ESTELA SANDRINI - Sem Título
 Medium: Oil on canvas | Dimensions: 100 x 190 cm | Year: 1997

 

ARTWORK FORMAL DESCRIPTION
Abstract-geometric painting, predominantly blue, orange, and yellow, with lighter and whitish tones on the top part of the frame and more intense and saturated on the lower. On the right portion, the color tones are darker. The figures are reminiscent of geometric shapes, with straight lines forming squares and rectangles that meet, deconstructing the image of a chair.

 

the artwork
Her paintings stand out for what they represent of scenes of the female realm, related to gender, such as domestic and home ones. Over the years, the artist has simplified them, reaching the chair as a symbolic representation of such a theme. Color and form in Teca’s painting thus acquire an existential, poetic, profound, subtle, and enigmatic trace. “The chair represents waiting, resting, and thinking”, says Teca; she considers the chair (in meaning) to be her particular way of looking at the world. “The lines have not been abandoned; it is as if the artist started from a geometric treatment and marked them out with traces of a parallel perspective. However, it is through color that she shows her plastic freedom and her sensitivity, the foundation of her social and political commitment, by delivering an artwork which is thought-provoking of the feminine realm and the chromatic revolution” (Revista Ideias, 2018).

 

FOR REFLECTION

One of the first images that find us during social isolation is the domestic environment in which we find shelter. Hence, Sandrini’s chair reminds us of the object from which one can look at “the world”, the everyday life, and the items living around us at home. The way the artist paints reveals the instability lived in that space – objects are neither organized nor complete; they change and alter according to light. What is the atmosphere of this environment portrayed by the artist? How does it relate to the scene we are used to experiencing?

 

TECHNIQUE – OIL ON CANVAS

The oil painting technique is the most traditional, dating back to the mid-15th century, during the Renaissance period. One can have it on different mediums, such as wood, cloth, fabric, wood; however, the surface needs preparation (painted with white paint composed of white lead and linseed oil, for example). Oil paint requires dissolution with linseed solvents and other thinners. To have it applied on canvas, various instruments such as spatulas and brushes are possible. As it takes many hours to dry, it becomes easier to make corrections on the painting, as well as layers can be created (medievalimago.org). The dissemination of the technique was due to its practicality and the innovative character it carried. Theories about the origin of oil painting are varied. While some authors consider the brothers Hubert and Jan Van Eyck the precursors of oil painting, others suggest it was an innovation experimented by a mysterious monk called Theophilus or Rogkerus. The Van Eyck brothers, in this version, were the ones who only improved the technique.