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Lot Essay
Please note that this works has been requested for the Adriana Varejão exhibition that will take place at the Museu de Arte Moderna de Sao Paulo, 3 September-20 December 2012.
Executed in 1995-96, Adriana Varejão's Tea and Tiles initially appears to be a beautifully rendered painting of a series of tiles with a variety of sculptural elements set out under the canvas. However, when the painting is viewed from any other angle than straight on, a series of white voids emerge on the canvas. For it to appear complete again, one must view it from straight on, and this reveals Varejão's visual trick of painting the chair, teacup and saucer, and table in the same style as the tiles, which are rendered with stunning precision and are a virtuosic display of artistic prowess. These 'tiles' show a variety of geometric patterns and waves, and are painted in a stunning deep blue on white, reminiscent of the azujelos (ceramic tiles) developed in Portugal from the seventeenth century. Typically for Varejão's work, there is a profound meaning and importance invested in them, as they relate to the themes of colonialism that is so prevalent in her work.
Born in 1964 in Rio de Janeiro, Varejão's art often focuses on the history of her native country and its relationship with its colonial 'masters.' The tiles that are so prevalent in Varejão's oeuvre reflect her childhood spent seeing them in buildings in Brazil, where they had been installed by the Portuguese colonisers of the country. In other work from the series she has broken through the faade of rows of tiles with hyper realistic wounds or bulging entrails. Whilst Tea and Tiles is much more civil and calm, the same theme remains and the image is still ruptured, only in this case with the sections of the canvas which are white and intended to be covered by the sculptural elements instead of the fleshy wounds. The rupture that takes place reflects the uneasy relationship that at times existed between the colonized and coloniser, although by using the tiled imagery so popular amongst the Portuguese, Varejão reveals her perspective to be complicated by an aspect of acceptance, as she was aware of the realities of the colonial history that helped mould her nation. In an era where post-colonial studies have come to the fore, Varejão is an artist at the forefront of the situation, raising important questions in a subtle way which forces us to address these issues.
Executed in 1995-96, Adriana Varejão's Tea and Tiles initially appears to be a beautifully rendered painting of a series of tiles with a variety of sculptural elements set out under the canvas. However, when the painting is viewed from any other angle than straight on, a series of white voids emerge on the canvas. For it to appear complete again, one must view it from straight on, and this reveals Varejão's visual trick of painting the chair, teacup and saucer, and table in the same style as the tiles, which are rendered with stunning precision and are a virtuosic display of artistic prowess. These 'tiles' show a variety of geometric patterns and waves, and are painted in a stunning deep blue on white, reminiscent of the azujelos (ceramic tiles) developed in Portugal from the seventeenth century. Typically for Varejão's work, there is a profound meaning and importance invested in them, as they relate to the themes of colonialism that is so prevalent in her work.
Born in 1964 in Rio de Janeiro, Varejão's art often focuses on the history of her native country and its relationship with its colonial 'masters.' The tiles that are so prevalent in Varejão's oeuvre reflect her childhood spent seeing them in buildings in Brazil, where they had been installed by the Portuguese colonisers of the country. In other work from the series she has broken through the faade of rows of tiles with hyper realistic wounds or bulging entrails. Whilst Tea and Tiles is much more civil and calm, the same theme remains and the image is still ruptured, only in this case with the sections of the canvas which are white and intended to be covered by the sculptural elements instead of the fleshy wounds. The rupture that takes place reflects the uneasy relationship that at times existed between the colonized and coloniser, although by using the tiled imagery so popular amongst the Portuguese, Varejão reveals her perspective to be complicated by an aspect of acceptance, as she was aware of the realities of the colonial history that helped mould her nation. In an era where post-colonial studies have come to the fore, Varejão is an artist at the forefront of the situation, raising important questions in a subtle way which forces us to address these issues.