Exhibition "IONE SALDANHA: THE INVENTED CITY

Ione Saldanha is a pioneering figure, but one who has received little recognition in the history of 20th-century Brazilian art. Although she worked intuitively, the development of her work over almost six decades shows an extraordinary coherence. One series or group of works unfolds and evolves towards the next - from the initial figurative paintings of the 1940s to the abstract works in the 1950s and the paintings on three-dimensional supports from the late 1960s onwards. In this sense, one can think of painting in an expanded or enlarged field as the guiding motif of the work: Saldanha painted on canvas, paper, long wooden laths, bamboos, reels and, finally, on all stacked up wood. Colour and constructivism were part of his idiom - on the one hand, his various colour palettes over the years are as unique as they are ravishing; on the other, geometry and verticality have always been very strong references in the construction of his works. At the heart of Saldanha's work is a concern with a certain representation or invention of the city and architecture, whether real or imagined, hence the title of this exhibition: Ione Saldanha: the invented city. In this context, the artist has moved from the initial urban landscapes to progressively abstract architectural constructions, represented in a fluid, delicate and organic manner, always bearing the mark of the artist's hand visible on the surface of the paintings, be they two-dimensional or three-dimensional. The Bamboos, her most iconic, complex, and truly innovative works, are upright sculptures that evoke popular and vernacular Brazilian culture. Anthropomorphic in character, they refer as much to the city and the forest as to the subject that inhabits them, acquiring an installation quality especially when exhibited in sets.

Although it is possible to identify a series of concerns in common in her work and in that of some of her contemporaries (such as Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Clark and Lygia Pape), Ione Saldanha never associated herself with any group or movement, something uncommon in Brazilian artistic circles in the middle of the last century. Instead, the artist developed a rather reserved trajectory that allowed her to focus on her work both exceptional and prolific, exploring multiple relationships, dialogues and intersections: between abstraction and figuration, geometry and landscape, hard edge and craft, representation and presentation, painting and sculpture, art and life, all imbued with singular and subtle colour combinations.

The title of this exhibition is inspired by that of a solo show by the artist entitled Cidade inventada , held at the Relevo Gallery in Rio de Janeiro in 1962.

CURATOR Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director, MASP