A Menina a Bandeira III 1984

Antonio Dacosta’s ‘A Menina a Bandeira III’ is a painting full of gestural marks and bold color contrasts. I can almost feel the artist layering the paint, adding and subtracting, letting the image emerge through intuition. I wonder what Dacosta was thinking, setting up this dream-like scene with a white figure holding a red flag. There’s a lovely tension between the textures—the smooth flatness of the red flag, the rough, brushy strokes of green in the background, the ghostly softness of the white figure. Look how that flag cuts through the composition like a knife, yet the colors vibrate together. That little black vase in the corner holds the whole picture down. You know, artists are always looking at each other, borrowing and stealing ideas across time. I see a bit of Milton Avery in the simplified shapes. Maybe a touch of de Kooning in the looseness of the brushwork. It is like a painterly conversation where each one adds something new to the mix. Ultimately, painting is about embracing ambiguity, trusting that there are multiple ways of seeing and experiencing the world.