect on their own existence in relation to the universe—conveying a sense of smallness intertwined with the vastness of the world itself.

The exhibition also serves as a celebration of Kusama’s philosophical vision, which interconnects biological and cosmic reality. The way she employs patterns and organic shapes—such as pumpkins, dots, and infinite nets—to explore universal questions can even be unsettling. This striking dialogue between the micro and macrocosm continues to position Kusama as one of the most unique and influential artistic voices of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The performances Kusama staged in the 1960s, strongly marked by the concept of self-obliteration, not only reflected her artistic vision but were also intertwined with civil rights movements and protests against the Vietnam War. These socially impactful actions solidified her presence in the cultural landscape, highlighting her commitment to political and social issues. The exhibition curated by the Serralves Museum revisits these historical moments, offering an interpretation that emphasizes the political dimension of her work. More than a purely aesthetic expression, Kusama’s art emerges as a powerful tool for social critique and transformation, demonstrating how art can transcend the boundaries of the museum and actively engage with the tensions and struggles of its time.

The exhibition Yayoi Kusama: 1945 – Today, presented at Serralves, deeply explored the key elements that have shaped Kusama’s artistic trajectory, offering visitors an immersive experience into her unique vision of the world. Through her engaging installations, repetitive forms, and characteristic use of color and light, it challenged the audience to reconsider their perceptions of identity, space, and time, leading them into a sensory and, above all, reflective experience.

More than a mere retrospective, this was an intense and striking exhibition that captured the essence of Kusama’s ever-visionary spirit. The impact of her works, marked by a fusion of artistry and existential thought, will undoubtedly continue to resonate in the minds of all who visited, making this exhibition a truly remarkable event in Portugal’s cultural landscape.

Gregory Crewdson: The Capture of Suburban Imagination and Visual Silences. Review by Fábio Cruz 19th December2024

The work of American photographer Gregory Crewdson inhabits a peculiar universe, where the everyday metamorphoses into a dense cinematic narrative, revealing inner tensions and a deeply unsettling atmosphere. In his latest exhibition at the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Crewdson once again presents his unmistakable style of crafting meticulously staged scenes, inviting the viewer to immerse themselves in moments suspended in time, permeated by a dreamlike quality that reflects contemporary anxieties.

Among the exhibited images, some exemplify the photographer's signature aesthetic. In three of his highlighted works, we observe a suburban dinner, a scene in a forest, and an empty parking lot. These seemingly trivial settings acquire symbolic depth, marked by isolation and mystery, central aspects of Crewdson's work. In the first piece (Untitled, From the series: Beneath the Roses. 2003-2008), we are presented with a classic American-style dining room, where two characters sit in silence, evoking a complex narrative.

The lighting, softly illuminating the interior of the house, contrasts with the shadows enveloping the edges of the scene, in a composition that suggests influences from filmmakers like David Lynch and Steven Spielberg. In these works, as in much of Crewdson's work, domestic spaces are transformed into places of unease and suspense.

The expressions of the characters are as significant as the setting itself, conveying a palpable emotional void, as if a crucial conversation has just taken place or is imminent. The confined space of the home, almost claustrophobic, suggests a trapped life, symbolizing the invisible limitations of suburban environments. 

In a second piece (The Mattress, From the series: Cathedral of the Pines, 2013-2014), Crewdson leads us into a forest, where the human figure appears almost insignificant against the vastness of the surrounding trees. In the background, parked cars and a barely perceptible figure on the right suggest abandonment or search, in an implicit narrative seemingly on the verge of a critical event. The fog permeating the scene adds mystery, blending the real with the imaginary. This juxtaposition of nature and modern elements is a recurring theme in Crewdson's work, using the landscape as a stage to intensify drama and portray the internal conflicts of his characters.

