P55 – The Art Platform - ID 17694664

P55 – The Art Platform - ID 17694664 Manuel Pereira da Silva (1920-2003) Felt on paper Signed and dated 1989 Dim.: 27 cm x 50 cm

P55 – The Art Platform - ID 17419861

P55 – The Art Platform - ID 17419861 Manuel Pereira da Silva (1920-2003) Ballpoint pen on paper Signed and dated 1990 Dim.: 27 cm x 50 cm

P55 – The Art Platform - ID 16926546

P55 – The Art Platform - ID 16926546 Manuel Pereira da Silva (1920-2003) Ballpoint pen on paper Signed and dated 1990 Dim.: 27 cm x 50 cm

P55.Art – The Art Platform - ID 16843716

P55.Art – The Art Platform - ID 16843716 Manuel Pereira da Silva (1920-2003) Ballpoint pen on paper Signed and dated 1989 Dim.: 30 cm x 43 cm

P55.Art – The Art Platform - ID 16697548

P55.Art – The Art Platform - ID 16697548 Manoel Pereira da Silva (1920-2003) Crucifixion Ballpoint on paper Signed and dated 1978 Dim.: 30 cm x 43 cm

P55 – The Art Platform - ID 16667022

P55 – The Art Platform - ID 16667022 Manoel Pereira da Silva (1920-2003) Ballpoint on paper Signed and dated 1989 Dim.: 27 cm x 50 cm

P55 – The Art Platform - ID 16667014

P55 – The Art Platform - ID 16667014 Manoel Pereira da Silva (1920-2003) Pencil on paper Signed and dated 1989 Dim.: 27 cm x 42 cm

XX century Abstract Utopias

Theo Van Doesburg was one of the founders and leading theorists of De Stijl along with Piet Mondrian, which began in the Netherlands and flourished into one of the major inter-war movements. It advocated a simplified, geometric, and reductive aesthetic in the visual arts and argued that painting, design, and architecture should be fully integrated. Van Doesburg's personal version of De Stijl was called Elementarism, which emphasized subtle shifts in tones, tilting squares and rectangles at angles relative to the picture plane, and allowed straight horizontal and vertical lines to be colored, varied in length, and disconnected from one another. Van Doesburg felt that abstraction's unique value was its ability to achieve social order and universal harmony with its precise, orderly geometry and vibrant, contrasting colors. He also felt that his reductive method had spiritually and morally uplifting qualities. His Dancers series demonstrates both his abstraction, and the spiritual inspiration he found in it. An example of van Doesburg's early abstraction work before the influence of Mondrian, Dancers presents his explorations into Theosophy and spiritualism. The two figures in the diptych are abstracted representations of the Hindu deity Krishna, dancing and playing the flute. He based the images on a Theosophy figurine of the deity, showing two sides of the figurine in the diptych. Van Doesburg sought to portray spiritual ideas which ignited his belief in the higher powers of art. The Theosophical doctrine outlined in the painting is of the harmony that exists between things on the ideal, divine level underneath the chaotic surface images of everyday existence. By abstracting away the chaotic elements, and representing the harmonious realm beyond the surface, art could make people aware of, and allow them to experience, a spiritual perspective. In the work, he borrows the techniques of Indian art, in which colors and shapes do not reflect nature, but instead express spiritual truths and states. Acting on his mission to inform people of the tenets of De Stijl, van Doesburg abstracted the image of a grazing cow, beginning by creating figurative studies, and gradually changing the image until the cow became a carefully coordinated arrangement of colorful rectangles and squares. Van Doesburg used this composition, as well as his preliminary studies, in a treatise on De Stijl that he distributed for educational purposes. This painting is part of the artist's early foray into De Stijl, and demonstrates his passion for the burgeoning movement. This painting literally demonstrates the meaning of "abstracted" or "to abstract" in that it simplifies and reduces the thing depicted, transforming it into basic geometric structural components. A contrast between Dancers and Composition VIII (The Cow) demonstrates the change in his abstraction before and after creating De Stijl.

Manuel Pereira da Silva, based on the figure of Maria and José, made three studies in which he increasingly simplified the line, in which he sometimes intended to achieve an abstract form.

P55.Art – The Art Platform - ID 16352156

P55.Art – The Art Platform - ID 16352156 Manoel Pereira da Silva (1920-2003) Ballpoint on paper Signed and dated 1976 Dim.: 30 cm x 43 cm

20th century Cubism

Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) is widely recognized as one of the founders of Cubism, along with Georges Braque (1882 – 1963). This artistic movement aimed to deconstruct the image through geometric figures, drawing inspiration from diverse sources, such as African masks and the works of French artist Paul Cézanne. Cubism, which emerged in 1907, represented a new way of visualizing reality, moving away from traditional illusionism and approaching a more geometric and fragmented vision of the world.

The first phase of Cubism, known as Analytical Cubism, developed between 1908 and 1912, characterized by the fragmentation of the object into multiple facets and the almost total absence of color, prioritizing tones of gray, brown and green. This phase is marked by a rigorous analysis of shapes and volumes, where artists deconstructed objects and represented them from different perspectives simultaneously.

