Ana Hatherly
Learn about the artist's universe through a text accompanied by a selection of works from the exhibition “All I want – Portuguese women artists from 1900 to 2020”
By Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Text by Lígia Afonso / Plano Nacional das Artes
Ana Hatherly’s vast and diverse body of work runs the gamut from visual art to poetry, television to editing, teaching to research, and performance to translation. She says, however, that her work always starts with writing. Indeed, she sees herself as “a writer who drifts into visual art by experimenting with words”. Paradoxically, painting forms a starting point of its own: she considers herself to be “a painter who drifts towards literature simply through an awareness of the ties that bind all of the arts”.
Of Human Servitude 1997 (2008) by Ana HatherlyCalouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Of Human Servitude 1997, 2008
Goffering on Guarro paper; Ed. 8/30
49,8 x 40,2 cm
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Moderna, inv. GP1169
Descending Writing (1979) by Ana HatherlyCalouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Descending Writing, 1979
Indian ink on paper
10,4 x 14,6 cm
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Moderna, inv. 04DP2001
Neograffiti (2001) by Ana HatherlyOriginal Source: Private Collection on loan to Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Moderna
Neograffiti, 2001
Spray paint on paper
65,7 x 48 cm
Private Collection on loan to Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Moderna, inv. DEP-AH-3
Neograffiti (2001) by Ana HatherlyOriginal Source: Private Collection on loan to Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Moderna
Neograffiti, 2001
Spray paint on paper
65,5 x 47,5 cm
Private Collection on loan to Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Moderna, inv. DEP-AH-1
Neograffiti (2001) by Ana HatherlyOriginal Source: Private Collection on loan to Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Moderna
Neograffiti, 2001
Spray paint on paper
66 x 48 cm
Private Collection on loan to Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Moderna, inv. DEP-AH-2
Neograffiti (2001) by Ana HatherlyOriginal Source: Private Collection on loan to Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Moderna
Neograffiti, 2001
Spray paint on paper
66 x 48,5 cm
Private Collection on loan to Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Moderna, inv. DEP-AH-4
The Revolution (1977) by Ana HatherlyOriginal Source: Fundação de Serralves – Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto
The Revolution, 1977
Acrylic paint on paper
84 x 60 cm
Fundação de Serralves – Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto, inv. FS 0519
This fluid approach to disciplines characterises Hatherly’s ongoing and interfused examination and experience of writing, be it “spoken, printed or handwritten”, whether archaic, baroque or eastern, and whether as an essay, poem or drawing. Visual writing, written drawings, image texts, significant stains: her works stem from an endless play in which she manipulates language and its form.
Only you (2001) by Ana HatherlyCalouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Only you, 2001
Spray paint on card stock
24 x (24,9 x 32,4 cm); 150,7 x 131,2 cm (total)
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Moderna, inv. 03DP1844
Puns, repetition, codes, mazes and copy: these are just some of the resources that the artist taps into, her discerning, “intelligent hand” creating ambiguity, conflicts of interpretation, divergent references and shifts in meaning. Another example is the political posters ripped from walls following the Carnation Revolution. Variously torn down, stuck up and superimposed, their layers confuse, alter and liberate the revolutionary message itself.
The Streets of Lisbon (1977) by Ana HatherlyCalouste Gulbenkian Foundation
The Streets of Lisbon, 1977
Paper collage on hardboard
110 x 85 cm
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Moderna, inv. 91P743
The Streets of Lisbon (1977) by Ana HatherlyCalouste Gulbenkian Foundation
The Streets of Lisbon, 1977
Paper collage on hardboard
110 x 85 cm
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Centro de Arte Moderna, inv. 91P745
Learn more about the artist:
Ana Hatherly | Museu Calouste Gulbenkian (in Portuguese)
Trailer "The Intelligent Hand", Ana Hatherly (in Portuguese with English subtitles)
Entrevista a Ana Hatherly | Entre Nós – Universidade Aberta e RTP – (in Portuguese)
"Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959-1979" (from 1:29:58) (in English)
Selection of works presented at the exhibition All I want: Portuguese women artists from 1900 to 2020, in its first moment at Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, within the scope of the cultural program that takes place in parallel to the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2021.
Exhibition organized by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture, Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage (DGPC) and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in co-production with the Center of Contemporary Creation Olivier Debré, Tours, and with the collaboration of the Plano Nacional das Artes (Portugal).
Curators:
Helena de Freitas and Bruno Marchand
Text by Lígia Afonso / Plano Nacional das Artes
Selection of online resources Maria de Brito Matias
Learn more about Ana Hatherly's works presented in the context of this exhibition:
All I want: The Word
All I want: The Space of Writing
All I want: Construction
All I want: The Political
