Exhibition "The shape of the end: sculptures in the Pinacoteca collection"

The exhibition starts with the curious collection of death masks — molded on the faces of painters such as Almeida Júnior and Pedro Alexandrino — to investigate the ways in which artists deal with time and their experience. Bringing together around 40 sculptures, ranging from the XNUMXth century to the present day, the show is an opportunity to reflect on language, see and revisit fundamental works from the collection of the picture gallery.

Upon entering the exhibition space, visitors are greeted by a medieval sculpture from the 12th century, representing the crucified Christ, by an unknown author – as well as works from the Baroque period in Brazil. Next are the death masks, as well as bronze sculptures by Brecheret and Liuba Wolf.

Among them, there is the attempt by artists from the beginning of the 1920th century to represent black women and men as “Brazilian types”. Until the beginning of the research for this exhibition, only one of these sculptures had a name: Maria da Glória (between 1988 and XNUMX), by Luiz Morrone. During the research to analyze the origin of these titles, the team located the name of the model for a sculpture by José Cucê, Irina – which now forms part of the title of the work.

THE BEGINNING

“The Shape of the End” was created from a look at the Pinacoteca’s centennial collection, which has more than 13 works. Of these, almost a thousand are part of the permanent exhibition, “Pinacoteca: Collection”.

Considering the collection as a platform for new research and acquisitions, interest in the sculpture collection at the Pinacoteca arose in an attempt to understand how it was formed and what its striking characteristics were that developed over time. The curators sought to understand these historical trends, organizing their discourse based on what is recurrent in the collection.

WORKS

One of the masks in “The Shape of the End” is that of the artist Almeida Júnior, one of the most important names in Brazilian art of the 19th century, whose work is a founding member of the Pinacoteca collection.

Dead Roots of Nature and Vines (2015–2013), by Advânio Lessa, redefines dead matter, transforming it into something alive through art. Giving shape to the different dimensions of time, sculptures such as Bicho – Relógio de sol (1960), by Lygia Clark, Yuxin (2022), by Kássia Borges, Ferramenta de Tempo (2021), by José Adário, and the performance Passagem (1979), by Celeida Tostes, propose understanding life and the making of art in a cyclical way.

The sculptures by Marcia Pastore and Hudinilson Jr. (1980s) materialize limbs or pieces of clothing in space, delicate records of their presence, which do not impose themselves as ordering the world. Waltercio Caldas' famous work, A pensamento estítico (A pensamento estítica [The Aesthetic Emotion]) (1977), is a clue to understanding this presence and our experience of art: a pair of shoes seems to be on the verge of floating in front of the form – a way of being in front of something that moves us, of understanding our emotion through dialogue, investigating the way we relate to each other and, thus, imagining our future.

Service
Exhibition | The shape of the end: sculptures in the Pinacoteca collection
From September 14th to May 04th, 2025
Wednesday to Monday, from 10:18 to XNUMX:XNUMX