ART CITIES:N.York-Paulo Monteiro
Monteiro continues his ongoing reconciliation of the dual forms of painting and sculpture by constructing a narrative between them. Continuously exploring the margins and limits of shape, Monteiro utilizes negative space as a medium in order to make his paintings feel like sculptures, and his sculptures feel like paintings. His palette oscillates between predominantly cool and warm tones, dark blues and a variety of reds that at once create an interlocking depth and almost strident contrast; his whites and greys offer a tactility akin to that of his drawings.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Lévy Gorvy Gallery Archive
New paintings and sculptures are on show in Paulo Monteiro’s solo exhibition “The Two Sides of an Empty Line”. The artist rejects monumentality and grand statements in his art in favor of expressive immediacy and intimacy, and an embrace of contingency, subtle humor, and gesture, stating: “I’m more connected to the expression, to the poetic, instead of sticking to a technique that favors me”. Monteiro emerged as an artist in São where he continues to live and work. Initially drawn to illustration and cartoon imagery, he was inspired to cultivate his painting practice in 1981, when he first encountered the late work of Philip Guston in “Philip Guston: Seus Últimos Anos”, at that year’s São Paulo Bienal. In 1983, he cofounded the artist’s group Casa 7 with Fábio Miguez, Rodrigo Andrade, Carlito Carvalhosa, and Antonio Malta. Inspired by Guston’s profound humor and incorporation of comic imagery into contemporary painting, as well as by the example of European Neo-Expressionism, Monteiro and his compatriots in Casa 7 introduced a new energy to Brazilian painting. Monteiro would combine these innovations with the compositional concerns of Neo-Concrete art specific to Brazilian contemporary art to develop his singular practice. Fascinated by ballet and practicing dance himself for many years, Monteiro brings to his work a bodily awareness that manifests itself in balance and poise. His dedication to intuitive process and gesture extends across mediums and may be seen in both his sculptures and paintings. The sculptures bend, extend, tense, and flex while succumbing to the forces of mass, torsion, and gravity; likewise, his abstract paintings offer an immediacy of visual effect and affirm their origins as emerging from bodily gestures. Displayed on the floor and mounted on the wall, Monteiro’s sculptures in the exhibition are comprised of painted and patinated bronze, aluminum, and felt. Working with the physical characteristics of his materials, the artist develops his sculptural works iteratively. The highly textured tubular forms of the bronze sculptures twist, sag, and break; likewise, the felt works evidence Monteiro’s mastery of cutting, folding, and pinning to yield hanging configurations that push the possibilities of form. Monteiro’s paintings (varied in their dimensions, exuberant colors, and gestural demarcations, and displayed individually and as part of larger ensembles), are united by the artist’s distillation of painting to its essential nature while exploring its idiosyncratic expressive potential. Lines traverse these paintings, sometimes straight, and sometimes forming subtle curves and ovoid shapes. Embracing indeterminacy and complexity, while exploring the limits and boundaries of forms, Monteiro transforms inert materials into works of art that take on lives of their own.
Photo: Paulo Monteiro, Untitled, 2020, Oil on linen, 57 1/2 x 78 3/4 inches / 146.1 x 200 cm, © Paulo Monteiro, courtesy the artist and Lévy Gorvy Gallery
Info: Lévy Gorvy Gallery, 909 Madison Avenue, New York, Duration: 10/3-1/5/2021, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-18:00 (by appointment, book here), www.levygorvy.com
