ZÉ ROBERTO DA SILVA - Estimações
Medium: Metal engraving | Dimensions: 39,5 x 29,5 cm | Year: 2016

 

ARTWORK FORMAL DESCRIPTION

A pictorial print in which a wall displays several paintings with various images. On the left side are two trees planted in carts - one a wheelbarrow and the other a bathtub-like. They are of different sizes; the one on the left is larger and more detailed. From the trees, the various paintings extend to the right edge of the image.

 

THE ARTWORK
The paintings, which range from famous paintings in the history of art - such as "The Scream", "The Origin of the World", and "Starry Night" - to figures of microscopes and binoculars and beach scenes, make up work full of visual references. The artist explains: "Estimações started from the concept of 'value' or an estimate. It is formed by rearranged things/images, addressing some icons of the history of Visual Arts, or procedures such as perspective, or the 'window' of reality for imitation". By resembling a living room, the work is like a shop window. Hence, it invites us to look closer to discover the icons and values that the artist chose for his composition.

 

FOR REFLECTION

¿Qué quiso decirnos el artista al elegir referencias universales y personales en su composición, en lo que él llama "valor"? "¿Qué tienen que decirnos los objetos o qué dicen de nosotros? Como el artista explicó, su trabajo partió del concepto de "valor" y "estimación" - en la imagen él eligió cosas y objetos que, para él, tenían sentido. ¿Y para nosotros? ¿Cómo podemos apropiarnos de esa idea sugerida por el artista? ¿Qué estimamos en ese momento? ¿Qué antes tenía valor y hoy parece no tener más sentido? Basándonos en las experiencias que hemos adquirido a lo largo de la vida, hemos construido todo lo que nos rodea. Significamos y resignificamos, diariamente, nuestras pertenencias, nuestras memorias, nuestras relaciones y nuestros objetos, que pueblan nuestro cotidiano y a los cuales dirigimos nuestra atención. El paisaje escenificado por el artista en su encuadre nos lleva a cuestionar la relación que hemos establecido con el mundo exterior.

TECHNIQUE - STEEL ETCHING

Etching is a metal engraving technique that engraves lines using acid. In etching, the acid etches the tone areas. The process of producing the matrices is chemical and takes place through the use of some corrosive liquids. The plate used by the engraver is sprayed or painted with a sort of resin, which acts as a protector to the varnish. Thus, when the plaque comes into contact with the acid, the grains of sugar or sand, for example, produce a texture that grants the work a grayish tone. This type of engraving offers, as a result, a drawing composed of tonal areas and not lines, as in etching". (FINAZZI, NAIARA, 2012).