Friday, April 27, 2007

Andalucia - António Pessoa,1997 (óleo sobre tela )


Andalucia - António Pessoa,1997 (óleo sobre tela )

Andalucia - António Pessoa,1997

Já com bastante experiência no país vizinho,é contudo a partir de 1997
que António Pessoa começa a sua carreira e a divulgação da sua obra em Espanha.
Apesar de viver em Vigo,viaja frequentemente por toda a Peninsula,
dedicando este óleo sobre tela a uma das suas regiões favoritas.
Andaluzia.
O seu gosto e admiração pela Festa Brava faz-se notar com bastante frequência em muitos dos seus trabalhos dos anos noventa.
Apesar da crueldade do tema,António Pessoa tem o pudor e a elegância
de tratar a Tauromaquia sem a vital necessidade de uma abordagem
demasiado realista,que é como quem diz,sanguinária.
O resultado visual é então mais emblemático que propriamente vil e
contundente o que nos leva a concluir que o artista apenas pretende
um pensamento meramente cultural ou até turistico,contrariamente à
abordagem que Pablo Picasso durante toda a sua vida e obra fez da
Tauromaquia,que como é sobejamente do conhecimento universal,era fruto de uma verdadeira "aficción",para não dizer obsessão.
Neste Andalucia,1997,António Pessoa consegue o movimento e o
momento de uma tourada tipicamente espanhola,através de um curioso e
original projecto de imagem dupla
É de salientar o facto de que o pintor em 1997 acabava de concluir uma das suas épocas pictóricas de inspiração mais contemporânea.
Convém referir que ao deixar Portugal para residir em Espanha,a partir de 1997,António Pessoa é apanhado de surpresa,primeiro com a pintura galega,depois com a pintura espanhola em geral,muito particularmente
com as obras dos mestres do século vinte.
Estas interferências provam ter exercido uma influência quase radical na
linha da sua obra.Oficialmente,em 1997 ao passar a viver em Espanha,
António Pessoa dá inicio à sua polivalente e super-produtiva Época
Romântica,1997-2002.


Veronica Amaral

The Get Away - António Pessoa,Barcelona 2004 (óleo sobre tela )


The Get Away - António Pessoa,Barcelona 2004 (óleo sobre tela )

the Get Away - António Pessoa 2004

Marcadamente influenciado por Maria Helena Vieira da Silva,António
Pessoa explora o tema Metropolis a partir dos primeiros anos da década
de noventa.
Por então trabalhando com a Galeria de Arte Almacem de Alfredo Moreira e para enorme surpresa do artista todas as obras inspiradas nesta temática são vendidas do dia para a noite,facto que logicamente leva o galerista Alfredo Moreira a entusiasmar António Pessoa no sentido de ampliar e desenvolver mais obra dentro desta linha,desejo que o artista naturalmente concede de bom grado e grande energia criativa e laboral.
Com o passar dos anos António Pessoa inevitavelmente vai perdendo
os vestigios das influências de Vieira da Silva,cujo resultado visual se
vai tornando e desenvolvendo dentro e mais além de uma linha estética pode-se dizer que inovadora.
Com a sua longa passagem por Vigo e Espanha total,o artista vai deixando gradualmente de lado este modelo que tanto lhe agrada,optando por outras expressões plásticas com bastante mais potencial comunicativo dentro do seio do público espanhol.
Contudo,em Barcelona,finais de 2003 o artista decide uma vez mais retomar este fascinante mundo de panorâmicas urbanas,quer seguindo uma veia hiper-realista,quer optando por um certo abstracionismo.
The Get Away ,António Pessoa,Barcelona 2004,é um óleo sobre tela
de fortes contrastes visuais e cunhado por esse rigoroso,ainda que espontâneo,traço de exímio desenhador característico do pintor,
coexistindo com uma privilegiada liberdade de expressão plástica e uma
vitalidade de movimento e action painting notáveis.


Veronica Amaral

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

bright changes - António Pessoa 2004 ( mixed media ) Picasso painting Dora Maar


bright changes - António Pessoa 2004 ( mixed media ) Picasso painting Dora Maar

Bright Changes . António Pessoa 2004
- Picasso pintando Dora Maar - (técnica mista )

Bright Changes,António Pessoa,Barcelona 2004,é o retomar da colecção
Picasso painting Dora Maar.
O artista uma vez mais debruça-se nos amores e desamores do maior fenómeno das artes do século vinte,Pablo Picasso e a sua estranha e perversa relação com a pintora e fotógrafa Dora Maar.
Um curioso trabalho de técnica mista onde Dora Maar aparece nesta obra
sem o usual toque de sofrimento com que Picasso nos tempos em que a pintou
a retratava,chegando ao ponto de desarticular as formas fazendo-a parecer
pouco menos que um monstro.
Neste quadro,António Pessoa,muito possivelmente resolve atenuar a tensão,
concedendo-lhe um ar quase angelical.
Talvez por isso o titulo seja o mais adequado,proporcional aos tons suaves e pasteis pelos que o artista decide optar.
Um trabalho generoso de António Pessoa no contexto febril de uma colecção
abordando uma das mais controversas relações da vida de Picasso.

