O sinal 1968

Curator: We're looking at "O Sinal," or "The Sign," a mixed-media work by Manuel Cargaleiro, created in 1968. It resides here at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. Editor: My immediate impression is of controlled chaos, if that makes sense. The color palette feels warm and inviting, but the overall composition, with its myriad geometric shapes, creates a sense of energetic unrest. Curator: I find it interesting that you mention unrest. Given Cargaleiro’s adherence to a very personal interpretation of abstract expressionism here, we can assume he had quite deliberate plans for each form. The piece is carefully structured, isn't it? See how the forms vary from the bottom to the top? Editor: Precisely. Bottom shapes have a certain "heaviness", that evokes more of an expressionistic feel; they evolve gradually into lightweight abstract geometrical "glyphs" as your eye moves to the top. I read that heaviness as perhaps cultural memories seeping to the surface... but then becoming stylized, less "felt" or less representative of trauma or pain as your eyes get closer to the more open parts. Curator: Ah, that's a fascinating reading. It prompts one to consider each stroke, each arrangement of form and colour... you’re alluding perhaps, to Cargaleiro's reflections upon displacement and finding meaning? Editor: Displacement resonates strongly. Look at the "gestural" aspects near the work's edge -- especially at the bottom where a dark array of heavy, labyrinth-like mazes are all bundled close. Then note how those dark mazes progressively vanish, leaving smaller orange marks that float alone at the painting's top. Perhaps these are visual signifiers alluding to resilience and transformation -- themes often linked to his own life experiences, I suspect. Curator: Interesting observation on Cargaleiro's possible trajectory there, expressed through colour as a code or personal symbol. You’re not wrong: as far back as the 50's, he found beauty and order in simple objects during very formative work at a ceramics factory. "O Sinal" may signal his capacity to rebuild after a long-ago move. Editor: Well, looking at the bigger picture, “O Sinal” invites many stories -- perhaps of order emerging from what appears, at first glance, to be vibrant, but disordered, cultural disruption. Curator: A thought provoking note. Cargaleiro leaves us with this... energy!