The third work (Redemption Center, From the series: An Eclipse of Moths, 2018-2019) depicts a run-down parking lot, accentuating a sense of desolation. The sign "Redemption Center" takes on an ironic tone in a landscape dominated by decay. The cold light of dusk, the solitary figure on the asphalt, and the dilapidated buildings in the background create a melancholic and dystopian atmosphere. The sense of abandonment is omnipresent, with each element in the composition contributing to a visual narrative of a society where material progress seems to have eclipsed human essence.

Gregory Crewdson is not merely a photographer but a director of small stories that remain incomplete. His work subverts the viewer’s expectations, challenging them to interpret the scenes and fill in the narrative gaps with their own imagination. Deeply influenced by cinema, Crewdson meticulously plans every detail – from lighting to props, costumes to location – to create an aesthetic that evokes both realism and fantasy. In this particular exhibition, his work seems to reflect on isolation, the fragmentation of communal ties, and the emotional tensions hidden beneath the seemingly calm surface of daily life. Like the films of Lynch or the paintings of Edward Hopper, Crewdson leads us to question what lies behind the facades, what remains unsaid in conversations, and what is concealed in seemingly mundane settings. More than a mere display of beautiful images, this exhibition constitutes an emotional exploration of the human condition, disguised under the veil of suburban routine.

Roy Lichtenstein - A Centennial Exhibition. Review by Fábio Cruz 8th November 2024

On the occasion of his 100th birthday, the ALBERTINA Museum celebrated the master of Pop Art, Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997, New York), with a comprehensive retrospective featuring over 90 paintings, sculptures, and prints. Alongside Andy Warhol, Lichtenstein is regarded as one of the founding figures of Pop Art, renowned for his ability to blend lowbrow and highbrow art forms.

Roy Lichtenstein was one of the most influential artists of the 20th-century Pop Art movement, and his exhibition at the Albertina in Vienna sheds new light on the importance and lasting impact of his work. The piece featured in the exhibition, Wallpaper with Blue Floor Interior (1992), is a remarkable example of Lichtenstein's distinctive style, which reinterprets everyday life through a visual language evocative of the world of comics and mass culture. 

Lichtenstein, alongside artists such as Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock, was at the forefront of the artistic revolution that questioned the distinction between high and low culture. While Warhol focused on reproducing iconic images from popular culture, Lichtenstein used the comic book aesthetic to explore themes such as heroism, war, and domestic life, elements also visible in his work displayed in Vienna.

What makes his work unique, however, is the way he reduces images to simple lines, vivid colors, and the characteristic Ben Day dots, which mimic the cheap printing techniques of comics of that time. The use of space in this work is notably meticulous. The wallpaper with its dotted pattern dominates the composition, creating an almost illusory sense of depth. The thick, firm, angular lines that divide the space suggest the presence of a window, transporting us to a seemingly tranquil scene of a modern living room interior. However, this tranquility is disturbed by the geometric and artificial nature of the setting. The choice of colors, with vibrant yellows, blues, and greens, suggests an idealized version of domestic interiors, which do not reflect reality but rather a stereotypical and superficial representation of interior design of that era. This work can be seen as a critique of the artificiality of middle-class suburban life, often portrayed as ideal but, in Lichtenstein’s view, lacking soul.

The undulating blue floor that occupies the lower part of the artwork is also a signature element of the artist. Its almost hypnotic pattern contrasts sharply with the rigidity of the lines delineating the space and the furniture. This detail is an allusion to the unpredictability and chaos underlying the controlled appearance of modern life. By using this technique, Lichtenstein invites the viewer to question the nature of the reality depicted. Although the scene appears static at first glance, the floor introduces a sense of movement and flow, a reminder that beneath the apparent stability there may be emotional or social turbulence.

Lichtenstein’s aesthetic, unlike many of his contemporaries, is often perceived as "cold" or "distant." However, it is precisely this emotional distance that makes his work so effective. He does not invite us into a world of intense emotions, but rather encourages us to critically observe what we see and reflect on the visual culture that surrounds us. The use of comic book graphic techniques is an implicit critique of the consumption and commercialization of art, and his choice of common subjects, such as domestic scenes, challenges the notion that only "noble" or "elevated" subjects are worthy of artistic representation.