Veronica Amaral

Two Mermaids - António Pessoa 1999 ( oil on canvas )


Two Mermaids - António Pessoa 1999 (oil on canvas )

Antonio Pessoa - best of

. two mermaids .

Mesmerising the viewers has always been one of Antonio Pessoa's virtues,not only with his natural talent and first rate technical proficiency but very particularly with the great amount of sexual content in his thousands of artworks ,continuously and with unflagging resolve exploring all the possibilities from human hermaphroditism to all sort of situations,from male gay raw homosexuality to soft,gentle tender lesbianism.
"Two Mermaids" from 1999 is one of the best examples how the artist proves once again to be the fine arts wizard which has won him his controversial reputation so far.
The suggestive subtlety of the whole canvas leaves us enough understanding of the fine nuances one can't help enjoying even while speculating over the shades of meaning.
Antonio Pessoa's quality of being difficult and making it difficult to detect or analyse,obviously on purpose,provides us with the unique privilege of wondering,and that's what art is all about.Visual poetry!
Love,sex,sensuality,eroticism,elements and topics ever present in Antonio Pessoa's artworks since his early twenties.
However always treated with the "savoir-faire" of an artist who knows exactly where to stop the evidential signs by instead of forcing the viewers entry,keep them in the value of mystery,evaporating the lines by changing them into a vapor of underlines,the unclearness virtue of ambiguity and in so doing, creating an artistic expression whose meaning cannot be determined from its context,however pleasantly digested from its hazy source,this unclear form of lesbian love of blurred outlines , as Antonio Pessoa purposely shows us in his "Two Mermaids" from 1999,provides us with enough to understand it clearly while the meaning is almost waggishly clouded!

Marc Gilot

Mozart's bohemian nights - António Pessoa 2001 ( oil on canvas )


Antonio Pessoa - best of

. Mozart's bohemian nights .

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,Antonio Pessoa's favourite music composer,sure had to have a place in his wide art production sooner or later.
The year 2001 the artist dedicates him this vertical acrylic on canvas in the making process of his Masks collection,which at that time didn't actually have much success although three years after it's going to have its opportunity in cities such as Madrid,Barcelona,Amsterdam and Chicago.
It's worth mention that in the year 1984 artist Antonio Pessoa had been strongly impressed by Milos Forman's Amadeus motion picture.This Warner Bros. production kept Antonio Pessoa company during his home video sessions,definitely one of his favorite movies ever.
The role of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart given to actor Thomas
Edward Hulce,became the inspiration for many of Antonio Pessoa's live performances and as it couldn't be otherwise the main subject for hundreds of drawings,mixed media on paper and watercolors.
This particular artwork titled "Mozart's bohemian nights" has been exhibited in many group and solo art shows in Europe and United States,blessed with excellent reviews by most of the top young art critics,although only sold out in 2005 in a Madrid auction,obviously due to its high price.37.000 Euros.
In my opinion the best piece of the Masks collection which happens to be one of Antonio Pessoa's most short-lived,ephemeral periods.

Antonio Pessoa is once again cooking strange, although pleasant combinations between shocking blue,graphic black,soft rose and white,conducting the glaringly vivid faces and masks into a frenetic circus almost suggesting a carnival atmosphere,almost comic,almost funny and definitely excellent !

Marc Gilot

Pain and Screal (Picasso painting Dora Maar ) António Pessoa,Barcelona 2004 ( mixed media )


Pain and Scream (Picasso painting Dora Maar ) António Pessoa 2004 ( mixed media )

Antonio Pessoa - best of

. pain and scream , 2004 .

"Pain and Scream" , Antonio Pessoa 2004,right out from the collection Picasso painting Dora Maar ,one of my favorites.
Here stands Pablo Picasso with the painting brush in his hand,the short genius with a half-smile on his face,looking plenty satisfied with his masterpiece,this masterpiece clearly showing a tearful-crying Dora Maar,topless and definitely an emotional wreck,ruined by love dilapidation and yet still a regular
in the studio of Mr.Picasso,in the street Rue des Grands Augustins,Paris.
Antonio Pessoa uses pastel smooth colors very probably purposely in order to give it a liquid grace to such a wrinkled situation.Pink colors contrasting with black humor,wisely creating a juxtaposition of morbid and farcical visual elements to give it a disturbing effect.
Pablo Picasso's portraiture by Antonio Pessoa easy and clearly reveals Picasso's character,the activity of his worldwide known selfishness well out in the open in this amazing piece,done in Barcelona 2004.
Definitely a close encounter of the weirdest kind between two talented artists,in the Twilight Zone of fine arts magic.
Biographer,artist and caricaturist,Antonio Pessoa parodies Picasso painting Dora Maar,somewhat in an exaggerated manner,however succeeding to express one of the most melodramatic affairs of Pablo Picasso, using on purpose theatrical poses and histrionic gestures in order to paint the despair of poor Dora Maar perilously breaking down at the hands of a titanic short tyrannical lover and absolute dictatorial sovereign named Picasso!

