luis pérez-oramas leén Ferrari and mira schendel tangled alphabets with essays by andrea giunta and rodrigo naves ‘The Museum of Modern Art New YorkPublished onthe cecasion of he exhibition Tangled Alphabets: Led Ferrari and Mira Schendl, ganized by Lis Pérez Oramas, “The EatrltaBrodehy Curator of Latin American At, The Museum cof Medarm Art, pil 5 Bough June 8, 2000 “The exibition made possible by Agnes Gund, The international ‘Counc of The Museum of Modern Ar, Estrlta 8, Brosh. ‘nd Jerry | Speyer and Katherine G Farley. Generous supports provided by Beatriz and Andrés von Buen, the ‘Bruce T. Halle Family Foundation, and Fundacin Cisneros/Colecién Patricia Phelps de Claneos with actonal funding fom Carissa ‘Alcock Bronfman, Andras and José Olympio ds Veiga Perr, Leopoldo odie and alnhoa Grandes, Mrs. Wore Dadoo de Lewis, Mand ttc Gullrme Cisneros, TEN Arquitatos/Enrique Neren, an Mr. ane tur Nichols Gita, Eva Lula Gif, and Tors Orineco rif “This pubileaton has been prepared with the assistance and support of Mr Charl Cosae and Me Mlchas Naty ‘Cosa Nit Pubehing House acknowledge the cooperation received from tra Ada Schends, Mr Ade Milan, and Mr, Carlos Jerlsst Fo, to whom they wish o express thelr rau Produced bythe Department of Publications The Museum of Modern At, New York ted by David Franko! Designed by Amanda Washourn Prodetion by Cita Gila Print and bound by Cont Tpocole, pa, Florence tay ‘his book is typeset in Chalet and Century Schootbook 162009 The Museum of Modern Ar, New York ‘Copyright credts for cartainilutatons are cited on p 199. Al rights reserved us Pérez-oramais essay was translated fom the Spanish by Kuatina Cordero, Andrea Giunte’s essay was translated frm the ‘parish by Ese Nussbeum, Rodrigo Navas say was vanslted ‘rom the Portuguesa by Wichael Reade. Mira Sehende' wrtings in that easy wer translated from the Portuguese by Cliford E Landers, Distibvted inthe United States and Canada by OA yOIsributed ‘rt Publisher, 155 Shah Avene, 2nd loo, New York, New York 10013 (werwartdookcom) Dito ouside the United states and Canada (except Bazi) by Thames & Hudson Lid 18 Hgh Holborn, London WCIY 70x United Kingdom (ww thamessndhudsoncom) Distibuted in Brazil by Cosac Naty LUbrary of Congress Contr Number 2009802634 ISON 978-.0-87070-7505 Lot Led Ferra, Toe de Babe (Tomer of Gabel detail. 1964 Stainless steal, bronze, andl copper, 8°" x31 "(200 x80 em) Lent by the American Fund fo the Tate Gallery 2008, See plate 72 Fight ira Scheadel. Ute (Seta from the sevies Objetosgreos (Graphic objects) 1973, “Tanser type on thin Japanese paper between transparent acrylic heats, 2222. (59x 859.1 cm) Collection Parca Phlps de Cisneros. Se pte 93 ack cover Lon Fras ate 19608; and Mira Schendet, S80 Paulo, 19805contents Foreword 7 Acknowledgments @ Lobe Feral and Mira Schendal: Tangled Alpabeta 12 is Pres Oremas Lon Ferri: Language Rhapsody 48 Andrea Giunta Mra Schendl: Ihe Word 28 Generosity Foctigo Naves Plates 70 (chronology 169 Selected Bibiography 184 Inder of Patos 196 ‘wstees of The Musoum of Modern Art 200Foreword “The Museum oF Modern Are has a history of conesking comparative retrospecives, exhibitions exploring parallels and divergences among ‘wo or more arts. Falowing one of the origina legacies of modernity, the understanding that symbolic forms only produce meaning through thai dferences, weave embrace this curatorial model rom our open. Ing in 829, with a show of Cézanne, Van Gogh, Sera, and Gaugul, the recon Moise Picasso cf 2008 Tangled Alphabets: Len Fras and Miro Schendel exten tis curatorial an philosophical tation, Tangled Alphabets focuses on two outstancing artists whose ‘work i to ite known in North America and Europe. The fest US. retrospective to pair Lan Fora from Argentine, and the late Mia ‘Schendal who was based in Bra, provides @ consistent analogical “survey oftheir contribution o contemporary at and, we feel, a ground breaking moment of awakening to the quay and significance of thir work The Museums commitment to Latin American st ofcourse goss beck many years, and today mre than evar we are committed to bringing attention to overlooked chapter af modern at history and to shaping curatorial intatves trough an awareness ofthe complexity of eur present worl ‘itis 3 history of haspor, ofthe relocation, assimilation, and ‘eansformation of forms, ideas, practices, and intllectual movements Forrar, the Argentine son of an lalan immigrant, and Schendel, =| ‘Swiseftalan who emigrated to Beal have tielessy addressed visu! {art a2 capable of posting the most redcal and demancing existent ‘questions. Ata time when a good desl of Western art wae ings aly based, they addressed language as if there were no citference between sans, codes, words, and any other visual form. Instead of sing language ss a substitute forthe art objet they produced art cbjets that made language a visual subject. Sth atts know hard hip and tragedy; Schendel, who came fom a Jewish family, becsme 8 ‘refugee fleeing tho Nazis during Were War, and Ferarihad agonizing Cexpetience of te Argentine juntas “ty war" af the 1708 ands, to the point where he was forced ino aid, Both made artform of sur Wal conceiving original techniques for producing t and opening up new repetories for abstraction and language-baeed work, The cont= thale work together in New York and ia Europe we bring ta bear en thom an intrational perspective that transcends a purely national understanding and wil no doubt eral inlet out understanding of ‘Western modem a. Wo are enormously grateful to Ferrari and to the Schendel ‘state, a8 well a to the collectors and institution lending works fer the exhibition. A project this complex demands the collaboration of 3 ‘reat number of psople and we are grateful to the weiter, curators, and other members ofthe Argentine end Brazian art worlds whe have contibuted tothe exhibitors materisization. The excellence and cre uty ofthe Museums own staff is crucial to the success of al our projets, and Lis Pér-Oramas, he Estrlita Brodsky Curator of Latin American At, and Geaninne Gutiérrez Guimares, Curatorial Assistant ln the Department of Drawings, have worked irlossy on every deta of this exhibition fom Inception to realization. Wo are deoply osteul {© Agnes Gund, The International Cuncl of The Museum of Modem [Nt Estolita Brodsky, Beatriz and Andrés von Buch, The Bruce T. Hallo arly Foundation, Clarissa Alcock Bronfman, Andrea and José lynpio 62 Voiga Pesta, Leopoldo Rodés and Ainhoa Grandes, Mrs. Wonne Dado de Lewis, Mr and Mrs. Guillermo Cisneros, TEN Araitectes! Emique Noten, sod Me and Mrs Nicholas Grif, Ev Luss Grit, anc Tams Orinoco Grif for ther enthusiasm and support for this exh tion and its catalogue. We warmly thank Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and the Fundacin Cisneros or important funding a the existion, and Paty fora eles efor to raise awareness and suppert nt onl for this prsentation but forall Latin American at. The Bralianpublahera ‘Cosae Nit were extremely gonerous and helpful withthe production ofthe catalogue and th assistance greatly aporeclatac, Glenn D Lowry recto, The Museum of Moder Artacknowledgments | remember an early afternoon inthe lat 1880s n Sto Pao, when {fret saw aretrospective of works by Mira Schendel. had barely seen this magnicert, compeling at befor, ana fet prvleged to share my stonishment wih Paviela Phelps de Cisneros and Paulo Herkenhott could not have asked for» higher Blessing than Belng there with Patty who realy brought me to Latin American at and introduced me to frends and guides tke Paulo, | am and wil forever be grateful to tham both i fotune had it that ist encounter ed me to frendships that ved my path toward the werk af Schendol and Len Ferrer. These fms de grande profondeur are many, and no words can Sxpess my (gabtce to thom | woul re ke to thank Glenn O, Lowy, rector of ‘he Museum, whose continuing enthusiasm for both atts has been the touchstone ofthis reject: Gary Gaels, former Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curaor of Drawings, who inspired me to think of ‘chendel end Ferret as acquiston and exibition pris here; Jonn ert orm Marie osbe and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Parting tnd Seuptre for whose wise and inspirational advice | wl always be (gato Jy Levenson, tector of he