Study for Mesa azul com carretéis (Blue Table with Spools)

“These three studies (accession numbers D0326, D0999 e D0996), originally on one sheet of paper, display a successive study of volume, a study of light and shade and a study of structure. We can see how the form of the table progressively disappears, rejecting perspective in favour of complete frontality and the forms of the stacked and ordered spools, being transformed into compositional elements rather than individual objects. The relationship between these objects – table and spools – is substantially simplified to acquire force and expression. Analysis of this group, from the series depicting table and interior to these studies for the Blue Table with Spools (1959), shows the formal investigation tending increasingly towards simplicity and economy. The artist himself states: My composition has always been governed by geometric organisation, there have always been reference points and force lines, never anything anarchic. I see the gestural painter as someone who makes a mark, and the first thing to come out is what counts and he never goes back to it, because he works from the principle that things are not repeated. Not me.”
Paulo Gomes, Iberê e seu ateliê: as coisas, as pessoas e os lugares (Porto Alegre: Fundação Iberê Camargo, 2015), 150.