“I am seeking geometrical structures, but with freedom of form and imagery taken from different worlds.” – Beatriz Milhazes

Appearing on the scene in 1980s Rio de Janeiro, Beatriz Milhazes’s rich compositions boldly examined the heritage of colonial seventeenth century Brazil. Her initial iconographic language found expression in the marriage of nature and architecture, rendered within a menagerie of images drawn from contemporary experience. Importantly, her adept use of both collage and painting characterized her practice and provided her with a platform to investigate a multitude of themes. The present lot, Sem título, executed between 1991 and 1992, is exemplary of her earlier works, in which she immerses her viewers in a complex web of form and color ostensibly pilfered from the lush Brazilian landscape, and yet, they remain distinctively urban.

Replete with references to the past and the present, to low and high culture, Sem título features azure blue roses peeling away an aged alabaster surface to reveal delicate patterns of crisp white lace and three perfectly-knotted bows, dressed in strings of pearls. Somehow all of this imagery manages to coexist, meticulously composed in a sophisticated interplay of elements which occasionally skirt the exchange between foreground and background. The outlasting impressions of Rio as a city of opulence, particularly in its Baroque hey-day, are immediately evident. Her command of historical motifs is underscored by her technique, with remnants of paint scattered throughout the canvas without any bearing, reappearing again throughout the canvas. As she transfers acrylic paint in thin sheets, the resulting layers age the canvas, telling tales of decrepit surfaces, invoking the effects of history through the handling of paint rather than explicit representation.