Cat 1982

Curator: Here we have Aldemir Martins' "Cat," painted in 1982 using acrylic. At first sight, the color saturation strikes you, right? Editor: Absolutely. A big ol’ vibrant kitty cat ready to pounce off the canvas. There’s an almost playful geometry to the shapes—a bit Matisse-gone-Pop. It just feels…joyful! Curator: Martins had a strong background in design, and we can really see it influencing the artwork. He also made works exploring themes from popular Brazilian culture such as soccer and the life of laborers. There’s this fusion between high art and aspects of everyday life. Editor: Right! And it has a folk-art quality, naive in the very best way. It sidesteps any kind of stuffiness. Imagine a poster, not just decoration, it captures the feeling of joy I feel at the mere site of a cat! Curator: Consider, too, the production of acrylic paint, fairly new and affordable. It opened up opportunities to make vivid pieces cheaply! The wide accessibility allows for more avenues for distribution and sale to general society. Editor: It also shows the freedom to explore bolder colors. The ultramarine blends wonderfully with the bright whites in the cat's face and it doesn't mind competing with the bright crimson that acts as the plane in the immediate foreground, right in front of its toes. It’s all delightfully unconventional. Curator: Absolutely! You are making a great connection to Pop-Art there with the way the colors boldly call your attention and draw you in to this subject matter that Martins brings to life. It is hard to look away, because even if it seems familiar at first sight, it still manages to present us with something unexpected. Editor: I find myself wanting to learn how Martins was seeing the world and the shapes around him at that point. His "Cat" captures not just a cat, but a certain purr-spective on the very essence of feline cool. Curator: So we’ve traveled from the canvas and acrylic materials to folk inspirations and what they tell us of Brazilian life. Hopefully this offers a richer lens into not just what's on view, but the artistic context it sprung from. Editor: Exactly! And next time you see a cat, think, maybe it's a cubist masterpiece in disguise. Thank you, Aldemir, for making my day a little brighter with a great cat.