Katie van Scherpenberg, A queda de Ícaro [The fall of Icarus], 1980

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Katie van Scherpenberg Brazilian, b. 1940

A queda de Ícaro [The fall of Icarus], 1980

Tempera and soot on board
100 x 100 cm (39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in) each
Overall dimensions: 100 x 552 cm (39 3/8 x 217 3/8 in) (variable)
Signed & dated on reverse

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This abstract interpretation of the myth of Icarus is quite possibly van Scherpenberg’s most significant work. By retelling the story of the boy who flew too close to the sun,...

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This abstract interpretation of the myth of Icarus is quite possibly van Scherpenberg’s most significant work. By retelling the story of the boy who flew too close to the sun, the artist explores geometry, abstraction, materiality, and colour. With this story stripped to its most basic elements, the spectator can do nothing but observe the descent and track the movement through space. The work consists of five canvases, originally hung on a black wall. Each white canvas features a black horizontal stripe, which, against the black wall, muddles our perception and asks us whether we are watching an ascent or a descent. Perhaps the protagonist soaring up and then tumbling down. It is a work about hubris and about approximation to the unattainable. Gabriel Pérez-Barriero sees this work as foundational for the artist’s perception of the ‘relationship between the human body, nature, paint and indifference’. This piece was first shown in Sao Paulo alongside the work of Anna Maria Maiolino and Paulo Herkenhoff (at that stage an artist as well as critic).

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Provenance
Artist's studio; Rio de Janeiro

Exhibitions
Paço das Artes, 1981. HMST: 4 Installations and 4 Artists. Paulo Herkenhoff, Anna Maria Maiolino, Katie van Scherpenberg and Celeida Tostes, Museum of Image and Sound, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro (MAM), Brazil

Publications
Katie van Scherpenberg: olamapá, Vol. I, Rio de Janeiro 2020, p. 39, 84, 85, illustrated