Museu nterational Program, with whom I rst vista Fertats uenos Ares suc along wih Vitoria oorthoem, who pointed out the almost ttl absence of Fears work Inthe Museuris collction atte tine: Kathy Halbeich the Museum’ Associate Doctor and an ardety supportive advoeste ofthe global ‘ause behind this exibon; nd Guy Bret whose bilan insights have been natumental nthe conatution of my own view of Schendes art and whose patience and understanding were ctcal accomplishing ‘mojracqulstions of er works atthe Museum “he conception, production and realization of project the this cone are labor of rary, andthe professional colegialty and human (generosity ofthe numerous contbutors to te creaion of this put cation and the exibition it accompanies have been an fnnense priv lage. | am forever indebted to Ada Schendel, Schendets daughter, and to Lain end Alcis Feta all major lenders to the exibition. Both Ada land Letnhave been generousin sharing thes time and the memories Including he father and aunt, Kout and Erika Schendel, ad her chi tron odo, Nina, and Max Schendel. Max also contributed tothe book tone of our main photographers i Braz thank Clave Vendramin fis and Andre Milan, dear frends and esteemed colleagues. André ‘an exceptional gllara, gave us an incredible amount of hel; Ne wos constant guide and advisor, and | am deeply grateful for his ded Caton to this wonderful project. We could not have succeeded with tut his devoted partners and stafSecoro de Andrade Lima, Sophia inately Adriana M. de Bit, ond Amanda Rodrigues Aves—Wwho gave Us uncondiinel suppert. | was also pewleged to share many hours ‘of work and tak wih Legn in his Buenos Aires stu. The exibition ‘ould not have taken place without the tireless help and devotion that hie family, asistants, and fends demonsvated along the way. spa tiularJufataZemorene, Marcela Roberts, Andrea Wain, and san Jose Feo (aya) am alo grateful o Leis family in $30 Paulo, inlusng Pablo Ferra, Anna Ferra, and Patricia Rovsseaur, for receiving Us in thei homes, There ove 9 number of studes of Schendel, including Sonia “Sates exhibtion catalogue No vaxo do mundo, which remains 2 raj ofrence. Geraldo Souza Olas esearch onthe atts the most Comprehensive to date Iwas fortunate to have access to both his doc toca dtrttion and his forthcoming Book, Mira Schende! Do espintual 2 corporeldade hich wil be published later this year By Cosac Naty ard wil cerainly prove 2 fundamental schelary tool My knowiedoe of ‘chande, ana tis extn and catalogue, are permanent indebted to Souza Dis. The Ballon historian and art ce Rodiigo Naves Pro- ‘ded itl input on Schendels He and work, and colaborsted further by ering an oss for this catalogu, lam grate o Rocio fer itod tng to Pato Celso ahi on Fernando Vil, both of whom shared intimate information ebout Schendas friendships with Domiican Fars in Sta Paulo in the eal 8705 ony members ofthe Brazlan art world have come to Our rescue wih priceless acvic for whic | am forever thank: the co factors Giberto Chateaubriand and Adcph Leiner, good fiends of the Museum: Ricard Akagawa; Aracy Amaral; Marcelo Araijo, Director,Hector Sabence, Jule Bafar and Feipe Chaimovich, Museu de Arto Modano de Sto Palo; Jones Bergamin; Peter and Flavio Cohn sae Furmanovich; Esther and Edward Galo; Carmela ross; Afonso Henne and Cristina 4, Antonio Hermann Ana Maria Hofman and Paulo Roberto Barbose, Museo de Ate Contemporinee, Universidade de ‘to Paulo; Paulo and Marta Kucaynss Eduard Leme; Francisco Leite; clomes Lisboa; Heitor Mtns and Fernanda Fetosa: Marl Matsumoto ‘andrea and Joes Olympia Pereira; Cesare Avett; Paulo and Helene Nendes de Rech; Nara and Oanel Roeser, Clara Sancovsy, Jayme varges do Siva; Sussna and Fleardo Steinbruch; Eauardo and Alberto Tassinai: and Matin Wurzmann. Special grattade goes tothe pub Isher Crares Cosse endothe tam of professionals working wth him tthe publishing company Coe Naty, particulary Augusto Masi and Cassiano Machado. het geneosty, ae wel that of Charles Cosec and Michael Nay haa made a transformative erence in his book. In the Argentine art wore too we have mt a seemingly unin ted welcome. | would frst tke to thank Eduardo Costatin, President cof the Museo de At Latinasmericano de Buenos Aires (ALBA, fo his ‘ongoing support, Maoelo Pacheco, Chef Curator of Maisa, embraced the Idea ofthis paral retrospective of Fora and Schendel early on, and his frenaly advice intellectual input, and concrete hep have been invaluable | am also grateful fo Ns assstet, Victoria Graudo, and to Cinta Mazza, agietrr, wo were always rea to answer our ‘vestons. Many Argentine inellactule, cris, nd atts have shared wth me their knowledge of Fears work and ie. Andrea Glunta, an xceptona ar historian and one ofthe most devoted and trustworthy ‘sources of intligence on Fears work, contributed an essay to this book Luis Felipe Not, a major art and an intimate land of Fears onerovsly shared tine, memories, and information. Colectors, gal leit, acd at lovers such as Orly Serzacar, Ruben Chertajovsky, Debbie Frydman and Mariela Ross, Mauro and Luz Hertz, lgnacio Lipranl, Luise Pecrevsa and Gian Camnpochsri Perla Rotza ane ‘he taf ofthe Museo Nacional de Ballas Atos and ofthe Museu Sori wore ivalusle guides, Photographers in both Argentine and Bri tabre™, Palmaras ogre, ¢ house witha lush garden (figs 18, 18). “Unortunatey speech te not my means of expression” she wrote toa frend ding these years she oeat with bar abandonment of wring by Becoming an Grist beginning, stangely enough, with surly the most manual ert form ceramics Like Ferrario Nal, Schendel in Broa devoted herself to kneacing and shaping clay, making works that we now can ony Imagine, for nave survive ‘Soon, however in 1960, Schandel decided that paling was“ question fe or death" Pernaps she vansfared to her early pint Ings the rugged texture of her ceramics, the impenetrable sence of the cups vessels, and bots that she had sculpted with her hands (plate 3) n any event crfes ft n these locos a somewhat mean hol, perhaps even metaphysical quay ecaling 8 pair of srtsts who simost certainly Inuanced Sehendal inthe Gaz of the 1950s: ‘iergio Morand fi. 8, p68) and Miten Dacosta™ Her stil ites end lnetactonssieady roves a ceeatistaction withthe its ofthe pe {ure plane. none, white oval, an ogg an uncanny presence among bottles and glasses depicted as emphatialy fat sihouettes (pat 6, ‘ite In another thick, roug-tetured psiat sth backdrop fer promi rant geometic forms that stand out tee-simensinal (pate 1, On tne level this ater work isa game of tonal values focused on the tedges ofthese nameless prosences (which makes the most Morand te of Schendels paintings, even while ts conographieally untae hin” On another, tis about penetrating the density the thickness, of paint and watching forms emerge fom i ess compositional imps tions than orgaieoutgronths “This iteral emergance of form would become essential to Sehendel's rt and we wl be looking a it ater with respect tothe technique she developed for drawing on Japanese paper. For now itis enough to say that after she stopped wring poet painting emerged inher work not 9 one might guess 8 an execs pitting Sr againt wring, but deftvaly span obec. Inthe manta acon (ofboth hee and Ferraris ceramics, and inthe earthy tactile texture of eee ee ei en shat mau bie enabject-making, Schendel gave up written language-slent, but prag- rant with latent spaach—for the inescapable, fated muteness of the physical estore and the muteness ofthe gesture (and gesture phys cally shapes witing) became for her the pace of language's sence, col the voice dafered buried, contained in and by the hand that writ ‘or knead cay “ing, aid Barth, in short nothing more then 8 Kind of fssure tis a question of dividing, of plowing, of lscontouing flat element, sheet, skin cy tablet, wal... the hand the eye, guide the wing, not the eason of language \wriscen Petures: The Visible ae Verb Farrar and Schondal estab ished the basi repertoes of thei respective bods of werk inthe 19605. Ferrari had gone through a period of experiment in which he continued to produce seulptre billy explored woed caring, and sade some of his st work in wi, inclucing Gagerin Gagarin 196% Plato 25). this spherical piace which allegorizes the widespread ear onthusiasm for the words venture into space, manifests