Marc Gilot

Picasso painting Dora Maar - António Pessoa 2000 ( oil on canvas )


Picasso painting Dora Maar

Antonio Pessoa - best of

. Picasso painting Dora Maar , 2000 .

In the year 2000, Antonio Pessoa at his very very best of his Romantic Period, 1997 / 2002 , once again takes the role of a movie director and in the process of focusing his attention in one of Pablo Picasso's most emotionally controversial periods,specifically Picasso and Dora Maar relationship,brings the topic seriously to the canvas with the passionate accuracy of an enthusiastic biographer and the objective quality of nearness to the truth of what Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar was all about.
Antonio Pessoa,an incurable Picasso admirer,fact,nevertheless sharp and realistic enough in order to let his analytical criticism go free to the point of translating a complex emotional situation into art expression,comes up with a series of acrylic and oil on canvas where Pablo Picasso shows up as a ruthless whimsical genius taking artistic advantage out of an emotionally tortured Dora Maar,painting her rather as a screaming monster than as a sensitive suffering human being,troubled by love,pain,loss and very probably madness.
In the year 2000 Antonio Pessoa doesn't actually paint more than ten oils about Picasso painting Dora Maar.He drops it by leaving the collection on stand by for some obscure reasons and only four years later in Barcelona,a few months before his two art shows in Chicago,Illinois,he takes the subject one more time,but now totally straightforwardly decided to complete the task at least to a point of consummate satisfaction.
This time,Barcelona 2004,Antonio Pessoa's Picasso painting Dora Maar is going to have a success beyond his expectations,not only by achieving the art critics applause but most importantly by being acquired by two wealthy art collectors from Indianopolis,Indiana,just after Antonio Pessoa's 2004 Chicago art shows.
Picasso painting Dora Maar is unquestionably the best tribute Antonio Pessoa ever payed to the popular spanish genius.
Pablo Picasso !

Marc Gilot

Rembrant - António Pessoa 2006 ( mixed media )


Antonio Pessoa - best of

. Rembrandt .

In the process of writing Antonio Pessoa's biography,now specifically the years the artist has been living in Amsterdam ,
Netherlands,Mr.Jacob Kotsky once again keeps his communication with his favorite one updated on a daily basis,
fact which naturally motivates the artist to use some of his production generator time to illustrate now and then some peculiar and interesting chapters of his own biography.

This piece titled Rembrandt,done in September 2006 is a good example of the artist's latest mixed media wonders which unquestionably is a Must as far as Antonio Pessoa best of is concerned.
The positive collaboration between Mr.Jacob Kotsky and Antonio Pessoa seems to be itself a stimulating alchemy which generates a wide web of creative branches in the artist's studio affairs.

Rembrandt van Rijn,one of Antonio Pessoa's favorite dutch Masters comes alive dressed up with the colors and shapes of the already worldwide popular New Era.
These "one more than two" versions of Rembrandt's portrait show us once again Antonio Pessoa at his very best of,accomplishing each and every single day an artistic higher and higher rank.
It clearly seems Antonio Pessoa in 2006 has reached a point of divine geniality,that level of technical command in which an artist of his caliber can afford to express and communicate standing tall , easy and lucky in the grade of excellence.
Right now a new generation of art collectors never doubt Antonio Pessoa's New Era will succeed while deliberately and naturally focusing their minds something even better is coming up.
Rembrandt by Antonio Pessoa,2006,is definitely one of the most interesting and remarkable art pieces of the New Era period and at the same time a noteworthy fact that the artist is getting better all the time and therefore widening the field of his artistic best of.

Marc Gilot

Juego Sensual - Antonio Pessoa 1997 ( charcoal on paper )


Antonio Pessoa - best of

. juego sensual,1997 .

There's no doubt Antonio Pessoa's Black and White album,1997 / 1998 , is very likely one of his most important revelations as a skillful drawer,provided with an imagination far beyond the average,let alone his striking hard work method which has won him the reputation of a production phenomenon only comparable to Great Masters such as Picasso,Salvador Dali,Van Gogh and Jackson Pollock.
Reading Jacob Kotsky's erudite reviews about Antonio Pessoa's life and work,anyone is bound for becoming at least reasonably aware of Antonio Pessoa's Live drawing performances during his 20's in places such as Mallorca,Ibiza,Sitges,Algarve and Nice.

Obviously this astonishing impressive drawing high technique and great command of the basic,traditional charcoal on paper is going to provide him later on with countless model topics for his oil on canvas and all sort of mixed media artworks till the New Era days.
If Antonio Pessoa in 1997 / 1998 produced more than six hundred high quality drawings,it's very probable that during the ten years before he might have accomplished more than four thousand.
Antonio Pessoa's drawing skillfulness deriving from practice and talent,should be stamped as the very best of his best of.
Both Professor Edward Calvet and art critic Mr.Jacob Kotsky,two more than reliable art experts,agree with the theory that Antonio Pessoa has been proving himself to be undeniably one of the last fine arts dinosaurs of our times.

Marc Gilot

Sunset downtown - António Pessoa 2004 ( mixed media )