Self-Portrait

"[...] Without a doubt, Camargo regarded old age as the most extreme form of tyranny imposed by time. Time, which dimmed his external brilliance, leaving – as in the portrait of Dorian Gray – the suffering of man’s soul exposed, his vices and deepest contradictions: the old man as a pathetic mask. Far from being merciless, these portraits are a kind of parody of catharsis in their ability to laugh at themselves. This is the case with a drawing from 1994, where the hardening of his features, excessively angular, or his bald pate, are set against intense, lively eyes, like those of his portraits as a younger man. It is his gaze which confirms his identity as an artist."
María José Herrera, Iberê Camargo: um ensaio visual (Porto Alegre: Fundação Iberê Camargo, 2009), 100.