Lichtenstein’s exhibition at the Albertina gives the public the opportunity to immerse themselves in the artist’s visual universe and appreciate the depth and complexity of his seemingly simple works. Through a detailed analysis of his composition, use of color, and Ben Day technique, we can better understand his contribution to contemporary art and his commentary on American society in the 1960s and beyond.

Asian Bronze. 4,000 years of beauty, the Rijksmuseum. News 28th September 2024

In the exhibition Asian Bronze. 4,000 years of beauty, the Rijksmuseum brings together more than 75 bronze masterpieces, from prehistoric artefacts to contemporary artworks, from India, China, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, Nepal and Korea. Most of these works are on display in the Netherlands for the first time and more than 15 of them have never been shown in Europe before. Statues of the Buddha, Shiva and Vishnu, among other images, impressively show how heaven was often depicted in bronze on earth. All the senses are stimulated by bronze mirrors, weapons, bells, wine vessels and incense burners, often spectacularly depicted in the shape of lions, elephants or mythical creatures. The exhibition runs from September 27, 2024 to January 12, 2025 in the Rijksmuseum.

'Never before has the Rijksmuseum collaborated with Asian countries on such a large scale. We are grateful that we can show many unique masterpieces in Europe for the first time. The skill and creativity of the ancient artisans inspires deep admiration for their unparalleled artistic talent.' says Taco Dibbits, General Director Rijksmuseum.

The exhibition features works from six museums in various Asian countries. The National Museum in Bangkok, for example, has loaned six works, including Buddha seated under the hood of a seven-headed nāga, which is leaving Thailand for the first time since it was cast in the 12th or 13th century. Works will also come from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bangkok. Other loans come from India (National Museum, New Delhi; Bihar Museum, Patna), Indonesia (Museum Sonobudoyo, Yogyakarta) and Pakistan (National Museum, Karachi).

In addition to the artworks from Asian museums, the exhibition features masterpieces from collections in Europe and the United States. These exhibits include a wine vessel in the form of an elephant (China, Shang dynasty, 18th-11th century BCE) from the Musée Guimet, Paris, and the figure of Yashoda with the Infant Krishna (India, 12th century CE) from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The exhibition also presents several works from the Rijksmuseum’s own Asian collection, including Shiva Nataraja (India, 12th century CE) and the recently acquired statue of Guhyasamaja Aksobhya (Tibet, 15th century CE), which will be on view for the first time.

The exhibition Asian Bronze. 4000 years of beauty is made possible in part by the Bagri Foundation, Flora Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds, Rijksmuseum Friends and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

'Looking into the future'. All about the artist Avery Singer. Review by Fábio Cruz, 17th September 2024

Singer, Avery; Anna Karina, Museum Ludwig (ML/Dep. 7685, Köln)(Photo: © Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln, rba_d040996)

Avery Singer was born and raised in New York City in a family of artists, which encouraged her to explore creativity from a very young age. Initially, she focused on photography and drawing, and later, during her higher education, she expanded her work to include performance, video art, sculpture, and finally, painting, which became her preferred medium.

The artist has exhibited in prestigious events such as the Venice Biennale, the Lyon Biennale, and the New Museum Triennial. Her works are part of collections in important institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London, and the Yuz Museum in Shanghai, among others.

In 2022, she achieved an auction record when Sotheby’s sold her work *Happening* (2014) for $5,253,000. In this 254 x 304.8 cm canvas, Singer evokes the aesthetics of performances from the 1960s and 70s, filtered through a digital perspective. The painting presents a complex scene composed of various geometric figures that seem to be participating in a ritual or meeting, all created with the precision of 3D modeling software. Despite this accuracy, the work is neither cold nor dehumanized; on the contrary, it vibrates with energy resulting from the interaction between the hyperrealism of the models and the artist's subjective interpretation.

