Flotante (Floating Object)

Trained in the Circle of Fine Arts in Montevideo by the painter and sculptor Héctor Sgarbi, Marcelo Legrand (b. 1961) later dedicated various years to mastering his drawing and engraving skills in Italy. In 2018, Legrand was awarded the prestigious Figari Prize in recognition of his trail blazing work for Uruguayan contemporary art.
Legrand pursues a rigorous study of form in his work, taking one step further the exploration of materiality made by twentieth-century modern art. “Flotante” ('Floating Object') presents an undefined object; it could be a helicopter, or perhaps a flying insect, but it ends up being neither. Legrand sticks to an almost monochromatic color palette that timidly includes blues and reds; an aesthetic choice inherited from his drawings in the 1980s series “Rostros” ('Faces'). As throughout his work, Legrand builds a powerfully abstract composition that harkens back to the scientific and musical backgrounds of his father’s lineage. The artist not only attempts to grasp these different worlds but, as he has said, his work 'is about capturing time, so that the eye can rest on those banks of time intertwined in the artwork’s weft.'