JULIÃO SARMENTO
LISBOA, PORTUGAL, 1948
Neutra Blue Lilies, 2011
Acetato polivinílico, pigmentos, acrílico, yeso acrílico, tinta china, grafito y serigrafía sobre tela de algodón / Polyvinyl acetate, pigments, acrylic, acrylic gypsum, chinese ink, graphite and serigraphy on cotton canvas 195 x 185 x 6 cm
Adquirida / Adquired 2012

Architectural references are quite common in the work of Julião Sarmento, who trained both as a painter and architect. The title of the painting in fact refers to the famous Austrian architect, Richard Neutra (1882-1970), an emblematic figure of modernist architecture in Southern California whose villas appeared regularly in Hollywood film noir. The almost bare upper part contains a shadowy architectural fragment probably borrowed from a Neutra building, thus alluding to both architecture and cinema. It contrasts with the various shades of blue applied to serigraphic images of lilies at the bottom of the painting. This work is part of a series entitled “Remarks on Colour”, which refers to the eponymous essay by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, in which he focused on the analysis of mechanisms of sensory perception of colour. All the works in this series are composed in a similar fashion — a large white surface coexists with an area painted in a primary colour; they question the way meaning is generated by associating various unrelated elements.