Singer, Avery; Untitled, Museum Ludwig (ML 10354, Köln) (Photo: © Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln, Walz, Sabrina, rba_d050760_01)

With a unique and materially inventive approach to painting, Singer redefines contemporary artistic technique. Her meticulous production process involves creating figures, scenes, and abstract geometries through SketchUp—a program typically used to design exhibition spaces—which are then depicted pictorially, often in shades of black, white, and gray. Light and shadow are manipulated with digital precision, giving her works a hyperrealistic yet strangely artificial quality.

Singer's works stand out for their satirical nature, combining early Internet aesthetics with elements of Constructivism, Futurism, and Cubism. Her formal practice incorporates figures in constructivist forms that express emotions through exaggerated poses and dramatically disordered hair.

In her early works, Singer dramatized her themes and parodied the life of an artist. In her first solo exhibition in 2013 at Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler in Berlin, titled *The Artists*, she explored stereotypes about artists' lives, work, and social interactions. In a fake press release—part of a larger series titled *Press Release Me*—Singer mocked the creation of a sanctioned artistic language and the social role of the artist. The paintings in this exhibition depict stereotypical scenes from the art world, such as a meeting with collectors in *Jewish Artist and Patron* (2012) and a studio visit in *The Studio Visit* (2012).

Using new technologies to reinterpret historical art references, Singer challenges the limits of painting. Her first self-portrait, *Self Portrait (Summer 2018)*, exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2019, employed a new process using liquid rubber, spray bottles, and diluted white paint to simulate frosted glass. The result is an image of a figure in the shower, a theme that evokes the classical genre of Venus or Bathers, but complicated by the light passing through air, water, and glass. Singer succeeds in her experiments to reinvent the future of painting, using virtual fictional characters and symbols drawn from art history and the contemporary art world, subverting expectations.

Singer frequently reimagines the theme of painting and image creation as the subject itself, distancing herself from romanticized visions. Each of her works reflects a unique way of seeing the world around her, representing a new generation of artists who are redefining what it means to paint in the 21st century. Her practice, which combines contemporary digital technologies with traditional painting techniques, opens up new possibilities for art, expanding the boundaries of what can be considered painting. Although her approach is deeply rooted in artistic tradition, her work points to the future, suggesting new directions for art in an increasingly digital world.

The ability to innovate without completely abandoning the past is what makes Singer's work so relevant and impactful for audiences. She does not reject art history but reinterprets it through contemporary technology, creating works that are simultaneously tributes to and critiques of the traditions that preceded them. This duality gives her paintings a richness and depth that resonate with both the public and critics alike.

A special thank you to the Stadt Köln and Melanie Krone. City of Koeln - The Lordmayor
Historisches Archiv Rheinisches Bildarchiv Koeln. Photos: © Historisches Archiv mit Rheinischem Bildarchiv Cologne.

Noronha da Costa. Review by Fábio Cruz, 14th June 2024

Noronha da Costa (1942-2020), a distinguished contemporary visual artist, left an indelible mark on the Portuguese art scene. Born in Lisbon, his artistic journey encompassed various disciplines, with painting always at the forefront, characterized by a continuous exploration of image and perception.

Through his work, da Costa engaged in profound reflections on the human condition and society, frequently challenging aesthetic norms and conventional narratives. His art gained prominence during the tumultuous period of the Carnation Revolution in 1974, embodying the political and social influences prevalent in much of his creation. In painting, da Costa exhibited a unique mastery of color and form, crafting compositions that oscillated between abstraction and figurative representation, evident in the works on display. His expressive use of color revealed a keen sensitivity to conveying emotions and moods. His paintings often featured vibrant and contrasting hues, establishing an intense and emotional atmosphere. Da Costa used color not merely for visual representation but as a powerful tool to evoke feelings, conveying profound emotions to the viewer.

