SET OF SCULPTURES BY EDGARD DE SOUZA IS ONE OF THE NEW INSTALLATIONS INAUGURATED IN INHOTIM

Edgard de Souza has created for Inhotim an installation springing from three of his most important works, out of a series of bronze sculptures, grouping them together for the first time amidst a garden, forming a piazzetta-like setting. The open space provides the works with a new context, where the stunning vegetation around them plays an important role in constructing new formal readings and new meanings. In Inhotim, these works join the group of sculptures spread around the park, pieces by artists such as Paul McCarthy, Tunga, and Zhang Huan.

Deployed on an elliptic concrete base designed by the artist, the three bronze statues “Untitled” (2000, 2002, 2005) represent a naked male figure in different poses. Based on the body of the artist himself, the sculptures may be viewed as self-portraits, were it not for the premeditated absence of the main element of identification: the face. The linear disposition of the pieces leads, at first sight, to the reading of a continuous movement, which reveals itself, later on, to be fragmented. The poses are first impossible and abstract, suggesting both pulsion and introspection. The artist has strenuously worked on the surface and the curves in the plaster mold, conveying to the bronze a precious, sensual, and seductive aspect.

Edgard de Souza is regarded as one of his generation’s most emblematic artists. Since the late 1980s, he has produced a refined yet relatively small set of works, marked by an artisanship that draws attention because it contrasts with large-scale contemporary production. They are mostly wooden or bronze statues, but also drawings, photographs, objects, and paintings. Always in search of a dialogue with the history of art, Edgard explores in his work themes associated with the body and self-representation.

Edgard de Souza (São Paulo, 1962; lives in São Paulo) has had solo exhibitions in several Brazilian and international galleries; he has participated in the XXIV Biennial of São Paulo (1998) and the Brazilian Art Overview (Panorama da Arte Brasileira - 1997). In 2004, a broad, sweeping exhibition was devoted to his oeuvre: “Edgard de Souza: A voluta e outros trabalhos”, at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, preceded by another sweeping exhibition, in 2001, at the Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte.