Estoril yellow plants

"'Estoril Yellow Plants' (2013) by Julião Sarmento (Lisbon, 1948) belongs to a series of paintings which includes forms and themes that characterize the artist’s work - house plans, the image and form of the female body, the gestures of painting and drawing and the use of archive photographs. The presence of flowers (a symbol of inevitable degradation) associated with architecture (solid, stable) may be understood in its commentary on the passage of time as an updated version of a genre of painting known as 'vanitas'.
Throughout his career, Sarmento’s work has invoked a range of references and cultural narratives drawn from literature, philosophy, architecture, music, and cinema. This plurality of sources finds its parallel in the diversity of media employed by the artist that includes painting, drawing, writing, photography, cinema, video, sculpture, prints and books. Notwithstanding his refined understanding of various media, Sarmento is at heart a painter. In his works, the artist accumulates images, figures, motifs and texts to explore themes such as sexuality, desire, absence, time and language."