Moreover, he incorporated complex layers of textures, providing visual and tactile richness to his works. These textures, often achieved through vigorous brushstrokes and mixed techniques, added depth and dynamism to his paintings. The narrative fluidity in many of his pieces was achieved through a combination of organic and geometric forms. Da Costa did not adhere to literal representation; instead, he employed abstract shapes to suggest broader narratives, inviting observers to interpret and actively participate in creating meaning for each piece.

Today, Noronha da Costa's relentless pursuit of exploring perception continues to intrigue, challenge, and inspire contemporary artists, academics, and historians alike. His innovative optical experiments are particularly celebrated in the context of discussions about art following the Revolução dos Cravos.

Eva Beresin at ARCO Lisboa and Albertina Museum. News, 30th May 2024

Charim galerie presented at ARCO Lisboa 2024 the artworks of Eva Beresin  and VALIE EXPORT. Both artists are connected. The photographic and video pieces by VALIE EXPORT were taken from which Eva Beresin has taken motifs and scenarios to make new paintings.

On other hand, at Albertina Museum, Beresin presents the exhibition 'Thick Air'. On view from 1 May until 15 September 2024.

The 'Thick Air' exhibition is about beauty and horror or of how the fantastic has married the dreadful in the artworks of Eva Beresin. Moving through the painterly and graphic worlds of this Hungarian artist, who has lived and worked in Vienna since 1976, one comes across hybrid creatures, grotesque figures, and curiously fantastical beings. The artist’s broad thematic palette, rife with bizarre whimsy as well as the tragic and existential, ranges from medieval-style cruelties to everyday banalities and even humorous episodes.

Beresin challenges the idea of the one-dimensional human being in defiance of any totality. She frequently endows her subjects with animalistic behaviors, while the numerous bona fide animals populating Beresin’s paintings exhibit human traits. There unfolds an artistic universe of sly humor and shenanigans that celebrate just clearly it has gone off the rails. Moments of nonsense coalesce in a veritable apotheosis of the marginalized. Her distortion of ordinary perspectives, true perspectival breaks, and reversals of circumstances suggest carnivalesque situations or recall escapades of mannerist exaggeration. Nothing is unworthy of being depicted. To Beresin, there are no wrong gestures, is no wrong painting, and the speed of her working process along with the eloquent force of her artistic expression underline the autonomy of the painterly act.

Beresin’s works contain repeated instances of exposure where boundaries of shame between the intimate and the public are stretched, with rarely formulated but indeed dominant laws of decency understood by the artist as hers to enthusiastically unhinge. The evident interplay between concealing and revealing is also reflected in her imagery’s oscillation between abstraction and figuration, with its murky figures emerging ghostlike from the background, raucous menagerie of critters, and outsized naked feet evoking hearty laughter in more than a few.

Berlinde De Bruyckere "Crossing a bridge on fire". News, 19th December  2023

Atravessar uma ponte em chamas [Crossing a bridge on fire], the title of Berlinde De Bruyckere’s temporary exhibition opening at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea/CCB, is taken from a short story by Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño. A powerful image that suggests the risk of passing from one side to another, it is also symbolic of both the appeal and the terror of the other, of transformation and metamorphosis, and of the trauma that follows any process of migration.

Berlinde De Bruyckere has been developing work in the fields of sculpture, drawing, collage, and installation around the great themes of art: death, redemption, sex, pain and memory. Inspired by the intermediary figure of the angel, this exhibition proposes a reflection on the relationship with the other, whether as transcendence, as the physicality of touch, or as personal projection. In the sequence of exhibition rooms, the artist explores these topics in works from different moments in her career, looking at their erotic power and ambiguity.

Anchored in the history of art—particularly Renaissance painting—Berlinde De Bruyckere’s work connects existing archetypes with new narratives, rediscovering themes, obsessions, and recurrences from the world of images that populate our collective memory.

