SOBREMIRADA | O Ar e a Cega

José Bechara

From Nov 19 2008 to Jan 17 2009

It is difficult to look at José Bechara?s work.

The oeuvres, at first sight, seem to be unfinished, making you think there was no careful completion.

Materials appear to be extremely heavy, the sustenance unable to support the force of the elements, and it is difficult to realise the subject. One conversation with the artist might persuade us to accept this first impression. Bechara spent most of the year away from his studio, divided between exhibitions and fairs, both in Brazil and abroad. He was deeply distressed for being far away from his working environment. ?I always had some spare time, I wanted to paint, but what I did the most was draw.?

The second glance brings us new elements: the big innovation on his work is the use of oxidation with a copper emulsion, which adds to the canvases blue and navy green hues, as the rust which appears at the docks and boats. In his drawings, the ultramarine blue pigment is used for the first time, implemented with his already known house stamps and sometimes with the bases of his sculptures over the paper. In all of them, ink is washed out, giving it a wet appearance.

The house, usually in Formica or wood, is made of cast aluminium, also a new element in his production. It?s called Cega and is totally silver. Finally, the glass used as a support for the oxidation became an installation, Gelosia, where we can see the lists rusted over two big glass sheets mounted parallel to a third one, clean, that enables us to see a grey rectangle painted directly to the wall.

All the artworks demands our attention. We feel constrained with its presence, as these do not look like objects or art. They are difficult artworks.

The artist believes that pieces in the exhibition seem to impose a new working path. Sobremirada, O Ar and A Cega are not the result of a production, but notes for a future one.

Absence/embarrassment/longing/love.