Coisa linda I, 2001
Beatriz Milhazes
Photo: Courtesy of Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
Collection
Loans
Acrylic on canvas
300 x 191 x 3.5 cm
Coisa Linda I (Something Beautiful I) is part of a series of paintings made in conjunction with an eponymous, hand-printed artist book, published in 2002 by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Through inclusion of a dozen of lyrics by three generations of Brazilian songwriters—the bossa nova of the late-fifties and early-sixties, the Tropicália of the late-sixties and early-seventies, and finally a third contemporary generation—Beatriz Milhazes intends to engage and explore the connection between music and images, a connection that is especially deep in Brazilian culture. Milhazes’ exuberant abstractions respond to and visually orchestrate the range of musical sources, from the striking literary quality of the lyrics featured in the book to more general sights and sounds of the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
Richly layered, intensely chromatic, and bursting with energy, Milhazes’ large-scale painting consists of whirlpools of concentrically arranged, polka-dotted flowery shapes, superimposed in multiple layerings and drawing the eye deeper into her signature jungles of pattern and color. The meticulously constructed collision of multicolored dots, concentric circles, and floral abstractions against the monochromatic, geometric backdrop seems to erupt into a soulful cadence of pointillist vibrations. Milhazes’ uninhibited use of form and color however masks a profoundly controlled and complex composition. Indeed, she developed an elaborate technique through which she paints directly onto cut-out plastic sheets. When these dry, she transfers them to the canvas, peeling the plastic backing off the paint once they are affixed. The sense of immediacy goes hand in hand with a sense of removal, of distancing. In describing her technique she says: “even [in] a work like mine, which is very hand-made, the technique I use denies you the possibility to touch the hand signs of the painter. The organism of the construction of my paintings is subverted by the smooth and quite equal texture of it.”[1] (TBA21)
[1] Interview with Beatriz Milhazes in RES Art World/World Art, no. 2, May 2008: 7.
*1960 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Living and working in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
UPCOMING LOANS
Solo Exhibition: Beatriz Milhazes
Venue: Turner Contemporary, Margate
May 27, 2023 - September 10, 2023
300 x 191 x 3.5 cm
Coisa Linda I (Something Beautiful I) is part of a series of paintings made in conjunction with an eponymous, hand-printed artist book, published in 2002 by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Through inclusion of a dozen of lyrics by three generations of Brazilian songwriters—the bossa nova of the late-fifties and early-sixties, the Tropicália of the late-sixties and early-seventies, and finally a third contemporary generation—Beatriz Milhazes intends to engage and explore the connection between music and images, a connection that is especially deep in Brazilian culture. Milhazes’ exuberant abstractions respond to and visually orchestrate the range of musical sources, from the striking literary quality of the lyrics featured in the book to more general sights and sounds of the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
Richly layered, intensely chromatic, and bursting with energy, Milhazes’ large-scale painting consists of whirlpools of concentrically arranged, polka-dotted flowery shapes, superimposed in multiple layerings and drawing the eye deeper into her signature jungles of pattern and color. The meticulously constructed collision of multicolored dots, concentric circles, and floral abstractions against the monochromatic, geometric backdrop seems to erupt into a soulful cadence of pointillist vibrations. Milhazes’ uninhibited use of form and color however masks a profoundly controlled and complex composition. Indeed, she developed an elaborate technique through which she paints directly onto cut-out plastic sheets. When these dry, she transfers them to the canvas, peeling the plastic backing off the paint once they are affixed. The sense of immediacy goes hand in hand with a sense of removal, of distancing. In describing her technique she says: “even [in] a work like mine, which is very hand-made, the technique I use denies you the possibility to touch the hand signs of the painter. The organism of the construction of my paintings is subverted by the smooth and quite equal texture of it.”[1] (TBA21)
[1] Interview with Beatriz Milhazes in RES Art World/World Art, no. 2, May 2008: 7.
*1960 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Living and working in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
UPCOMING LOANS
Solo Exhibition: Beatriz Milhazes
Venue: Turner Contemporary, Margate
May 27, 2023 - September 10, 2023