To make this dialogue between historical times a reality, the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga has kindly lent Lucas Cranach’s painting Salomé with the head of Saint John the Baptist, 1510, which is juxtaposed with the work Infinitum II, 2017–2019. Continuing this dialogue, the exhibition will also include a site in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga itself, where the work Liggende — Arcangelo I, 2023, will be installed in the room dedicated to Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664), a Spanish Baroque painter whose work is a recurring point of reference for the artist. This sculpture, representing a fallen angel (an entity that has passed from transcendence to immanence), presented in the context of a dialogue with the mysticism of Zurbarán’s painting (present in portraits that try to free themselves from earthly mundanity), once again realises the same ambiguous and back-and-forth circuit the exhibition proposes. Another important aspect of the work is its dimensions, which reproduce those of Vasco da Gama’s tomb at the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in Lisbon.

Each room of the exhibition brings together different imagery, although in all of them—with the exception of the last—the issue of gender duality and the bridge between images of the masculine, the feminine, and the undifferentiated are a constant presence. In the first room, the Arcangeli (the image of the intermediary) are juxtaposed with collages and a wall work of the It almost seemed a lily series, exploring the subjects of desire and sublimation; in the second room, the sculpture Palindroom, 2019, phallic in appearance yet female in nature, is confronted with a set of leather and wax wall sculptures called Met Tere Huid, 2014, a powerful rendition of vulvar forms; and, in the third, three vertical shield-like sculptures entitled Penthesilea (the Amazon queen killed by Achilles) carry wax casts of animal skin, spread open wide and draped as if referring to Piero della Francesca’s painting Madonna del parto, 1460, and once again turning the delicate female sex into an image of power.

All the situations evoked are therefore dual and contradictory, permanently crossing the territories of gender and its imagery. The case of the work Palindroom is particularly significant: a palindrome is a word or text that can be read equally in its normal and reverse orders. The sculpture mimics a model used for breeding horses. Although its configuration evokes a penis, its function is precisely the opposite, that of being penetrated. In a complex way, it is a palindrome between interior and exterior, an object that is almost hermaphroditic in the symbolism it summons.

The last room of the exhibition features the installation ALETHEIA (on-vergeten), 2019, a Greek word meaning unveiling or that which is not hidden. The viewer can wander among the deposited layers of animal skins cast in wax and accumulated on pallets, in an allegory of the countless layers of meanings and possible interpretations that reverberate in the various situations proposed by the exhibition.

The exhibition period will also include two performances by Portuguese dancer and actor Romeu Runa, who has collaborated with Berlinde De Bruyckere for many years. The performances Romeu,‘my deer’ and Sybille relate directly to the artist’s work and are the result of their close collaboration.

Magritte + Warhol by Duane Michals. News, 12th November 2023

Photographer Duane Michals turns his eye on the legendary artists René Magritte and Andy Warhol in this exhibition of early portraits. Known for his surreal sequences and witty storytelling across media, Michals’s portraits of other artists turn the tables upon his subjects by adopting elements of their characteristic visual styles. Among the many artists photographed by Michals over his six-decade long career, Michals particularly sought out Magritte and Warhol as subjects. The exhibition will feature nearly forty portraits of Warhol and twenty portraits of Magritte, alongside over twenty portraits of other major 20th century artists. These two series reimagine these mythological artists on Michals’s own terms, capturing at once the illusory image of the artist and the person beneath.

Duane Michals first took portraits of Andy Warhol in 1958, and continued to photograph him throughout the artists’ friendship. They met while Warhol was working as a commercial artist and connected over their shared experiences growing up in Pittsburgh. The 1958 portraits capture this moment of transition from working in advertising to establishing himself as Andy Warhol, the artist and personality. The subsequent portraits taken over the years illuminate Warhol’s constant self-reinvention. Michals comments, “he’s transcended being a mere artist, he’s a phenomenon. Andy was phenomenal. And he still is, and he will get stronger as time goes on.”

