Lot 82: ADRIANA VAREJÃO

ADRIANA VAREJÃO B. 1964 TEA AND TILES signed, titled and dated 1995-96 on the reverse of the canvas oil on canvas, wood, and porcelain canvas: 140 by 160cm. 55 1/8 by 63in.

Galerie Barbara Farber, Amsterdam
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Adriana Varejão's Tea and Tiles is a seminal work from the artist's oeuvre which suitably conveys the important themes of colonialism, physicality, freedom, and multiplicity so prevalent her work. Born in 1964 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, much of Varejão's art is focused on the tumultuous history of her native country. The present work, from 1995-1996, is an early example that hovers between the worlds of sculpture and painting. The canvas is painted in a grid of polychrome tiles reminiscent of the blue and white azulejos (ceramic tiles) developed in Portugal as early as the seventeenth century and incorporated in Brazilian architecture. The "tiles" are a brilliant blue and white and depict ocean waves and other geometric patterns. Azulejos were familiar to Varejão – from childhood she was exposed to them in churches and on civic and domestic buildings. They create a perfect aesthetic façade behind which she can both conceal the deeper meaning of her work and launch a complex aesthetic.



The sculptural elements of this work consist of two chairs, a table, a tea cup and a saucer. The installation is intended to be arranged so that when viewing the work straight on while at a decent distance the painted backs of the chairs and the tea cup completely disappear into the painting. When one views the work from an angle, or gets slightly closer, it becomes clear that the pieces are indeed separate entities and the there are white voids on the canvas to indicate the missing section that can only be completed by the other elements. The arrangement raises intentionally open ended questions; are the sculptural elements coming out of, or blending into the canvas? Can one part exist without the other? What belongs to what? Much of Varejão's work is focused on various environments that are separated from specific time and place. There is an unsettling suggestion that the human has vanished – both viewer and artist are alienated. The insertion of a person into the present narrative would quickly disrupt the carefully gridded precision of the composition and yet the empty chairs seem to beg for this to take place.



Varejão executes the painting in the work with stunning precision and particular focus on masterfully creating the illusion of ceramic tile with only oil on canvas. The paint is thick and tactile with a lacquered appearance mirroring the finish on of the porcelain tea cup that sits in front of the canvas. The azulejos juxtapose the Baroque tradition of Portuguese tiles and the contemporary replicas used in modern building. Varejão transports the ancient to the current. In other works from this series the artist breaks through the elegant façade of the tiles with peeled away hyper-real constructions of lacerated flesh, bulging entrails, tongue like forms and oozing scars – a contrast of civility and barbarity. The present work is a far quieter composition where stillness and order are paramount. Recalling the work of the Italian mid-20υth century still-life painter Giorgio Morandi in arrangement and subtle variation of palette, the present composition has a calm cohesion that veils the underlying social and political statements. In a 2004 interview with Hélène Kelmachter, the artist states, "Modernity in Brazil is based on this notion of anthropophagy, on the capacity to incorporate foreign ideas and transform them into your own. This notion is linked to the very essence of the anthropophagic rite, to its symbolic aspect, to the idea of absorbing the Other." (translated in Exh. Cat., Paris, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain (and travelling), Adriana Varejão, 2005, p. 95) Absorption is paramount in the present composition and Varejão subtly yet successfully raises these complex issues in Tea and Tiles with graceful sophistication.