George Braque

Large Nude 

1907 

Manuel Pereira da Silva

Naked

1989

Pencil on paper

21cm x 29cm

Manuel Pereira da Silva

Naked

1989

Pencil on paper

21cm x 29cm

Manuel Pereira da Silva is an artist who, although not directly associated with Cubism, shares the ability to balance figuration with abstraction, often addressing the female figure in his compositions. This treatment of the female figure, which can be both explicit and implicit, underlines his ability to balance figuration with abstraction. In his works, he frequently explores themes such as seated women, reclining women, motherhood, family, man and woman, dance and crucifixion. Although the figures in his works are often almost completely dissolved into abstraction, there is a constant presence of noticeable figurative references, indicating an unbreakable connection with the representation of the human.

Pablo Picasso

Maternity

1909

Manuel Pereira da Silva

Maternity

1955

Watercolor on cardboard

34cm x 43cm

Manuel Pereira da Silva

Maternity

1994

Ballpoint pen on cardboard

25cm x 50cm

The term "Cubism" was first used by French art critic **Louis Vauxcelles in 1908, after seeing a painting by Braque. Vauxcelles described the work as “full of little cubes,” an observation that quickly led to widespread use of the term, despite initial resistance from its creators.

Cubism evolved into Synthetic Cubism around 1912, which is characterized by the reintroduction of color and the simplification of forms. At this stage, the artists started to incorporate collage elements and different materials, replacing the volume and space of the previous painting with a vocabulary based on the fragmentation and simultaneity of forms and creating a new dimension of the anti-naturalistic and irrational space, breaking even further with the previous pictorial traditions and emphasizing the autonomy of art.

During his neoclassical period, Picasso explored the theme of motherhood and the special relationship between mother and child, creating works that evoked the solidity and vitality of ancient statues. These paintings are marked by a soft palette of grays and pinks and highlight the female figure as a symbol of strength and connection to the earth. The maternity picture shows a woman dressed in a classic white dress while holding a squirming baby on her lap. She is so absorbed with her son that she doesn't know we are watching them. Their interplay is both lively and tranquil, evoking tender lyricism and the calming spirit of motherhood. Picasso's neoclassical period lasted until about 1925, when his art took yet another direction.

Manuel Pereira da Silva

Maternity

1965

Plaster on aluminum structure

53 cm x105 cm x 56 cm

The Three Dancers was painted by Picasso in June 1925. The painting shows three dancers, the one on the right is barely visible. A macabre dance takes place, with the dancer on the left with her head tilted at an almost impossible angle. The dancer on the right is often interpreted as Ramon Pichot, Picasso's friend who died during the painting of the Three Dancers. The one on the left is Pichot's wife, Germaine Gargallo, and the one in the center is Germaine's boyfriend, Carlos Casagemas, also a friend of Picasso. Casagemas committed suicide after failing to shoot Germaine, twenty-five years before Pichot's death, and the loss of two of his best friends spurred Picasso to paint this chilling depiction of the love triangle.

Pablo Picasso

The three dancers

1925

Manuel Pereira da Silva

Dance

1980

Oil on canvas

69cm x 84cm

Manuel Pereira da Silva

Dance

1959

Plaster on aluminum structure

60 cm x 78 cm x 41 cm

Picasso painted The Three Dancers in Paris after a trip to Monte Carlo with his wife, ballerina Olga Khokhlova. At this time, Picasso was attracted to Andre Breton's surrealist movement. This radical work marks Picasso's entry into surrealism and his descent into his disturbing representations of the female form. However, he was never a fully enrolled member of the Surrealist movement: his realistic artistic response and his individuality never truly submitted to the movement's Freudian concepts of the supremacy of the subconscious state. However, the emerging Surrealists of the Dada movement claimed Picasso as their own, with the reproduction of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) in their 1925 manifesto to endorse his influence on their work. The Three Dancers is similar to Les Demoiselles a'Avignon in its revolutionary impact - but it is not the elements of primitivism but the psychotic frenzy of the women that is disturbing.

Pablo Picasso

Dance

1929

Manuel Pereira da Silva

Dance

1956

Watercolor on cardboard

50cm x 54cm

Manuel Pereira da Silva

Dance

1979

Ballpoint pen on cardboard

40cm x 58cm

Manuel Pereira da Silva

Dance

nineteen ninety

Watercolor on cardboard

27cm x 33cm

Picasso's relationship with Surrealism, although unofficial, is evident in works such as Crucifixion (1930), which continues to explore the distortion of bodily forms and manic grimaces, combined with the pyramidal structure of the figures, characteristics that echo anguish. and the chaos of his personal and artistic experiences.

Pablo Picasso

Crucifixion

1930

Manuel Pereira da Silva

Crucifixion

1955

Watercolor on cardboard

27cm x 38cm

Manuel Pereira da Silva

Crucifixion

1979

Ballpoint pen on cardboard 50 cm x 65 cm

Thus, Cubism, from its origins with Picasso and Braque to its subsequent evolutions and influences, represents one of the most significant transformations in modern art, challenging traditional perceptions and opening the way for new forms of artistic expression and interpretation.