a theme of Festi that would evolve ina number of drectons: spheres, rockets, rissles ond even atomic explosions Inthe recent mushroon-shaped ‘eulptures in polyurethane “te would be 20 wonderful” Fert wrote i 1962-65, to meke: 2 kind of meppa mands, globe of some imaginary planet, th planet where | cont vaya totaly drawn sphare... cout be made of so Ira, welded and painted" “A totaly drown sphere” eyond the cle ‘of Gagarin as allegory, porta, o sculpture, Ferraris notes show that he Saw the work graphically, a8 a kind of treo-dimensional drawing He wrote those nates atthe same time that he was working on his Ast great drawing, the 1962 Sin ul (Sermo do la song) (Untitled [Sermon ofthe bod plate 12, based ona poem by Abert. Rata] ead some poss Farrar wrote in his notebook “and ‘hen eft hi. started to work onthe poom 'Sermén de sangre with the idea of doing something very complex (ether in black or colored Ink) wetner drecty on paper o¢ on 2 piece of calophane covered it alzarn re for blood The natabook mentions four of Sve ver Blons ofthe crewing and reveals a meticulous, panstekng process ravings ifthe wrote, and he experimented laboraushy, with an alchemy of inks, a atthe colo of bleed thats abl and, tke ry, epaque blood” ‘Aerial anc corporel a the same time, the result i surly one of, the most spectacular drawings of Fetrars career, and sent echoes Abert’ post: Fino | consent: itis time—tine to ste trough the voce thot tants al things rom the ce an the whet co the Beok ‘ofthe bal that renources the earth and wats foro day when tho sky willbe quartz anal grind to aha for ]@moment, at st while something tht shames me and heaves me al undermines ‘me and crowns me, sil drains me, abardans me an pas alto fg agin fr which know no name but my ood * Tho composition comprises two planes of Ines thet jon in & complex nbyinh of tangles and eriscrosses. These planes core {spond to two colors, Bick and rec, which seam in {uth to rele to ‘we loves ofthe body—outsido, the gran of skin and ha and inside, the cteulation af blood-hich, however, oe inverted, the network oF ood vessels appearing ontop ofthe fd of hal. The voice of blood becomesan eloquent vision, and whl tho work contains no eral wi ing, thee is indeed poem text, underlying its complex process “he bodily dimension of Ferrata drawing may be traceable to ie early day a8 an art. In 1962, while ho was living for 9 period in Milan the callector anc author Arturo Schware invited him to conta te 10 partiote of prints by arts ofthe international avant-garde leading to 2 rypoit etching that weuld prove the starting point for hie rawings. His drawing practice, then, began with Incision, the mst racial fom of crawing and perhaps also an otoinary form of wing Saint Luke, the pron saint of sists, combined the practies of wit- Ing (ovation), drawing (portature, and ncsion (suger). No less fan artist than Giota, according to Vasa, began his He as an artist by scratching an image into rock witha sharp stone." Ferrari in his notebook, described is earl Misics Musics] eal (pate, begun1 the same time, iti westh remembering that Fars st stract rowing had aprtest in txt (nthe Albert poem, for axa, “tile the Misco, by laveking musical scores, aspired to be seen 2s textual events, These works would ed Ferra toward the abstect raw ings ofthe Eserturas deformadas (Deformed wings) sve and to the Catas oun gener) series of 1969 (Lators toa genera plate 7, whieh in tun would ose in 1964 with the nception of the great repertoy lof witen drawings that begins with Cuoco eset. As such, Ferraris ‘raning practice was and i an Inseved Body of work (fg, 20, the result of corporeal practice of inscription, orofBarthes'sseriton— "This gesture by which sand picks up too (pon. reed, pen, presses Ito surface, advances it hesily or creasingly. and traces regu, recurrent, ythmic fon." Iesintresting to nate that this progression began with abstac- sion and ended with wring Ftrar has soi that twas 2s fre had Inverted 5 modern order, a inthe work of Antonin Artaud and Hens Nichauxn which writings abatracted ino acaligraphy thats legible, indecipherable infact he may have repeated the ontogeny of rng {we agree wit the theores ofthe philosopher André Lerol-Gourban forthe linguist Jacques Van Ginneken, 6s summarized by Barthes: "wting” he sas, “would have to have come before ol language’ ven that its origins must le between tho age of purely gestural com ‘munication end the age of communication though ccike phonemes, The the sounds that newborns make wth thir mouthe—-but before the rise ofan articulated language, According to Lero-Gouren. Barthes writes, grapies would have come before wring: "Wing, ouside its Semantic consttvet, snes and marks engraved on bone of stone Ile equidistant incslona,n no way Agate these traces have no precise nearing: they seem to be rithmic manifestations, perhaps Incantatory n ature nother words, writing begins natin fitation of ‘he real but in abatiaetion ‘i tarvarte ahatvact drawinos are purely aesthetically @ high pointtive conten, for a cicourse on at on the word, witha cont etions and nonsense; and, usualy satcestealy an ertcally, on the powers of chuch and state None of thee eaty works ae lent. or show the kine of anger and protest that would appear in his st later fon, a¢ 2 natural reaction to the tragedies of Argentine history. which would scar his own family eet. The period begins with works tke ‘Si eul (Sxmeén dela sangre, an abstraction based on an exsting pace of wing, and can be aaen 2s ending with La clizocin occ ‘ental yenstiono (Westem Chitan ization fi, 2, sculpture fus ng ecco with an American bomber, Exhibited at Suenos Aros Inst tto Trcuate i Tela in 1965, the work wae utinatey censored, er which Fear abandoned artmaking fers tm. During this bet riod betwoen 1962 and 1965, Ferra estabshed the foundations of bis entre future repertey in abstract ravings wen a the Misicos, the Escrurasdeformades, the Cartas oun general the wie sculptures, the boxes, and the written drawings such 98 Cuadko escite. ‘tween 1957 and 1969, Schendel too stopped aetmking to concen ‘rate onriing har daughter, Ads, her child wih her secon husbsn, Knut Schendel (The couple had ived together since 1952 and would mary in 1960) Kout (ig. 22), a Gaiman who hed emigrated to Braz in 1896, sensing the horrr then brewing in Europe, would become a ell Figur in Schendet's Me; although after she married him she only signed her work with her st name, Mi, some ofthe abstract calligraphy In her drawings on Japanese paper resembles his signa ‘ura 28 though ahe wore rewarding hie name wih a gesture, making t afeauteof her wore (lat 25), rut ran the Sto Paulo bookstore Caruto a sigifeantimportor of technical iterate dung the years of Brats modernaatin (83, 23). His business presumstly gave Schendel access to books and aeper. in 1863, she bogant pain again, making absvact, material criented can vases Soon, however, she chosa inteed to work on sheets of Japanese 3par al wth rare exceptions inthe same vertical rectangular ermat, ‘ice as hgh 9 wide—the sum of two squares. n er lst pairings of this period, Schendel combined numbers an laters with 2 seis of Ings, and ovals al of wich would reappear in er drawings. One of these works, Sem ttle (Achies) (United (Achiles. Ng. 24)—perhaps her Sst writen paining’—depiet akin of Meshal, 2 “doorway” as (Geraldo Sous Dis has described I Above itis written afl Engish sentence: "Froude and nyse a the time, we berowed fam M. Curse ‘a Homer and Froude chose the wordsin which ACHES returning tothe batt says you shal know the iference now that am back again” ‘Several features ofthis work deserva attention: the presence cf text in 2 good-sized sainting (hityseven by ty-two inches the se of capital eters, apparent stesced ater than caligraphy the ‘way the text dominates the upper art ofthe picture, superimposed ‘ver the black ar and ave the somber colors ofthe visual fe the hermetic charactor ofthe sentance, despite Its reference to Achilles, ‘nhose name stands out in white, the any Brightness in an thar ‘wise dark composition; and the phillagcal and aesthetic moment in Schendets davelopment tht the painting marks. ‘he sentence i @ quotation, never covrectlyIdetied before from the writings of John Henry Cardinal Newman, and specifically from his