What
did you paint?
I started to develop a work called “Pensamento Abstrato” (abstract thinking)
wich carried writing things. that ended up disappearing afterwards. Abstractions was
shaped. In 1976 I shoewd a series with this kind of work at the Luis Buarque de Holanda
& Paulo Bittencourt Gallery. Two yeras later I was painting works that carried forms,
where phallic elements started to come out through mountains.
Were there any outside incentives for these changes?
The outside motivation was a reflex of something inside. When you face something at its
end, it means the circle is closing. I had nowhere else to go with my conceptual works. I
could have stayed there like many do. A time comes when you keep going on the same bases
and manages to carry out a career or else you change. In my case, I felt that deep need of
going back to painting. Then I changed.
How this happened?
From the abstract gesture, with sharp brushes on colorful backgrounds in determinate
areas, the forms started to show. The first one to appear was a mountain in Leblon. As I
mentioned earlier, mountain’s are phallic symbols. It is important to remember that
at that time I used to show my work every two years, therefore, I had enough time to
“digest” the pieces.
Could one say they were landscapes?
Right in 78 new forms started to come up, they were even more sensual, even more phallic.
This series, as I called “Paisagens Imaginárias” (Imaginary Landscapes) lasted
until 83. From them on, it was time for figures and animals. There were camels, monkeys,
cats and dogs. The one who impressed the most was the dog, that became dominant figure. |
Artist’s portrait when a young dog
AST - 150x200cm
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What do you mean?
This was an idea: along 83 and 84 I realized the form I was making was gaining more
definition. Then, the first idea was to have a bestiary. As the dog came up, I felt it was
in the same frequecy as I was. It’s a bit difficult to answer “But why the dog
and not any other animal?” The fact is taht the little it took over the space of
other things. Still life wich takes us back to my painting past also started coming up at
that time. For instance I don’t know why painters decided painting sill life. When
you refer back to Renaissance period, you have pictures, biblical scenes, religious and
mythological themes. May be sometimes, an enigma of the sovereign’s philosophy of
those days. Back then, there was a very narrow line between painting and the Church ,
which was a heavy supporter of art.
Adriano e Angelo de Aquino - 1985 |
The Dutch brought the
still life, but the question is still in the air; “why still life and not something
else?. Anyhow, a new behaviour in art was in the air. The still life tradition has always
attracted me very much. I also started making self portraits and I found three elements
that I decided to take as my definitive language. The arrival of Rex brought continuous
speculations; was it my alter-ego or not? It actually translates what I have in my mind as
an image. Through this winding road coming from the 70’s I defined my work, aund it
gained its absolute identity. I made my own language search different from any other
artist. It worked as if had created my private stamp for my own painting. |
Was this the time you were in
Paris?
The year of 86 was the time of a new experience abroad. Paris this time. I had a show in
the Sculpture Gallery, right at the heart of Rive Gauche. I often saw Marcel Fleiss, the
owner of the 1900-2000 Gallery, a person who was very much attracted to the Fluxus Group.
After my individual show at FIAC, a new phase started in my career. Between the years of
86 and 94 I was a constant artist in exhibitions in Paris.
 
Angelo de Aquino - Paris - 1986 (Gallerie Sculpture)
How did receive your work?
Initially I started to sell. This option came as a result of being inside the art
commercial process, as I convert my work into a consumer good. The scenario in Brazil is a
bit different, as the market is very personal. You have to make it come out of your own
abilities. That’s not what happens out there. Tha market is open to different works
of more than 80 thousand artists. I was the only Brazilian to be part of the “I
Bienal da Pintura Jovem” (First Young Painters Biennal) and I was also in the
“Latino-Americanos em Paris”(Latin Americans in Paris). My work began being
recognized by its own difference. When one deals in an international dimension, it’s
good to be able to show pieces Europeans and Americans cannot do or are not even close to
expressing themselves in that way. A piece of work that first glance, attention because of
the differences, since my work is not a Cartesian painting.
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It is almost a draft, it
is a flat, with no dept. In the beginning of Rex’s story, it was a kind of primal,
what people call “naïf”. Not for me. It was something that came right out of
the cave that I considered primal. I made analogies such as: here is a dog stamped on
canvas. It was like back in the cave days, a file, history’s path. As if it resulted
from universal memories. At first it was only a loose dog on canvas. I only gave him a
story after that.
Is your painting connected to some
specific type, like, sports painting, or hunting, where the animal figure is central?
There also is a static painting of horses and hunting scenes. These are usually
aristocratic and rural. Rex is not a theme, he’s pure image. I started using it as
could manifest itself as self-portraits. Instead of painting self portraits, I made use of
his image. There, he travels, has fun in cities Iam visiting, etc.
How was this image developed? |
People who “met” my first
painting of Rex say there prefer the original ones, because they were more spontaneous
than the modern ones. On the other hand, I prefere the present ones, as I see how his
development under went deep technical improvement. I connected the three themes into a
sole form, so they are formally identical. In the beggining it was more just movement,
with painting brushes in the background making the picture a bit rough. Today, I make a
multiple color layer work, wich is my current concern on aesthetic and plastic teems.
I’ve been wondering whether to recover the old movement in mywork. My needs are not
in changing my themes, but how to go artistically deeper with them.
How can you explain the use of collage in your picture?
Collage is constantly present in my work, as it is very present in the XX century’s
painting. I’ve always been attracted to put thins im my pictures. However, things, I
put in my work carry a meaning for me. I keep drink labels, cigarette packs, magazines,
newspapers. For instance, I like to play with publishing titles.
”Le
Figaro” sounds to me like something plastic, as I make collages with the French
newspaper’s title I play mith syllables.
Does it means that you make some kind of biography with materials that mean
something to you?
More or less. They are records. Cigarettes packs I’ve smoked, the card to my gallery,
the “Art Press” magazine I’ve read, the labels of the gin bottles I’ve
drunk. There is a self-portrait ”Le-Fumeur”, all made with packs of cigarettes I
smoked. That’s where the Picasso tradition comes in, never throw anything away. They
are existencial tracks, one could say.
By the way, in the brazilian
culture, dogs have had important roles. It’s Machado de Assis’ in “Quincas
Borba”; in “Vidas Secas”, graciliano Ramos created the bitch Baleia and the
photographer Miguel do Rio Branco has a killed dog laying on the ground. Are you worried
with these facts?
As I mentioned earlier, it all started with a wish to have abestiary. Rex does not carry
any reference with the writers
you mentioned, not even with the photograph of Rio Branco. He is an urban dog, no breed,
no color, he’s sarcastic, he write in the newspaper and travels. He is an urban
contemporaneous image.
Do you say he is a strong
contemporary image?
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Published in the newspaper "O Globo" - 1997
Published in the newspaper "O Globo" - 1996
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I started having this feeling because of
the way people related to his image. Rex was in the cover of a magazine in France. Some of
Japaneses were in love with the image and tried to sell it for children and adult’s
clothes pattern. He is a character in a children’s book. He has become a rug in
France and he has been writing essays for “O Globo”, a newspaper in Rio. As you
see, this image can not be weak. As an artist I try to administrate it so order to vaoid
its being ridiculous or fussy. I try not to squeeze this image.
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