Figures and Mannequins

"Impotence before the human condition, this vast torment which aggressed the artist, took on distinct possibilities of materialization in Iberê's engravings.
In his early attempts at engraving after his return to the South, Iberê gave priority to making screen prints as of 1985. This was the moment in which the artist began to jot down aspects of everyday life, as he strolls through the Redenção Park, in the rapid movements of the passersby. He also compulsively sketched mannequins, those lifeless beings which simulate life, encloistered in the seductive storefront window displays of the shops on rua da Praia. But Iberê's contacts with the banal aspects of life assumed an importance in his work, and incorporated the strong content of his existential discussions.
A cyclist moves through the first screen print produced by Iberê during this period, in 1985, Parque da Redenção (Rendenção Park). That same year, he executed two more screen prints of people and mannequins. These will never again abandon the artist's work until the final moments of his production. One of these works, Manequins (Mannequins), constitutes an edition made for the Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do SuI, an institution which owns a working proof on which Iberê made amendments in wash. The other, Figuras e manequins (Figures and Mannequins), shows the fusion of people and mannequins, of life and imitations of life. [...]
They are suffused with color, sometimes twelve colors in a single print. Various studies and gouaches prepare for the series, some of which are owned by collectors. It is known that Iberê interfered in all his proofs with great obstinacy. He added colors, modified sketches, incorporated new designs, nearly completely re-making the print just as it was ready for the press. This type of conduct attests to the artist's obsessive temperament, marked by a permanent dissatisfaction with his results."
Mônica Zielinsky, Iberê Camargo: catálogo raisonné (São Paulo: Cosac Naify, 2006), 103.