In Alfabeto I [Alphabet I] by João Vieira, we can find the strong lines of his pictorial works, understood through the distinction between a super-structure and an infrastructure in the composition and dynamic effect of the picture plane, starting with the exploration of the gestural dynamics of the drawings of previous sign structures. In this case, the super-structure corresponds to four horizontal bands that organize the letters, guiding the eye to read the alphabet sequentially. In turn, the infrastructure is built from the dominant lines of the letters.

 

This relationship between super and infrastructure makes the painting dynamic by playing with the predominant horizontal, stable lines in the work’s general composition and the successive vertical, diagonal and curved intersections formed by the letters. This dynamism is further reinforced by painting with a spatula, which creates a contrast between the uniform background and the mix of hues resulting from spreading the paint in overlapping layers.

 

However, Alfabeto I suggests a turning point in the painting of João Vieira, which appears as the difference between the two upper horizontal bands displaying the alphabet in cursive and the two lower ones in block letters. Unlike in Uma Rosa É [A Rose Is], for example, by working with the alphabet instead of poems, the painter seems to return to the theoretical basis of Lettrisme, according to which all poems must be empty of any semantic content and only the formal effect of sound is important. The different effect achieved by the gesture in the shapes of cursive writing and block letters, as well as the use of darker hues, allows us to establish parallels with works such as Rondó, from 1959, or Fracção / Equação [Fraction/ Equation], from 1960, in which the painting is strictly conceived from the formal capacities of the shape of the sign.

 

 

André Silveira

May 2013