Having begun his artistic career as a painter, Rui Sanches later moved towards sculpture. In the 1980s, however, painting remained a point of historical reference, a source for his sculpture in his investigation and deconstruction of neoclassical pictorial works.

 

Abandoning the dominance of geometry and its severe formal restraint, Rui Sanches first started producing sculptures with curvilinear shapes in the early 1990s, at exactly the time that his work began to reject inspiration from historic references. His subsequent modes of expression also saw a deviation from purely geometrical tendencies towards more organic, sedimentary forms. His favourite material, wood, which is never painted, features fluid lines rarely entering into dialogue with metal (usually bronze or polychrome), glass or mirrors. These shapes, of which the work Sem Título (Untitled) is an example, created by overlaying panels of wood, cut to different sizes, with slight variations between each piece, create the illusion of movement like in a succession of similar drawings, a natural dynamic which suggests the effect of time (and the elements) on the landscape. Its irregularity and, indeed, the impossibility of distinguishing a main “side” calls for a kind of spatial exploration that requires the viewer to look at the piece from many different angles. This is also made possible by the overall dimensions of the sculpture, which allow it to be experienced in its entirety.

 

Alongside the topographical reference, Sem Título also suggests parallels with anatomical shapes which, however far from the iconographical historical references found in his earlier and later work, have been echoed in several of the author’s pieces since the 1990s.

 

Affirming the metamorphosis as the basis of the work of creation and recreation, of a constant going back to drafts and formal investigation, the wooden panels (never hardwoods, but rather industrially processed substitutes which, in the artist’s own words, yield a «presence that does not create a sense of distance, because they are not imposing; they are neither exceedingly expensive nor exceedingly rare»)* which are used to construct this series of works, in their notorious austerity, still have the capacity to mimic familiar, prosaic or sacred objects; suggesting elements of the human body (heads, torsos), architecture (columns, porticos) or the landscape (mountains, valleys, volcanoes, tree trunks). As an exercise of drawing as a cross-section of the world, these works (which are, at times, used as moulds for lines traced on paper) reveal a tactile character that is appealing in its irregularity and careful use of asymmetry to produce a sense of balance. Alongside sculpture, Rui Sanches has been investigating drawing for almost three decades. With this exercise in sculpture, drawing achieves a greater corporeity, and probably its clearest and most outstanding materialization.

 

 

Emília Ferreira

May 2010

 

* In Emília Ferreira, «Entrevista a Rui Sanches. Algumas linhas sobre a obra», Rui Sanches. Relações formais, Almada, Casa da Cerca – Centro de Arte Contemporânea, 2007, p. 18.