preface to the Lyra Apostalca of 236, a coleton of religious posms by writes such at John Keble, chard Huvtll Froude, Newnan Fimsot and others, all gure in the Oxford Movement, a nineteenth- cantury English expresson of Roman Catholicism and European romanticism Visting Rome in the winter of 1632, Keble, Froude, {and Newman had met the German theologisn and aplomat Civistan Charles Josis, Baron von Buen, and, 36 Newman wrote, Ned ber rowed fom him a copy of Homer. Inte id, on retuming to bate sfterthe death of Patoclus,Achilos promises, "You shal know the = ference, now that am back agin In quoting this ne in the preface to the Lyra Apestolica, in the sentence In turn quoted in Schendots painting. Newman wes describing hie and his rend’ fame of mind at the books inception, (On returning to London after touring the Mediterranean with his tend, Kebla gave his “Nations! Apostasy” sermon protesting the daclne ofthe Church of Englana This speech would become the foundational document of the Oxford Movement, which attemptedACHILLES of primal almost preecclesastic! Christianity. i should hardly Surprise us that Schendsl wae reading Newman at ime when she wae deoply Involved in issues of Cathlicreorm Nor should sesm that her interest in diferent forms of erly Chistian, both pre Sd even anlieeclesiastice, would lead her to profound difrences, both personal end theological, with the Church, Schendel aso knew that the reformist principles embedded inthe Oxford Movernent hac Contribute to the ideas of the Sacond Vatican Counel, conducted ‘ring precisely this period, rom 1962 to 1965. Pope Paul Vi, Cardinal ont, hed personally helped Schendel during her years as ret (ge in Europe This same Pope would publicly deciere that Vatican I fad bean “Newman's hour ‘Achles's words in the Mid herald a furious bat emulated by the Orford man in ther rtique of Englands goverment land Church, and by Schendel on resuring wotk as an artist in 1963 The quotation, though s eccentric, obscure Isolated from its Berary and theological conte, surtendored to panting, Ris simost a textual an eneeay teadymade. But Schendel was ansouncing her return to panting, to the struggles of art and ofthe aa with the weapons she would be Using to make her symbole gestures: nes, words, impeccable Su faces, emp Feds. ‘Schendes reliious feligs should not be underestinatec: her workreturs obsessively to eschatological sss, the ctiutes of faith, lndtheconveictions within the Cathoie Church ofthe time, The unfath ‘mabiy immense expanse ofthe paper on which she nseribe he ene mous production of Manotnos (Monotypes)—ths was the battle ‘which her spetual ideas materiized 9s fragments Heating words Soe een aeee cnras sehendel themes se independence from reason, humanity's rae secular ‘cm ecurenis, the embrace of poverty, sci acton-—were important tore ring these years, years which sho subtly but sberiously end ‘completely revised her ideas about ecclesiastical atte, and potica ttutonl structures. “te period that began in 1963 with the quotation of Newnan perhaps ended in 1968 wih 2 quotation fromthe Book of Kings, used Tha spectacular instalation on the voice of God as absolut, inc herabe lance Ondosporados de probblidade—Anigo Testoments Ciro dos i, 1 (Stil waves of pobabiity~Old Testament, Kings fig 25) was Schendets contribution to tho 1869 Bienal de SS0 Paulo, lahich actulsts against Brai's mitaryditatrship were boycotting the work, then, was policy 28 wel as theological radical, defying rot only the state but ts opponents, Ondo parades de probabiode Jlntapoted the archale voce of the Bible with modern vansparency put bolo she could make t Schendal hed had to follow a tortuous path, though the Monoipies, the Droginhins’* ana Tenn. digo Noves has repeatedly argued that te Monotiios—the drawings on wtich Schende! labore intone from 1964 uni the end Of the decade-should not be called by tht nam, since no repro (Gucton process was vsed to make them, not even the limited fm of reproduction inroived in piting manotypes Naves stresses the potty of the technique that she invented to produce ths large series rors: the fait and ight weight ofthe Japanese paper become ‘Sesomial rather than indent, medium rather than suppert. Since © more convetioal insertion of he kind Schende! was making could fave seatched or torn the papar she instead devised a mathoo of coating a pane of inked glass with a layer of tale, to shield the paper‘per absorbed tho ink This method let her balance the dict eque tion between spontenelty and inertion, both of which come through «these drawings “She would meditate or do nothing fora peiod and then dash off drawings one after another raplay, seztching on the paper aid ove an inked glass, renewing it and doing another“ In the Manotpas, the drawing infact shines through. Ks body pracisly innit tha paper's transparency its tals le in the trace, the physical gstre, the muscular weight tht produced it as wel as inthe paper's intensities presence, eas the darkness ofthe awn line grew integral ‘Tom the papers white clay without eompromis Ing ether value. For Naves the poetic meaning ofthis technique of Schancl’ as inher abilty to make the drawing seem to emerge rom within the suppor, rather than baing imposed upon it from outside> Through this Key obsarsstion we recognize the equbalence of her gesture hereto tha of those modern arists whe tied to reduce the practice of panting tits minimal eondktions of possibilty fer exam to ts fatness. Schendels project, however, is something other than formalist, something other than an attempt oie the drawing with its medium, oto roduc tothe materay ofits support the number and varity of the Monotpis show thet she conceived them a8 figura or figurative fields, fds in which the most radical abstraction and ‘the most minimal gesture nave symbole or allegorical weight. Wiking bresks down into fragments, furious gestures, oF i transformed into song, rection, prayr. Howe tea clase as @ monogram (plate 20), ‘hore it decomposes, fs signe died ts physical matter tom, The ring in one ofthe most intresting monotype srawings—iseresting in part becouse Schende changed format, making the dawing her ont and sight Larger than the rst=doscribes how the paper was ‘ceidentaly ripped, and this tear becomes the works symbalic centr, is symbol (olte 27), Ths risk of scedeat, ofthe tom image, the frac "ured object, embodies the poetry ofthe Monotnas These drawings shoud be ead through the looic not of the sign but af the symptom, not af the imprint but of the emergence the sportanaous stain or mark. The stokes, forms, signs, and ges- ‘ures in the Monotipics suggest tangible traces ring to the surface of part rom the mythic role of he sign as an expression ofthe artist's wil ransfertng tothe paper the organi qualty that Waker Benjamin reserved fr the *matk" a3 opposed tothe “absolute sign "Whereas the aosolute sgn does nat forthe most part appear on Iving beings but can be impressed or appesr on Wless bulcings, tees, and 50 on, the mak appears princioaly on Iving beings (Chist's stigmata, blushes, pethepa leprosy and bthmark)~ This cstinction,inermed by duds theology, between imaginary absolutes of sign and mark is Impertant in thinking about Schendel, pariclry in understanding her marks 36 inks to noons of in (Benjamin's “blushes” and innocence (ois “agmata". it bacomes erica, though, when we recall that for Benjamin the mark works a kind of *emporal mapi fusing the past (of gull) and the future (of atonement). He continues, "The medium | ‘ofthe mark isnot conned to this temporal meaning: 88 we se cs: ‘1ossed to soe in the cate of bushing, aso tends to lssoNe tho personality ito certain ofits basic components ' symptom isan voluntary, purely organic wacning ofa physieee, Ae REL ds Goh Veneer a arings in the Menai are indoles ater than raring tings. hey trom them out They prsentrater tan ust represet=the orgie Pessoal that has produced them of rater, that has alowed them aoe produced, but thst alse dissolves them in thet primitive ison hut, thoi material stu, tet auspension and fragmentation. The Tage of dang that emerges from the intent ofthe paper nt tshety artic and certain nt formals, at fast in Schendes case. teoponds to # metaphysical reason that Schendel exqreseed year ater Neen sho described the Monotinios 35th