A Menina a Bandeira III 1984

Antonio Dacosta's 'A Menina a Bandeira III' seems to be made with oil on canvas, it's an exercise in using a limited palette to create something symbolic. I see greens, reds, purples, whites, blacks, and yellows, mixed to create a whole world of representation. The way Dacosta applies the paint is really interesting; it’s thick in places, almost sculptural, and then scraped back or thinned out in others. There is an openness to this technique that allows the canvas to breath. Take a look at the red of the flag, how it bleeds out into the white figure below, or the green of the background and how it merges into the black figures on the left. The way the colours appear to be dissolving into one another reminds us that artmaking is a fluid and evolving process. This piece reminds me a little of work by the American painter Bob Thompson, someone else interested in exploring the boundary between representation and abstraction. Works like this invite us to look beyond the surface and find our own way.