Made by Bruno Pacheco between 2003 and 2004, the thirty-four drawings in the CAM collection do not constitute a closed sequence of works, but rather an open set, connected by the artist’s technique and intentionality. They feature thematic variables that include representations with human figures, portraits of facial and body fragments, portraits with one or more protagonists and self-portraits. On the other hand, we can distinguish a notable interest in animal representation, in which horses and dogs predominate, in unusual representations that sometimes come close to details of a flank, an eye or a croup. Representations of outdoor spaces are rarer (seaside or public gardens views), always according to the same principle of representation of particular features or of scenic details. This focus on gestures or body parts – feet, legs, cleavages, torsos… – places us before situations in which tension is visible, as well as a lack of balance that accentuates tempos, movements or eye-caught snapshots. This connotation is also reinforced by lowered viewpoints, with effects of scale, insinuation, proximity or estrangement of the represented “objects”, almost always tending to indicate exteriority, the non-participation of the artist in the observed scenes. Some images show us aspects of intimate encounters or of social manifestations (celebrations, circuses, equestrian shows…), events with a degree of institutional connotation (various ceremonies of which the artist suggests moments, or gesture and clothing details, for example).

Bruno Pacheco’s images manage to maintain – by staging events frozen in time – an intrinsic connection with photographic snapshots and with the moving image (film or video, with which the artist has worked on a regular basis). Also inscribed is the importance of light, which underlines the colours, enlivens reflections and sometimes, through sheer intensity, whitens and flattens shapes, as in the image of the white-eyed dog, caught by a light flash. The journal-like character of Bruno Pacheco’s work, which granted him the União Latina Visual Arts Award in 2005, is demonstrated in his practice of drawing or painting on paper, in the conception of drawing as a means of annotation – under the guise of colour, smudge or figure, of personal experiences, memories and visions. This quality is sometimes present in the organisation of compilations of images that the artist has also transferred into the grand scale of painting.

AFC

November 2011