result of hitherto fussed repr to capture scouse ats moment of cgi” for which she hac arr don twat forthe letters to for, to take shape onthe page end Bnet to one another ina txt predating the eral and iogical™* ith the possible exceptions of Sam tuo Achilas) and the menotybe tiowing & ama (A fabric net: pate 27, whose inaction refers set teflon to crowing, none of Schende's work has the meticulously Gescrptve character of Fra’. Yet his writen drawings too oe bond wth theology, and with the presence of God, fn 2 negative anae--negative in that Fear is raialy opposed tortion “Guodroscrta{F.26), the frat and most important ofthese work, begins with te remark," knew how to paint f God, nH este and bewildered by mistaken confusion, had touched me..." ‘Goodie escrito fs an argument agelnst God, against pening against the soieaton of pining, Tis complex work takes @ stand aginst the (Wester radon that mede panting the summit ofthe plastic ats—2 fureantete adit that began inthe Renassence by establishing 2 Iraunalence between pictorial practice and the arts of poetry, thet she, and geometry By showing poetic stories in a space ruled By Perepactve-in other words, by geometry—paining was freed of is Rtigmo a2 a manual only psaudo-inelletua rat, Over tree cent vice would pars before Lessing’ estinction between the arts of tine {Goch as pocry) and of space (auch as plating and seuitur) unc roecuiralence: i was uitimately Lessing's argument that established Insofar a8 Cuoco eset rserabios the discursive practices of Jatin which a text replaces the object it describes, fnt for sueh works” Tis ore complex then sore Conceptual it nas been called a Latin American precede maybe so butte supercia Cvodo estos fv ve suggested by tis simple slgnment with Conceptual a. 2 Fora usualy aays he fe ently inderent at he time The imc Fake between conceptusl art and 2 humanistic archaeology of the arnul ate ae understood before Lessing have yet 10 be fly exer Jeeves clear, hough, that y rejecting the primacy ofthe art objet fovor af the opeations of language, and particularly of administrative language’ Conceptual ets gave up the spatial dimension of vue they gave up stucturlextansion In favor of intention and ako of cognitive intentional” in ths senge ican be argued thet by opposing the modernist \aeciogy of arts entiation with ts mediom—an denticaton mpl ar engineerad atur of sorts hehumenisc engine of Western af Renaissance painters devised times rvctures that functioned ike, fr expe, the pede se vance praed by thetrcans the verbal and visual equivalences of the CConceptun! ats osembed tatciogical satences, restoring ear omarion favoring of verbal srctures in vsul ar Of course there Inrmov in Conceptual ar some atts —possioly Lawrence Wein (fa 2, certainly Joseph Kasuth (ig. 26-—have a “philosophies” impute a eto make ther work mic the canty and formaity of anaes + trematea! ot logical intelectus operations, This may mpi nck Tanja second ore consistent confuence between he accented canon sr Conceptual ert andthe ctrl theory ofthe Renaissance, when the representation history demanded the neutralization ofthe subject ho er tna orm of desubjectvizaon Ths was achieved trough he cmablshmont ofthe Renaissance model of perspective n which vision ‘Srmonotocal and the observing subject agrees to make hs or her body cuvoten to pontein eter word, to rede his or her subjective Seren tothe amaiestcoordnata of Ecldean geomet. Conceptual aon aanaty of the aubiect. through neutral, objective inthe primacy of painting Concept!Imperuroabiy objective sentences that could have beon produced by anyone noone, The" in these sentences theres ones neni, funetonal depenssble, Lik the paintings of the Aenaissance—he og nary painings af humanist nistory-these language opertions aspire to bbe noua, were statements ‘Coad eset ia anything but a univer statement tse not anominal transparency but a beingin existent alistess and i begins wih a recognition of tations, of impotence. nth’s sense that opr: Ing sentence could nat be more elametically opposed to canonical Conceptual, which tends to dasebe the concise executlon, com plete or potential of a singuar operation, Ferran begins instead by ‘saying what he would do f God had touched him—In thor words by saying what he cannot 60, ‘A setcastic and intieste aa Fears text may be, lis exe tently conaetent: anything 8 man is unable to do, rom creating & painting to any other frustrated potenti, i sttibutabe to the faut of the divine, Here Ferra intats his inversion of Western theology the mistake Ie via, not human, and in place of @ cal for humans to stone thee is 2 condemnation of the eultwal abuses ane phartesme: ‘218 surrounding rligion, ike the ides of hel or the prudish sexual stttudes ofthe Cathoe Chureh. Mare than anything, though, Cuadro ‘esc inkatas an sestnatic of confuslonconfuion about ary kind of ‘aesetion, confusion about te tuth—thet would become esse! to Feri and would appear in a variety of ways, including an abundant repertoe of visual and textual eamoufage, Bie and iniible within CCuacha eect, tat potential pang that Fear wauld have painted "the coulis the hicden heart ofthe ene woRk: forty square cent- meters detberstoly concealed in the works various measures so that 10 one peccalves its aucibe lonquage' The reference to Balzac's ‘celebrates ChaFcoeuve incanna i clay, but ane might aso think of the painting descr here as an anticipation of Ferar'scamoutags Paintings ana assemblages of the 1900s (fg. 23), his clearest inver Sons ofthe tractona letra strategies of Chistian these ater IPB doseph Kosuth 29works by covering the Chvist gure in eameufago, Ferainvertsace- trated remark by Erasmus, in hie Encircion Mit Christin’ (1504, ‘according to whieh the Devil moves in dsguise” in this lght Cuoco exert fs essential © manifest, though 8 rmanfeto thet speaks er just one person rather than for @movement or Collective aesthetic, nd tats algo a work af art And what sia mani {esto of As we nave seen the text uses baroaue, jumbled sentences to dezznbe 3 potential impossible painting. tisimpossblenpart because Ieisan sole object an abject of deste, 50 that ts possibilty a8 painting mies with the impossibly of desir’ fuiment This tional ‘pati, this nonexistence or falsehood, recals age-old Westen ideas bout at in making his pling something its not, Ferra oul have ben uniting follwing Ceanino Candin’ Mteenth-century formal tin ofthe task ofthe painter a8 making wb what had not soonest to eis ThisIs the ci ofthe txt of Cuoco ascitthat what Fear ‘ould have ponte, had he been abe te would have been “tue and as such nanessent” ashe wrote in is nateook, would argue, then, that Cuodro esc isthe manifesto of an suavalretun fo the orgs ofthe Wester vival radon, where the conttalctons of text andimage—as wel as thelr fatal attraction, ther mutual dosie for ach other—are alvays simutaneously present, One Imight argue thatthe Wester reprertatona edi (hat the ‘sus ration foundad inthe Renaissance) began n wrt, er Beyond the suns and eminants of ancient paling, beyond the surviving frag rmante unraveled by tmebits of mura places of oor. agined.cop- jest encient masterpleces—what we are most fillet ih writen sources, including = foundational book by an uncertain euthor the Imoginesatibuted 0 Pilestatus, and written around the third een tury Ab Throughout the history of visual art in Europe, Phiostratuss book served asa guide, anda ofthe pictures he described wore reat tempted ray times, i pating hae eet out 0 reowent ts ith Yet the book of cou'se contained no real images, just verbal descriptions of then-and hermeneutic analysis has established the fetweness of these descriptions, which are all In the end verbal fantasies lis @ and the images idea! auaity of foree—betwoon the painting and the image that is paintd oto use Philostratussteims, between pnokes tnd grophe nis preface Phlostatus appli the fst term to “pat ings stint the walls—presumably muals and in any case object or things, parts ofthe physica oldty ofthe word. raphe, mean, he uses to refer to a representation, a mental intentions const ‘emancipated from the world, One agent of ths crcl often unnoticed atnction, then i the dascrption, the ekphrasis—the gente of wating tstalened in Phostatu' book ‘This distinction has many consequences, but perhaps