JULIÃO SARMENTO
LISBOA, PORTUGAL, 1948
Doppelgänger, 2001
Técnica mixta sobre tela / Mixed media on canvas Díptico / Diptych, 240 x 390 cm cu / each Adquirida / Adquired 2007

There is a recurring presence of the female figure —and the female body— in the work of Julião Sarmento, which perhaps alludes to it being a major theme in classical painting and sculpture. The artist regularly depicts them headless, as if to mark a loss of identity, a perfect state of anonymousness or objectification. The almost abstract shape of that body inhabits an otherwise empty canvas, a neutral space that suggests a state of flux in the elaboration of the work. This feeling is reinforced by the absence of colour.

To this disembodied, almost ghostly rendering of the female figure, the artist chooses to add the presence of a bucket, which may refer to a domestic task —such as cleaning—, or maybe to the biological secretions one could associate with the female body. The duplication of an image that is almost similar in both canvases further emphasizes the feeling of strangeness the viewer may experience.