In August, 1965, Duane Michals arrived at René Magritte’s home in Brussels to take the famous surrealist’s portrait. Michals made the connection through a friend of a friend and had no idea what to expect from the painter who was a large influence on his own photographs. Michals’s photographs refract Magritte and his space through his own engagement with Magritte’s art. He writes, “what so engaged me in Magritte’s work was its ability to perplex. In his world, I could not be sure of anything.” The portraits convey the surrealist sense of humor shared by the two artists, using double exposures and other techniques to perplex the eye. Magritte is dressed in a dark suit and bowler hat, “the familiar Magritte man” of his paintings.

Michals’ portraits of other artists, including Marcel Duchamp, David Hockney, Alice Neel, Louise Nevelson, and Robert Rauschenberg, will be shown alongside these two series. Each image speaks to the particularities of the sitter, channeling the aura of their work while maintaining his own idiosyncratic vision.

Brâncuși: Romanian Sources and Universal Perspectives. News, 9th October 2023

The exhibition "Brâncuși: Romanian Sources and Universal Perspectives" seeks to illustrate the particularity of the artist who managed to create pure forms, freed from any influence. Through the dialogue that he establishes with matter and that allows him to extract the essence of beings and objects, Brâncuși crosses all geographical, historical, formal, and gender boundaries, which ensures him a special place, not attaching him to any artistic current.

The exhibition will bring to the public's awareness different stages of Brâncuși's artistic career: from the works created under the influence of education at the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest to the confrontation with Rodin's sculpture and up to his radical decision to abandon modeling and adopt the method of direct grinding – which marks his symbolic return to the primitive arts and opens, at the same time, the way to modernity. An exciting and original selection of photographs and fragments filmed by the artist will be exhibited in dialogue with the sculptures.

The exhibition will benefit from exceptional loans from the National Museum of Modern Art, Center Pompidou in Paris, Tate in London, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Art Museum in Bucharest, and the Art Museum in Craiova, as well as from private collections.

"Brâncuși: Romanian Sources & Universal Perspectives," the most important exhibition dedicated to the great sculptor in the last half century in Romania, is financed by the Timiș County Council and is co-organized in the European Capital of Culture by the Timișoara National Museum of Art, the Art Encounters Foundation and the French Institute in Romania, through its branch in Timișoara.

"Self-Portrait as Saint Anthony" of Aurélia de Souza. Review by Fábio Cruz, 17th February 2023

In a world made by men and for men, there have been women throughout history who came to question everything that was believed. The art world was no exception and there were numerous examples of great women who exposed themselves as artists, even when men used them only as muses for their work. Even without knowing that they would remain in history forever, these women dedicated themselves to what they loved, leaving countless examples that, today, we can observe and understand the importance that they would not have had at the time.

Aurélia de Souza was one of those women. She was born in Chile but raised in a small country named Portugal, where women were still part of high society, to be seen as housewives. Aurélia had the opportunity to study in Porto, at the Academy of Fine Arts, as well as in other great academies around the world, and she became a great artist, with a vast work, that distances herself from everything that women were thought to be able to accomplish.

Aurélia took advantage of photography to make some of her most famous works. In an almost performative exercise, the artist photographed herself as she wished and, later, painted herself on canvas. Even though this exercise had already been done all over Europe, since the moment photography emerged as a great invention of the nineteenth century, it's true that in Portugal it had not yet become a habit. One of her most relevant and, in a way, incomprehensible works is “Self-Portrait as Saint Anthony”. In this portrait, the artist dressed up as Saint Anthony, presenting a less dogmatic view of the saint's physiognomy, which was sought to be represented in more traditional paintings up to that time. It is understood that she did it this way because she was born on the day that Saint Anthony was celebrated. However, it is not understood whether this was exactly the main reason for what can be called her main performance. I refer to performance, but accidentally, because, certainly, Aurélia would not have that intention, nor did she do it with an audience to witness the moment when she decided to portray herself as Saint Anthony.

In this work, the usual comforting mystique of Saint Anthony is replaced by a disquieting void of uncertainties, a tremendous truth of suffering and death, clearly visible in how she paints her face and physiognomy. Even though there are versions that claim that Aurélia would be sick at this time, perhaps the painting is a true performance of her, which intended to portray what was going on all over the country, in a time of technological and scientific advances, but of big social setbacks, which would lead to the beginning of the First World War.

