Dating from 1972, Untitled belongs to the continuous realist, pop-inspired experiments, developed by Teresa Magalhães in the beginning of her career. At the image of other artworks from the same period (see Untitled, from 1971, equally from the CAM collection), these focus on features of trivial, daily reality, transfiguring them through modular elements of an imaginary urban landscape. Hence, we see a young mother (or nanny?) crossing an empty, indefinite space with determination. She pushes a pram. Dynamism, energy-generating sensuality emanate from the female figure, thanks to a skilful combination of diagonal lines and to the choice of plans, suggesting an ascending, left to right, positive movement, usually denoting hope and future (the element of the far right is precisely the “invisible” baby). The scene’s tonus is reinforced by its colours and contrasts (woman: white, yellow, orange and red; baby: white, blue) as well as by the detailed characterisation of the central character, whose face, however, we cannot see: the young lady wears wedges, shorts and a white shirt. Her long, flowing, highlighted locks intensify an appearance of dynamism and compete to reinforce the image of emancipation and independence.

Conceived like a mobile panel, of cut hardboard, this artwork is intended to be hung on a wall at variable heights. From a formal viewpoint, its configuration is similar to signage pictograms, while from an iconographic point of view it corresponds, as we have seen, to a poetic presentation of the most common of situations: a young mother’s walk with her newborn child.

AFC
November 2011