Phillips de Pury & Company

SERVANDO CABRERA MORENO (CUBAN) | Untitled, 1955 | graphite and gouache on paper

Sold for $7,500 at the Latin America Day Sale, 22 May 2012, New York.

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LUIZ SACILOTTO (BRAZILIAN) | Untitled (C 8351), 1980 | tempera on canvas

Sold for $37,500 at the Latin America Evening Sale, 21 May 2012, New York.

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OS GÊMEOS (BRAZILIAN) | Electronic Eyes, 2011 | spray paint and acrylic on panel

Sold for $122,500 at the Latin America Evening Sale, 21 May 2012, New York.

Os Gêmeos (Portuguese for “The Twins”) is the collaborative artistic venture of identical twin brothers Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo. Born and raised in Sao Paulo, Os Gêmeos began their career twenty years ago as graffiti artists, working in local, urban neighborhoods. Since then they have expanded their practice into the realms of painting, sculpture, and installation, while continuing to draw inspiration from contemporary Brazilian life. Their body of work incorporates elements from the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazilian heritage, and popular culture, all of which feature prominently in their conceptual and aesthetic approaches.

Electronic Eyes is a prime example of Os Gêmeos’ signature style. The artists populate a fantastical, sparse setting with two figures rendered in skewed perspective. The primary figure— a musician— is strikingly emblematic of Os Gêmeos’ aesthetic. The bright yellow drummer is oddly proportioned, and his oversized head is in stark contrast with the gaunt legs that emerge from his colorful outfit. We sense a subtle grimace on his face, which is reflected in the anthropomorphous expressions of his drum and drumstick. A small child stands in the foreground, portrayed in a robot costume with a cut-out heart shape. The fire in his heart fuels his actions before our eyes, and we realize that he is both a traditional machine and metaphorical reference to a human being. Indeed, every figure in the painting—whether human or object— is given a life of its own. They are in the midst of a performance, a phenomenon that celebrates being alive, and as their audience we are invited to take part. Through its creative interplay and amalgam of influences, the present lot allows us to witness the communion between musician and instrument, and between artist and audience. Everything is energized and animated during the process of creation, resulting in a multi-sensorial feast of color and form.

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FERNANDA BRUNET (MEXICAN) | Mis demonios “Canservero”, 2011 | acrylic and mixed media on linen

SOLD AT $15,000 at the Latin America Day Sale, 22 May 2012, New York.

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VÍCTOR RODRÍGUEZ (MEXICAN) | Powder Box V, 2001 | acrylic on canvas

Sold for $8,125 at the Latin America Day Sale, 22 May 2012, New York.

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IVAN SERPA (BRAZILIAN) | Untitled, 1961 | tempera on cardboard, mounted on panel

Sold for $30,000 at the Latin America Evening Sale, 21 May 2012, New York.

“Even when I use blobs, I try not to consider myself an informal painter. They are part of a scheme, they reveal a constructive intention. The paintings from this period had rhythm, consistence, cohesion. They were a structure.” (Ivan Serpa quoted in: F. Werneck Barcinski, Ivan Serpa, Rio de Janeiro, 2003, p. 35)

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CARLOS BETANCOURT (PUERTO RICAN) | Top of the Three Pointer (Vieques and Rincón Series), 2003-2004 | metallic Lambda print

Sold for $10,625 at the Latin America Day Sale, 22 May 2012, New York.

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DR. LAKRA (MEXICAN) | Untitled (Imponente es), 2004 | ink on vintage magazine

Sold for $13,750 at the Latin America Day Sale, 22 May 2012, New York.

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HÉLIO OITICICA (BRAZILIAN) | Metaesquema 179, 1958 | gouache on cardboard

Sold for $266,500 at the Latin America Evening Sale, 21 May 2012, New York.

Hélio Oiticia is widely regarded as one of the most significant and influential figures of Brazilian art. His monumental legacy spans a wide range of styles, philosophies, and conceptual approaches, demonstrating his boundless originality and life-long experimental impulses. Oiticica’s leading role in his country’s avant-garde artistic movement developed throughout decades of drastic socio-cultural changes and growing political unrest. Consequently, he developed a strong interest in the dynamic relationship between art and society, questioning art’s place and function in its human environment.

At the onset of Oiticica’s career, the Brazilian artistic landscape was dominated by a fervent adherence to realism and representation. The overarching influence of the Mexican muralists was felt far and wide, prompting a younger generation of artists to seek out new visual languages and means of expression. Oiticica was at the forefront of these efforts, and throughout the 1950s and 60s he experimented with divergent theories and artistic affiliations, such as Grupo Frente and Neo-Concretism. The Grupo Frente artists were united in their rejection of figurative and nationalist art, leading many of their members to champion the aesthetic vocabulary of geometric abstraction. Closely linked to the global Concrete movement, they stripped art from any lyrical or symbolic connotations, believing that art should have no meaning other than color, line, and plane.

Oiticica created his Metaesquemas between 1957 and 1958, that is, in the period between his Grupo Frente and Neo-Concrete affiliations. They embody his inquisitive mind and exploratory spirit during this time, when he was sifting through varying influences and perspectives in order to arrive at his own unique artistic outlook. Oiticica coined the term Metaesquema as a means to describe a work that, although schematic (esquema) in its formal development, is still open to the subjective interpretations inherent to metaphysics (meta). Oiticica was aware that artworks are objects that exist in time and space, and as such they are subject to viewers’ heterogeneous experiences of reality.

When looking at the Metaesquemas, our attention is immediately drawn to the geometric qualities of the composition. We are confronted with squares and rectangles on a plane, a strong visual link to the Grupo Frente ideologies. However, on closer inspection, we realize that the geometric shapes are not exactly aligned with each other. The partial dislocations that separate each shape expand the planar surface into the realm of subtle movement and subjective experience. Oiticica’s Metaesquemas are dynamic compositions replete with both formalism and suggestion, articulating the complex and vibrant relationship between art and viewer.

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ALBERTO KORDA (CUBAN) | Guerrillero heroico, 1960 | gelatin silver print

Sold for $16,250 at the Latin America Day Sale, 22 May 2012, New York.

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