THE EMOTIONAL REFLECTION OF EXPERIENCE

Drawing is the rational discipline traditionally associated with concept, with structure. And yet it also has a soul that is experimental, adventurous — even iconoclastic — and emotional. A kind of DNA of resistance to that which is clear and defined, and a desire to go further, to invent and investigate inside oneself. In his work, the artist Pedro Gomes follows this path with determination, as can be seen in the exhibition Encontro às Cegas [Blind Date] on show at the MNAC.

Like a surgeon who, scalpel in hand, cuts a fine, precise line in the patient’s skin to take a look at the body and what it contains, Pedro Gomes starts from the surface, from what we think we know so well to the point of no longer seeing it, to reveal unsuspected aspects to us. He does this with as much determination in the incision as in the use of fire or rigorous geometry, as well as in capturing the most fleeting and indeterminate record of time, in its traces and shadows, in its erasure and void. And he has done this with dedication for almost a quarter of a century, as this exhibition so eloquently shows, with two brand new series of drawings, carried out in 2019 and 2020, as well as series and isolated works created since 1996.

Showing coherence, rigour and dedication, the themes approached are recurrent: space, time, solitude. And Pedro Gomes’ Midas touch is nothing less than the ability to show us more, to go beyond the banality of the everyday, the imagistic source of which is used to create, in a kind of anti-ready-made.

Using the ballpoint pen, incisions, fire or acrylic, making use of pipes, or even rubbish, drawing, in Pedro Gomes’ hands, becomes an emotional record, a trace that is felt, and a complicity revealing more aspects of reality. Rescuing us from a world saturated with images whose omnipresence smothers us, and offering us the question of the meaning that we can still take from them, Pedro Gomes does not aim merely to bewilder us, but to offer us a new kind of awe. Drawing us away from mere acceptance, from the frivolity of days, his experienced construction, dedicated and time-consuming, inquisitive and curious, bold and exploratory, essential to artistic creation, becomes a gift. This is no small achievement, in times that pass swiftly through life, losing from it the scent of uniqueness, in favour of voracity. It is that slow and continual doing, absorbing and emotive, that the artist shows us. And this is amply shown, too, by the critical and informed re-reading of his work, through the vision of curator Hugo Dinis. The MNAC would like to thank both for their generous sharing and involvement, evident in work and words. We hope that, on this blind date with the work of Pedro Gomes, our visitors will find many positive revelations in the new ways of looking at the unexpectedly touching world of the everyday.

Emília Ferreira

Director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art

May 2020