Ângelo de Sousa’s stay in London, in 1967-1968, when minimalism was making its presence felt, coincided with the artist’s abandonment of painting, which he was to take up again in 1972. This break in his pictorial production led to the rejection of painting based on a naturalist referent and the adoption of another concept of reality, in line with international tendencies in art. In other words, the allusions to the figure that had previously characterised his work disappeared, and the 1970s marked a rupture in Ângelo de Sousa’s work.

 

In this painting from 1974-1975, precisely from that period, a tenuous line emerges which traces a door, subtly demarcating the pictorial surface which, through the intense superimposition of layers, creates a luminous effect of depth and volume. The result, achieved through brushstrokes in different directions, in a gesture which combines rapid movement and precision, is constructed through chromatic nuances, leading the artist to describe his painting as “maximum effect with minimal resources”, or, to put it another way, maximum expression without expressionism.

 

The production of series and variations within series is constant in Ângelo de Sousa’s work, and this is also what occurs with his production of paintings that are totally covered with superimposed layers of colour on a smooth, flat surface where geometric lines emerge, varying from painting to painting, sometimes crossing, sometimes subtly demarcating the pictorial space.

 

 

Patrícia Rosas

June 2012