the most ‘arreacing i the felng that every embocied image Is thing before itis a representation, and that every rprosentation exis inthe wn verse of cognitive intantone—thatis isa mental image, a weightless, ‘Seobjectfed entity. This means that every image administers Is own Conversion ito a deseeption an ekphvass. Residing in that conversion te the possibilty ef the image's ntalactualceuation an interpret tion al images have this capabiity of existing somewhere other than being something other than ating among things I order forthe mage to create through is desertion it has to stop being ‘an image-asthing and Become an image-at-ver, the mentaization ofan image nd twas the imagines that put this tsue in psy. for Piostratus to write the book, invented tho ftion of an image, or acwaly » series of images, that ned never been things His images ‘ust oly within an trough language sf they constituted a distinct ‘word of language that enguage tse hac engondered—as language ould produce intages and not the ether way around Fear made Cuno esento during one of paintings curing tw Tights. one ofthe many eneings in ts conwolte history of ifuence spproptiatons, and interpretations. The bject quality ofthe work esin the caligraphic matarlty ofits wring, the textual ay wth which esarbes the impossibly of psitng, impossibiyphrased as both personal and rascal n lace ofthe imposible aiming Ferar exhibits his Churigueresaue description, his kptrosis ofa supposed image. Let Ube clea: the announcement ofthe end of pairings an age-old corting the Reformation, and more recently inthe Corstuctist ora wit ing of KM, Taabuti, in the ironic voi of Ouchemp on viewing an plane propeller in Robert Rauschenberg 196 telegram tothe at air tis Clert (This isa poral of is Cir i | sy £0 in the etic Gregory Battocks 1969 essay “Paintng Is Obsolete," ain many more such examples! ‘Years of an unprecedented reswakering of painting, the 19608, sso insisted, ke river before, on paintings end, the as pte. Wh amiable modesty, indlferet te he antpctoral Conceptuait hast of ‘the cay, Fora simply sai that God had not touched him=tha the day twas his turn, Gods "hand wat enjoying sf making the mounds, val ley, bustecks of Alafia and was so ettallad wih Alafia that He did not want to remove Mis hand even though t was my tum; He refused to tke His hand anay and He retsed to touch ma” Ferran ays that he cannot paint because of en cotoiogial ory Wis woth empnasi ing. 25a special quality of Cuodko escrito, his radical asyneasy, Ne Inabity to serve asa universal modal Only in me, Ladin Far is sint- Ing impossible” his txt implies. Yet by creating this work renouncing Painting, Ferrari also unwittingly made not he ls pining so many times in ar histoy—but the stone, This not the cave-cnaing Figure ‘hor Maurice Marleau-Ponty imagined ging tothe farthest each of painting’ future but rather the petition, atthe end of that fue, of Phiosratus' founding gesture: witen pct, « suoposed image, Cuoco escite, however, shuld also be added tothe cats of "at palmings the interminable archive of painting’s enc. Here that final work i ence agin reduce, a in Phiostas, to the description and ges uttered by a whispering persona vole. Accorang to Cuno excro, though this obsolescence of panting, besides boing personal is ‘so metaphysical hat isthe tony of Fer tet. An art has missed his encounter with God. The end of paiotng is announced less 2s an ening than 25 @ronbesirning, a8 something that never took place in omeone. Ferris writen picture contains @ double mage: the ege Of paimingsimpossbity andthe moge ofan impossibie painting, hi ‘adical gestue transcends metaphysical impossibly by casting rep ‘esortation asthe imitation ofa vine gesture, 35 God, despte God, heaton toed! abel and the Sophistic Image Recent scholarship on Phiostatis has called the mental, conceptul image thst we have seen originate in his writing a “Sophistc image One of those scholars, Franco Graziani, reminds us thatthe shetoriciang ofthe Second Sophistc— thats Philostratus’s predecessors and contemporaie of he cond century sought "mastery through the ambigltes of language Prilstatus srilariy sees panting as mastting ambiguty—cr, 2s he $ay8 nfs prologue “Nett love panting sto scorn the truth That ‘wut, however, is something ferent from the intellect’ adequacy to realy. athe, speaks in aTow vole” Rauratvly, 283 sophie it "afogos whose function snot to catingush ut to confuse things, that seeks not to crcumserbe what it names with univocal defnons but rather to formulate the reéationships between things ad ides, which can ony be expressed trough ambguty* ‘The nal sentences of Cuodro escrito are expo about Frais ‘phism had it bon possible, nad God touched hin, he wad have created painting that set out “to attain the obvious confusion of the truth” i was in his sense that Schendal toa, suspanded the image, in favor of what romain of language when its treated Ike 2 corp ‘eal body calgrapri gesture that both connects and disconnects 4 binaing of language, 2 prelingusi, contesated configuration of weightless, arbvary slphabets and palimpeesta.of unclaimed words and letters that have fallen out of orbt®” The work of Ferrari and Schendel, and particulary of Schendel, shows an emp, mute subse tum thatthe signs that emain in i may ence again inhabit wth thor full omer: papers expanses and deserts This is how we may appreciate Schendes two greatest bodies of paper works the roguinhos and Trinh The fermer—s repertory of sings and tes, of like connecting ony to each otner—fns com plexity in tho insignificant, and ie an abysel archaeology intimately concemed with wring, its mythic origins snd essential rejections Tronanho, onthe other hand, exposes its immaculate body of paper ke stolon goods, 2 tabula rasa that once would have harbored the ‘mat of wring but now, nstes, presents is own rudy its ovn vid Inthe form of velle and shrouds32 targled ophaers regression in dreams represents a path back nt the lendecape of writ Ing. But rot 9 wing which simply wanscribes, a stony echo of muted snows, but lithography before werds: metaphenetc, noningustis, ogical One might say that Schende's Monotos represent exactiy this athography before words" Wf sa, one of thelr poetic Keys may be {ound In he incised paintings of the ery 1960s (eat 1 n which we Covimagine echoed the sere orginary motion of raving or mpressing that ne Rave discussed in elation to Farar~a motion tat the invented {chnique ofthe Monotibie transfers o the fragile surface of Yapanese paper The marks in thege worke—scrawis nes, pins. constelations. of Towels, thresholds arows, elipaes, words-are amos megiclimago, ‘Sr ocheirapoiets: an accuration that emerges rom the depths ofthe pasar end sak Gough its thiekness, ke Chriss blood or sweat on the Shroud of Tr ‘Sometime in 1965, Schondel called her young daughter, Ads and some loca chidren into her sucio and asked them, under her inatructon, to erumple and twist places of Japanese pape into ropes, sanich they then knotted an rknated to make te three- attemat to snow that the thers of tansparency I ni ron ‘and thatthe other word f this one” By now, tis ward was really ‘here Schendel was ancnored, She had gen up most of her paw ‘ously passonsteCathocem and was agrostl,ballevng oly in res ‘et aubstance—the body ofa the body ef tha wor her aun Body the ‘confused body of anguage. The “ther sie of twansoarency”ewagesta ‘2 uansparency tat above al eee, a body, another form of matali, fs something we can cicumscribe. dlink tun, caress see from al {angles—and in a horizontal herschy ofthe senses al those perspec: ties all those points of vow, are equal. There i no longer a prefered ‘tection from which to Interpret the worl and Its cscoures, The nly ‘raneparency we have to embrace is dark, opaque, nd confused tke the pool embraced by Narcissus n Leon Batista Alberts metaphor of ‘he invention of painting story tet. for Gran, constiutes a vu soptism™ ‘The Objetos arcs, those compostes of inscribed paper and lear acre, are metaphors for~or perhaps accurate images of—this dark, confused transpareney, in whieh language becomes “cosmic word dust" Hore Schendel ws pursuing "he ea of ding sway with beck nd tnt, befor ard afte, cetan ida of more or las arguable ‘Smutaney, the problem of temporality. etc, spatiotemporal, et. ‘Yet