MASP

Alceu Penna | Hércules Barsotti

Long Dress (Evening Gown), 1966

  • Author:
    Alceu Penna | Hércules Barsotti
  • Bio:
    Curvelo, Minas Gerais, Brasil, 1915-Rio de Janeiro, Brasil ,1980 |São Paulo, Brasil, 1914-2010
  • Title:
    Long Dress (Evening Gown)
  • Date:
    1966
  • Medium:
    Tela Rhodosá
  • Dimensions:
  • Credit line:
    Doação Rhodia, 1972
  • Object type:
    Vestido
  • Inventory number:
    MASP.03379
  • Photography credits:
    Eduardo Ortega

TEXTS



Hércules Borsotti begun his training by studying drawing and visual composition. He soon adhered to the trends of geometric abstractionism in the 1940s, a time when he was producing fabric patterns for his family’s textile business. Fabric patterns were also one of the lines of work of the graphic art firm Estúdio de Projetos Gráficos (1959–1961) that he founded with Willys de Castro (1926–1988) in the following decade. In 1960, Barsotti was invited by Ferreira Gullar (1930–2016) to participate in this first shows of the Grupo Neoconcreto, where the artist made contact with the experiments linked to the body that reoriented the ideas about art in Brazil. Barsotti created images that seem to emerge from the surface of the paper, canvas or fabric, due to the sensation of volume and movement they engender; through clever games with geometry, he created optical illusions. His works in MASP’s collection include 5 pieces that are part of the Rhodia Collection, a set of 79 dresses made by the French company that launched its line of synthetic fibers in Brazil, in 1960. Artists were invited to design fabric patterns, creating a direct link between fashion and contemporary art. The pattern in Vestido longo is sober and rigorous, in black and white, with an overlaying of bands that begin at a single point and radiate downward toward the floor.

— MASP Curatorial Team, 2015

Source: Adriano Pedrosa (org.), Pocket MASP, São Paulo: MASP, 2020.



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