Viaduto da Av. Infante Santo 2001

Eduardo Nery made this public artwork, Viaduto da Av. Infante Santo, using colorful vertical lines of tile. Imagine Nery up on scaffolding, placing each individual tile, stepping back, then adding another. The whole thing vibrates with a cool and warm palette, the colors working together. I wonder if Nery was thinking about the long history of color field painting when he made this? You know, those big expanses of color that swallow you whole? Here the colors stay separate, distinct, but together they create a dazzling field, like a rainbow turned sideways. Each vertical gesture, each line, it's like a breath, a moment frozen in time, all together. Nery makes us think about the connections between public art and painting, a shared conversation in art history.