not only do these obigcts contin constelaions of eter, signs, and berated, daconstucted words they are also theoretical cbjecss ‘pening up a variety often contracctory possibiies. Thor txts ae lege but unintligitie-in otner woras, purely visu, and as such Untranslstabi. The works ate slo windows, 26 transparent and pe: {ecly squared of a8 any Aber! would have imagined a he momnant of perspectives est emergence, but thet ransparency-thelr plastic thin-Ieads to na view trough, no vision of anything beyond them vreccrnes 38 suddenly rushes formar, as Schendel says Pictures yet not planes, they hang tke objects, exposed bodies around which we can walk, ‘ving the sides, seoing and feeling ther thickness. They ao writen sculptures s¢ wel a8 pictures then and seo palimpsests, whic, how ever, quien work to expose for they sreay reveal, inane slime ‘st laborious instant, the thickness of the time the wring the aces and strokes, that constute them In November of 1975, to protect his family from the velent junta that had seed power in Agentina that pring, Ferrari had tol his nate country for Sio Paulo, where he would stay fr the next fiton yours, loining the same artic milou a8 Schendel. (In fat the two arts once exhibit together, ina late 1970s show of art made by xerox machine) In Braz curioush, Ferrari soon resumed making the kina ‘of mol sculpture he had predic in he ary 19608. Some ofthese ew wotks, based mainly on square plans and rectangular, elongated volumes, ware manumantal nscale, made sounds, end were designes to be played in performance (ig. 39: they developed trough a legle of aceunuistio,repettion, and juttapostion, manfesing den- ‘ty tough stipe of ron rather than signs o letters Despite thelr Abstraction, for Ferra these sculptures ware reprasontation, tools forconnection to the Letraset drawings (1979-80; pst 10) end particu Tar tothe Holograis (Heiographs 1982-20; plates 87-80) s lew the sculptures ste models of absurdity, Fgures for how very crazy the ‘word was andi. In this sense they may be se0n 8 three nensonal ‘auivalons of the weiten pictues that Ferret Began at n 1979, tis fine ae palmings on wood and ater onhighsmpact arc laminate— the sama support that had fet both transparency and stiness to Sehenda’s objets géfcos. in that erat works on acre te connected othe ea ofthe palmoses, tel tengled, bevlderng superimpositions of signs snd farivage also beer 2 conceptual resemblance tothe Objetoe graos {ca pate 66). we can say thatthe principles of Fee's writen dsm Inge extend to Schende!s Manos, 8 though his Cuoco escrito ‘Coad have been thei theoratical model, we may tewse say that the ‘pork he began inthe ear 980s are Obetos grees in every sense Je rough her works in turn could have boen models for them. Indeed Shot tage bodies of work materiize the dea of "babes" kind of rambled opacity, which acariidentifed in the eat 960s and which Fealy sums up his ent poetic oeuvre "Te crete something of three ‘mensions thet is enclosad within @ simple shape, tke a cyinder or prism he weote nat 1963, ax one creates 0 drawing one rectangular piece of pope. The tuges or unimportant but must be ime, straights that you om puta ots of things inside them, fom ol ots af chooks ts ong os they or jumbled, and if any ofthese things hos ‘have of ts own, shoud be made mere compote by puting Something on top, that in the end nothing excep the simple tuts srfoce sect understood. Just ke the theughts ond Sensation (opinion, pgesons, Aare, oy, ea). that go in there, nicatly united forming ths skteton this humus, thot hide boneath the shir, [The ideas to make objects hat even! ‘od then hide things about themselves, n ony material os ong te by te every day, without making models or rs jst (934 hings hea prim tht grows slowly on every sid, and rot tore anting out even if you re harifed by whot you oid 0 years o twenty yoors earl This way you have put rgethe the onsblies of on enti Ife, the goat cscoveris 0 wel asthe Inonitable cisoppoiniments, The bes ting woud be od his in ‘ol but with o window to se the foces inthe col ras the vest Do nothing mere than thot. Ard ce sated with thi ton ‘pb confusion which your ern can canyon. Or else din {big group whether locked up or outside a plo, s that is tema unfinished, he the cathedrals, ke Rome" Luke Tare de Babe (Tomer of Babel, 1964; pate T2'~and tke schende's Otets gifcos—Farrari sculptures nd towers ofthe late {7s corrapond perfectly o 8 babelst aostnatic. Even when, on fn ‘ehing Tore de Bobe, he confessed that "babaliom cannot be done Sona, because the confusion comes out order” he was thinking of Something deeper than the kea-—wrich he rere than once ted—of trngig a gioup of ats together to create a kind of monumental ‘adore exqus Gabelism requires net mere collective authorship but ‘esl confusion. To create something ununfe, wih diferent sensi test cart be done ina short tina, because senibity (the rth) te just one thing n tet period of tm), which means that you have to laa a good wile for that sensibly to change s0 that you can Con tinue wn a now one (withthe kof no longer king the Babelsm and tbondoning the etre endeavor) oF do it with a numberof people ‘The king of babelsm dascrbed hore explains afar amount of Feratls esthetic evolution. the inventions that he drops and then picks UP goin later, at other times, with other sensi, so thatthe mult: piety that constitutes us a¢ peop is manifest as visible sediments Feturning toa body of work one aeems to have ished wth but west ing tat something new-the habit alo practiced by Schendel, cats abate asa poetic von nto repetition but ofthe superipostion cr diverse mutable. diachronic, progressive sensibilities and elementsconfusion ofthe uth, the posit of ambiguity in lnguage-the art ists a6d postponement, eta, cancelation, erasure tation tine. ‘The Wounded Voice n 676, whon Aca nd Las Feta wore force to take thelr fay into ex in Braz thelr son Atel stayed behing. The folowing year, his pregnant girand retuned frm Ste Palo to ook for him, netier the young couple ner the child survived Argentina's “airy war a time ra rom the cowirs of power and withthe com ploy, and wore, of the spurious authtties an Institutions of the nation. Many years later it was revesled that Avil hed been murdered by the naval fier redo Asti, an infamous abstor and torturer in Jorge Rafael vides regime Itisimpossibioto know another persons pain. Nat even Ferrans angiest work can come close to bringing home to us euch a loss. Foran, lke Schende, refuses to flishize pain oto expat sorrow bot whare she withdrew int hersl, searching her own reserves of light he instead has examined extarnal mists, denouncing poltical violence andthe cstant authors of crime: army offers prelates, al ‘ans. Some of those closest to him beseve that Ales death pushed hi towars ravtas,wheve previously he hed baen sarcastic and ironic bout the totems of our supposed human order: God, pons heroes, hoads of state, courts, the global bureaueracy, indifferent nations and In. deeper senso, evar came to see thatthe Argentine ropes son was nota poltcl accident but a detberate project ofthe stata {2rd one in which the Cathote church was complicit Toward the end of his eile, a5 he immersed hime im readings on ond ofthe be ‘rd the Church fathers while also researching newspaper archives on ‘mass cre and genocide in diferent paces and tes, what began to take shape was an onary fathers legitimate judarent on te repr Son's perpetrators, whose reedom at that pir dapended on chara espicable amnesty ertling oppertuistc deal, weak concessions ‘5d the sublimation ofthe uth This medioereusice was meted out oy Public authorities convinced that they were saving damoccy Ferraris eles (er dsbeiefs) came to lnclude a view ofthe socred Judeo peezoren By the early 1990s his at was eutspokenly denouncing Chisianty, ts representatives and accomplices and ultimately God as the architects of cies against humanity, Seeing works of art incorporate Chistian messages, erat tore reproductions of them apart tobe rearanged in collages (ig. 24). ‘These powerful works dive toward clay rather than confsion, which israreferhimyet heal the deepest, most human voces, their voces ‘8 wounded one that exposes its powerlessness. To become complete, te touch us, muat ua the mute devices of signing and pointing. $9 angels use tumpets and spears to indeate ples of corpses (lates 124, 126, anc the cyical font pages of LOsseratre Romane, the198 wang chads vvacan newpaper, are justaposed against both dark worsly events rane poral tonures announced in the ibe (pat 128). Meanie the snovy avnties ean do nathing to slow human senuaiy 9 never areang ory, that figures from rc-tistorical Annunciation instod creeds adore the pals, symbol a production (pate 12 19 some Norns thowe images are overprinted with txt in Salle (ats 134 Th tne language ofthe blind vtng us to touch them, tO wear them wee on touching tem Inthe end this tact gazes posted as the Shy tat device fr understaning the byt of human esence purng Fras exile in S80 Palo Sched was seeking rae from aroun pain inte same cy. Same of er densest works—for Some vps the works of ers that mast cary manifest the impotence of language and veice come rom the ate 70s: cologes ung Letras sete that fuse to become stange signs (pate 140). 