Working mainly with a palette of blues and greys, Giulia Andreani reconfigures stories and memories, personal or collective, by appropriating images found in different archives. The tones chosen by the artist refer to the ink colors of the pens used to sign documents, conferring an impersonal characteristic to her paintings. Valentine invoquant les enfers is part of a set of paintings in which Andreani refers to the life and work of the French-Algerian painter Valentine Prax (1897–1981). The painting at MASP was inspired by a photograph of Prax in her studio, in which the artist poses with her work tools in front of an easel. In Andreani’s reinterpretation of this historical image, there is a painting resting on the easel, as if the artist were about to resume work on it. The painting is a citation from Junon sollicite l’aide des Enfers (circa 1620) by the Dutch painter Jan Tengnagel (1584–1635), which in turn represents Juno’s wrath against Jupiter. According to Roman mythology, Juno called the underworld to take revenge for her husband’s infidelity. In Valentine invoquant les enfers, Andreani brings together the stories of Juno and Prax, both female figures who had to conjure up distinct forces to materialize their desires, even in the midst of adversity.

— Isabella Rjeille, curator, MASP, and Talita Trizoli, Ph.D. in Education, USP, 2019

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