In addition to the existence of other works of art that could be analyzed about Aurélia's contribution to Portuguese art, this would be the main one, as well as one of her most incredible works. It should be noted that the artist was undoubtedly an example of a woman out of her time; however, she only succeeded because her family provided for her, financially and socially. Without their support, in a world made up of men, she would never have been able to be considered an example of strength and resilience, nor would she travel as she traveled, which allowed her to know the realities beyond Portuguese borders.

When we hear the name David Hockney (1937), we have the notion that he is one of the most recognized British artists within the art world. With an unbelievable curriculum and a plurality transversal to several artistic areas, it presents its greatest expressiveness within the Pop Art movement, but it is transversal to several others.

Known for his works that are interconnected and mixed with his life, Hockney has always tried to transfer his personal experiences into his works, and with that comes photography, as a witness of what he has seen.

Hockney has always used photography as a way to capture the reality that was later painted, showing the passage of time, but in a static way. From the moment he thought about this device and how he could show his point of view on things, he created a new photographic concept entitled “Joiner” (80').

“Joiner” is a type of multiple photography, of a space or object, capturing various angles, through several captures that are later composed, creating a single photograph, giving the viewer a better notion of observation about the theme, as well as the power to be able to better observe the space. Here, Hockney, presents another important point: the idea of ​​a narrative within an entire work, a narrative that can be understood as the movement of the spectator's gaze within the observation that the artist intends to be made.

In this photographic technique, reality is presented to us in a fragmented way, as it happens in the paintings of the avant-garde movement - Cubism.

In Cubism, this form of thought and execution is also perceived: the idea of ​​representing something, from different planes and different points of view. Hockney has a huge influence from Pablo Picasso, and uses that to rescue, in a very experimental way, something that had remained in the past, in order to make this vision so advanced at that time contemporary.

As had happened with Cubism, here, the artist also gives a new perception, both in the way of seeing space and the way it is presented, as well as, in the way of seeing art. I dare to say that we are facing a new way of seeing and producing images.

Are we facing a technique, or a revival of a “neocubism”, but using technology to update itself? Or can we even speak of a “photo-cubism”? We can say that David Hockney is a master, who draws on the work of others, and who has influenced, and will continue to do so, many other masters in the future.

For the time being, we can only dwell on the aesthetic connections and similarities between these two masters and their works, taking advantage of and envisioning these great works.

Paula Rego. There and Back Again is the first institutional solo exhibition of Paula Rego in Germany, and comprises over 80 art works (paintings, drawings, prints, as well as costumes). Its title is borrowed from the ballet Pra lá e pra sá (There and Back Again) which the English composer Louisa Lasdun composed in 1998. The ballet, presented in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, was inspired by her seeing Paula Rego’s Nursery Rhymes prints, and for which Rego designed the costumes.

“I’m interested in seeing things from the underdog’s perspective. Usually that’s a female perspective”, claimed the Portuguese-British artist Paula Rego (1935-2022), Grande Dame of an uncompromising vision, a true tender narrator for our complex times of a psychological and physical anguish, and an unrivalled storyteller, heralded as a feminist icon. Her groundbreaking oeuvre tackled upon systems of power and control, fascism, women's rights, abortion and human tragedy, giving visibility to the underrepresented, fighting political injustices, and at the same time, redefining painterly traditions. The themes of violence, poverty, political tyranny, gender discrimination, and grief were in the centre of her challenging work. Courageously questioning the political myths and subtly although with a brutal honesty and dignity investigating human relationships, Paula Rego’s art - remains more relevant than ever as an evidence of resilience and an unparalleled subversive and rebellious strength.

Gérard Fromanger: «The artist must offer mythical truths». Interview made in 2018 by Francisco Lacerda and António Lourenço. News, 13th May 2022

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