Teresinha Soares is one of the main artists working with art and feminism in Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s, whose work has a contestational, transgressive and openly erotic character. The artist’s short but intense productive period from 1966 to 1976 resulted in a varied group of works that brings together paintings on different supports, reliefs, box-objects, silkscreens, artist’s books and drawings. The work can be contextualized both within the framework of the New Figuration of the 1960s—permeated by references to pop, advertising and consumer society—as well as in political art. In her last years of production, Soares also implemented installations and controversial performances that unfolded in real events engaging the public. Morra usando as legítimas alpargatas is a large-format relief in painted wood, part of a series that represents the peak of the artist’s investigation of objectual painting. With flat colors and cut-out figures, this series condenses several of her themes, such as the body, sexual liberation and the criticism of customs. In these works, Soares discusses the Vietnam War (1954–1975)—an armed conflict that occurred at the height of the Cold War and opposed the allies of the Soviet bloc and the anti-communists led by the United States. With ironic inclination, the artist juxtaposes the imaginary of violence with sexual motifs and the imaginary of mass culture. MASP’s work entwined nude bodies are framed by a television set, a reference to the power of the media in the circulation of war propaganda.

— MASP Curatorial Team

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