René Bertholo studied at the António Arroio School of Decorative Arts and the Fine Arts School in Lisbon, between 1951 and 1957. During this time, he crossed paths with the Café Gelo Group, coming into contact with surrealist techniques, namely the processes of automatism which would influence part of his work, and which perhaps awakened the notion of chance present in Nuvem com superfície variável III (Cloud with variable surface III). Here, however, what actually takes place in front of the observer is the development of an action in which pure chance, conditioned by the pre-determination of standard movements, is transformed into the possible randomness, since the following motion is forcibly determined by the previous motion. Escaping the creator’s strict control and the potential reversion of the path drawn by the pieces, this work avoids the static and unchangeable condition of the object, without implying amputation or destruction. Nuvem com superfície variável III, one of the Modelos Reduzidos (Reduced Models) that Bértholo produced for around a decade from 1966 on, points to developments close to kineticism, in which the arrangement of the pieces depends on the movement to be produced, and is reinforced by the visibility of the motors. It simulates, therefore, the uncertain route of a cloud, using a mechanism in which the object’s movement is actioned by a sphere which, circling in a random manner inside a continuously rotating cylinder, activates one of the electronic devices which trigger the next motion of the cloud. In this way, we find ourselves faced with the idea of a perpetual motion, that recalls the concept of enthropy in relation with trying to build machines capable of operating ad eternum.

Through engaging technological gadgets as an ongoing process, the Modelos Reduzidos take on a playful character which, through the representation of natural elements simplified in the design of the contours of the metal pieces, in flat and shining colours, approaches the concept of landscape through the attitude of the beholder who looks at the unfolding of that action in time. This concern is evident in the creator’s pictorial investigations after abandoning an abstraction rooted in Klee and Kandinsky, and passing through Pollock or Rothko, towards a practice in which the influence of Dubuffet or the affichistes combines with the affirmation of the nouvelle figuration. Bértholo arrived in Paris in 1958, where he developed another mechanism, for silkscreen printing, which allowed for the publication of the KWY magazine. From then on he would scatter the canvas with repeated motifs, introducing slight modifications, promoting a figuration aspiring towards narrative and demonstrating an awareness of the notion of the series in the pop-style. Nuvem com superfície variável III would also reverberate in another field with the construction of the makina, a musical instrument he created subsequently to his study of electronics applied to art in Berlin, between 1972 and 1973, and which would be carried out further until the start of the 21st century.

André Silveira

Maio de 2010