Baltasar Lobo (1910-1993)

Galería Freites will include this work in their forthcoming Baltasar Lobo catalogue raisonné under the archive number 7708.

Fusing the influences of Constantin Brancusi, Jean Arp and Pablo Picasso, Baltasar Lobo’s Face au vent combines the eternal archetype of the artist’s preferred subject with the radical formal developments of early 20th Century modernism. Lobo's heavily stylised female figure is comprised of organic, triangular elements that provide an abounding sense of movement, as she dances with limbs animated by the elements. As if caught within the joie de vivre of Matisse’s La danse, Face au vent shifts boldly through space with an open, free sense of movement. Echoing Boccioni’s masterpiece, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space with her fin-like structures, she equally bears an ambitious, fervent sense of modernity.

Lobo’s interest in the ancient arts − in particular the Cycladic sculpture that inspired his predecessors − further provides the smooth, polished contours that illuminate the surface, mirroring the rounded forms of Brancusi and Arp, whilst the variegated colours of the rich patina provide depth, bringing her figure to life in a dynamic ode to the arabesque. A sculpture of her time and yet deeply rooted in the ancient, Face au vent recalls the classical, voluptuous body of the historic nude with a modern sensibility, perfectly balanced in a suspended, rhythmic harmony.