Gioconda Negra 1975

José de Guimarães made Gioconda Negra, probably a print, in 1975. The flat planes of color and the sharp lines remind me of Matisse’s cut-outs, but with a psychedelic twist. I love the color palette here; the soft pinks, reds, and yellows set against the cool blues and greens create a strange harmony. And the shapes! A disembodied face hovers over a heart-shaped figure being squeezed by a pink hand. A cartoonish leg juts out from the side, adorned with a bold black number two. The flat, opaque nature of the colors gives the work a graphic, almost poster-like quality. It’s hard to tell what kind of tools Guimarães used to create this, but the precision of the lines suggests a stencil or silkscreen process. It has a playful, surreal quality and makes me think about the possibilities of art as visual poetry, maybe referencing the work of Dada artists like Hannah Höch. It all feels very open-ended.