Natureza-morta 14 (Still Life 14)

“By around 1956 or ’57, Iberê already had a reputation as a printmaker. It was at that moment, in four still-lifes, that he submitted a few objects and pieces of fruit to extraordinary geometrization. These etchings, together with their respective working proofs, form a group which suggests proximities with the still-lifes of Morandi. He had been familiar with the work of the great Italian artist since 1948. His stay in Rome had coincided with the exhibition of 88 Morandi etchings organised by Petrucci at the Calcografia Nazionale, which led to the Bolognese artist’s becoming known as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, evidenced by important exhibitions in Brussels, London, Paris and the 2nd São Paulo Biennial, where he was awarded the Grand Prize for Printmaking. Iberê created a succession of prints and paintings in dialogue with Morandi’s work, in which everyday objects are presented with such solemnity that they seem more like objects from some secular liturgy. The emotive density emanating from these arrangements puts them in the same lineage as Morandi’s simple yet enigmatic natura in posa.
[...] The fact that they shared some common principles did not mean that the younger artist owed any debt to the older one. By personal temperament and choice, the only commitment he recognised was to sensibility itself. The important thing to note is that Iberê’s proximity to the aesthetics of Morandi in his still-life phase reveals the most characteristic element of his work: the dialectic between the sensory and the intellectual
Maria Alice Milliet, O “outro” na pintura de Iberê Camargo (Porto Alegre: Fundação Iberê Camargo, 2012), 123.