by Martina Merklinger






Spacious and elongated movements in different colors that bear a harmonious relation with each other on white canvases in large formats will attract our eye. And our eye follows the long curves, stops at sudden interruptions, searching for and already finding new arches – on the same canvas or else in one of the adjacent works that comprise this exhibition. On following the visuals, our eye meets with forms within which our mind’s eye will sometimes crave to recognize some of nature’s events, such as glaciers, waterfalls, even instances of blood flow. At given moments, it will seem we can discern a specific type of vegetation in the colorful structures, sometimes even in their shadows – shadows which determine a particular spatiality. In these works, they fluctuate in vacuums. Depth obtains in color alone, and the composition allows color to fluctuate before the white background – unbounded, with no basis, with no prop – in those large dimensions.

The sensation just described applies for most creations on canvas by Brazilian artist Manoel Veiga. He manages to produce in his pieces a close proximity with nature without depicting it, just making use of technical resources partly found in nature or else borrowed from it.

The work process starts with the strictest selection of pigments according to color and size. Veiga generally works with only one mixture of pigments at a time, and applies it on different canvases simultaneously, so that during this period of time (which could take weeks) a small series is created that is complete in itself. When nine years ago Manoel Veiga developed this technique, he used one pigment mixture for each canvas, but now he usually makes use of several, thus allowing for more complex canvas structures. As a rule, Manoel Veiga first gives a basic structure to the canvas by applying the paint with just a few brush strokes. These brush strokes are already in accordance with the subsequent movement of the spectator’s eye, and they seem to be, in most cases, extremely dark, so much so that one could say they are of a deep black. The next step in the process defines just how much information the artist will eventually disclose about the mixture of pigments. With a regular water sprayer, Veiga sprays a certain amount of water on given parts of the canvas – that has been previously placed horizontally on the floor. The spraying of water on canvas follows a determined tension so as to allow for a controlled flow of the color. The more attention the artist pays to the tracking of the liquid, and the more carefully he handles the water sprayer, the more subtle are the transitions from one color to another, the more discreet the movements, the broader the nuances, and at the same time, the more pronounced the different pigments.

Here the larger pigments prove to be slower and less mobile, while the smaller pigments reveal a considerably greater diffusion. The distinctiveness of some hues seems dramatic in comparison to the darker color from which they originate. And this is not all: with diffusion, Manoel Veiga guides the colors that emerge into a certain direction, then makes them come to a halt by building a rigid barrier with an impermeable oil pastel, thus establishing a counterpoint with another color or using other sophisticated techniques. As important as chance may be in the whole process, the permanent interference of the artist is equally decisive and indispensable in order to bring to light the inner parts of this “magical” mixture of pigments by directing them and guiding them at the right spots.

From these works of art a fascination is born that can only be justified through the technique employed. The spaces of association that are yielded by the yielding forms capture the spectator’s attention, as well as the notion of special work methods that give way to the flowing of different materials: saturated water flows among pigments through routes that are roughly pre-defined, resulting in a certain degree of control over an irregular landscape of canvas, pigment mixture, water, and oil pastels.

In the meanwhile, Manoel Veiga has started working on a new series of works of art – this time, a photographic work he has chosen to name Hubble. These pieces will similarly motivate associations with both the micro- and the macrocosm. However, in this case one does not think of a world of courses of earthly waters or else of blood flows in the human body, but rather of galaxies and atomic constellations. The observer sees harmonious, flowing elements of image, indicating large movements in the form of whirls or spirals. The spectator’s attention turns to the distribution of countless points; they are reminiscent of stars, of a cosmic cloud, of a black hole – as, for instance, in Hubble 10. Unlike the paintings that neither have examples nor are portraits, these images are based on photographs taken by the space telescope Hubble. Clearly they are not mere depictions; on the contrary, they result from various and complex phases of work. It all starts with a selection of pictures taken from the Hubble space telescope. Veiga chooses certain portions of those famous photographs, patches them up on the computer, and electronically processes the resulting image in order to produce a harmonious unity. Unlike the scientific exhibitions of the Hubble pictures, Manoel Veiga in his interpretation dismisses all coloring and preserves the scale of grey along with the few faded colors of the Hubble original pictures. And yet, he eventually eliminates the residual coloring and may even invert the hues so as to darken what was previously bright and to show as black what was previously white.

Manoel Veiga, with his Hubble pieces, has created compositions that look like his other works, as described above. They are the consequential dissolution of space and time by the artist who will play with bringing together different spaces and time. Totally detached from each other, the elements are separated from their original context, and Veiga casts upon them a new attribution, based solely on their external form. Here we have the creation of fantastic spaces and galaxies which bear no similarity with the photographs from space. Knowing how these works were compiled does not help one in trying to find the examples in the Hubble pictures.

It was no accident that Manoel Veiga took a special interest in the photographs taken by the Hubble space telescope. Science, especially physics and chemistry, are a part of his life just as much as painting. From the time he was a student, Veiga has been seduced by the exact sciences, as well as by drawing and painting. In 1985, he started working as an engineer, and despite his successful, promising career, he gave it up in 1994 in order to devote himself entirely to painting. His scientific curiosity, though, never ceases.

On the one hand, it is no wonder that Veiga should have studies in astronomy becoming part of his art, for they relate to his painting, to those pieces that demand as sine qua non his knowledge of both chemical and physical processes, for the artist has never had a formal education and training in painting; on the contrary, it is his education in engineering that provides the structure necessary to his art. On the other hand, for the last six years or so he has been using photography more and more as yet another artistic medium. Of course, there are the famous Hubble pieces that build up a dialogue with art itself and have encouraged Manoel Veiga to integrate them in his art, something he has been doing in the more recent years.

And this mixture that goes way beyond the mixture of pigments has led Manoel Veiga to try and depict nature – by using nature’s own resources, thus imitating it without portraying it.

We have a long tradition of having nature in works of art, and Brazil is no exception, and our art history is there to prove it. We have the famous still lives by 17th-century Dutch painter Albert Eckhout, considered the very first examples of still life in our country. The paintings of exuberant tropical landscapes are well known, both by another Dutch painter, Frans Post, and by Brazilian artists who for a very long time let themselves be guided by the parameters of European art. We also have those pieces deemed “in conformity with nature” – not necessarily realistic portraits, they can again be found as specimens of Brazilian art. Various new paths in the arts opened to creators, particularly at the early stages of Modernism, in the 1920s, with the dismissal of academic rigidity, and then again, from the 1940s on, with museums and higher education schools. Names that come to mind: Tunga, with his passionate experiments, working with different materials in the construction of his objects; Lygia Clark, in the conscious use of tactile responses and sensations in her work; and Polish-Brazilian artist Frans Krajcberg, who consciously dedicates to nature the entirety of his work – in the extremely large sculptures, for instance, made of woods he collects in the outdoors. Nature has always been an important element in Brazilian art, both as inspiration and material for the research of new technical and artistic resources. Manoel Veiga has excelled in uniting both.