9 other draw Inge ot the period Schendel offers a personel version of ators res hoon, equations suggesting babslan ois, vices uoon voices fmpenevable mountains of words. The Datfoscrtos (Typed wings try involve obsessivy roped letters and sigs nthe se of a ote post particulary that of tho Bish Benedictine monk Dom Specter Houédard whom Schendel goto Krew inte late 1608. et ee unge schende's Datloserts are Hage. These are not poems car nbact craving featuring cretul geometric shapes Repeton vr non, mos forte Minimalist the quintessential ariempostona “Jevice nore though repetitive operations become though dicate forms of eomposton, se tioscrtos ate also tactle works Kind of Bind wing “schenvel made them when she had inorriamshe would ca fends wine mide ofthe night, waking both them and her neighbors (a Fa wrere Ferraris Galle works evoke the eloquence ofthe lind & Tanguage that we physically caress ike a body Schendets Dtlosctoe nlggest the apettive mechanics ise of «pewter peeuEsNe wartate, yet tactile ond incisive atthe same time. The bodies of‘vsten image entirely tough language, though a language as mute {8 an image. And he made ths ereation invoke a sensual gesture of Physical touch, denouncing languages limitations, The Detosrtos, imeges made up of language, are simlsly tactile in that ther surfaces ‘210 marked by the physical impression ofthe typewriter keys sik ing the paper, iveting the aised dots of Balle. bath cases signs ‘become things, and things—shepes,Rgures,supports—become signs In bth cases the word fle silert, and males vs fal silent 3s well In the face ofthe world’s horrors and tragedies, and of certain kinds of anguish or soitud, pointing may e the ony remaining option ‘A wounded voice noeds a body-by deiton mile—to achieve its object. A wounded voice is 2 whisper tht i¢ aware of Rs power lessness. In 1868, whon Schendel showed in the Bena de S8o Paul many artats had condemned it for accepting sponeership rom Bre authortarian rogime, Whatever her reasans—perhaps she felt she Ned ready sen the worst—we may imagine that she took the long view {and decided thatthe possiblity of a voce, the possity of saying something, was more important than choosing silence 48 9 potest, The piece she showed atthe Bienal, a crucial work happened to be bout the voice—the wounded voice, the whispering voce, of God. In Ondos porades de prabebikdade—Amvigo Testament, Le dos ois 18, a mass of nylon threads hung fom the celing of tho gallery. ‘shaping a geometric structure that was bath opaque and transparent Ihe a ain shower. Light ftered through the nylon al the way tothe ‘oor where the threads, longer than the height of the cain, doubled ‘over ike waves onthe snd, The place should of course be seen inthe Context of the constellation of "penetrablet™ mad in Latin America ‘between 1963 and 1869: Helo Otie's Milos (Nucl, 1960-68). ran Wcleo (Greet nucous, 163), Troplcdo (867), snd Edén Eden, 1969), Ctrl Cuz0iex's Cémaras de cromosaturacis,istalaions of cok ‘ted ght begun in 965; Jess Soto's Penetraiee of 1967 formal sim arto Ondesporodas do probablidodeygia Clarkes Acasa 60 corpo (he house i the body, 1968): Gago Retulren(Reticuares, 1969) {© sey nothing of works by Cid Meirles, Antonio Dis, and Eugenio Espinoza, To consider Ondias paradas de probabilidade only from the: peezoramas 99 structure, however, would be to simply the work, which i above al a patel and thelogieal manifeso.on Gods silence, the inaulity of hi word Ondes paradas de probatiidode was accompanied by a bibl- cal tet, tken from | kings chapter ‘And «reat and tong wind en the mountains, ond brake in ces the rocks bore the Lord but the Lard wos no inthe ‘toa ad fer the wind an eorthquake; But the Lord was nin the eorhquoke ‘nd after the earthquake ore; but the Lord wes notin the ‘re: an oftor the fre stil smo woes. And t ws 50, when Eljoh hear, thot he wrapped his face nhs man, ond went out ad stoodin the entering in of the cov, And, belt thre came oveice unto hin, and si What does thou are, Eat? Perhaps Schendel-though certainly not Fecrati-would agree ith Simone weils rack tht “totalabedienceto time obliges God to bestow eternity In any event, in the landscape of moder at nthe americas, nds pores de probnbiidade is an exception the workat 18 Visual artist steeped in writing, an artist who agonizes ove sxptre, ‘debating within witht against. An impossible ansparency. mani festy opaque and stained—Impurei the ony form Schendel seems te have found for depicting or suggesting the urgency ofthe issues cari here. Formals havo had wouble with Schendels celebrated dtawing series Homenagem Deus~pal do acento (Homage to Godfather of the West, 1975 plate 122. In ths, one ofthe mast gestural ofa ‘Schendel's works, thick brushstrokes revealing the physical quality of Pleturemaking share space with ypowrten Old Testament quoter tion, barely vse fom a citance Interpretations ofthe work a8 manifesto against phalocentic Western monaheism may be exces: sive in thei sscrpton of a feminist message. Rather, Homenagem & ‘Deus evokes a moment of osuein Schendel lous at aftr 175, “cho would teturn tr maine ana nectee ene St alter TOTS, LLLit ls with the vole that Schendscareor ends inthe surprising Sorofo (pints) aves ofthe Ite 19805 (Fg, 37. These white mono- chromes include attached blac bare, He useless, incomplete fsmes, mute gestures tat might redeem the silene of panting an empty, indiferen white palning ts metaphorically mute, the surfaces of the Sorraios are the height of silence. Gut they aso include 2 “nose 3 projecting Back structure tke Adan ext lb, bul not into the side of ‘he painting but into the Haldia a8 though paintings, even the moat slentones were destined to generate another body: The othe is bom ‘rom my side, by a sort of propagation by cutings or subdivision” writes Merieau-onty, a theft other, eay8 Genes, was made fom ‘pet of Adam's body" These elements iaterupting the monochrome plane ar ke great shadows, or ims that pont to something. n this tense they may be 0 the silence of panting what the lndesea isto Tanguage: mute mechaniams for showing that indicate Just what they ide ke the pronouns ef exnary speech ‘These simultaneous funetions of indication and occultation are fundamental for both Ferran and Sehendal, who prtie @ Kind of embodied, personalized languages “anguage body” st once the Tanguage ofthe bay and the body of language Fear and Schende right have been working aginst Meleau-Pontys remark, “The won erful thing about language Ie that prometes is own oblivion In tether words the signs inthis work do nat land ust forget het phys {al presence. On the catrary they confront vs wth their opaety Sra density forcing us to remember them. Like Avtau, in eri’ rad ing of him, Schende! and Farrar goon to struggle to restore letter to speech speech to brash, breath to body, body te geste, geste to fee Alot thir worke—even those in which language leaves room for vise drawing or piming—feature a breach, tke a voce. impossible to regulate, which esturba the statements stability wit the peculi- ity of an incarnaing gesture. Ifthe language operations of eaneneal ‘Conceptual art are ypcaly neutral, Forari and Schendel reves! the clsruptiveness and density rather than the clarity and transparency of Ienguage the pont where language sppears as enunciation, becom operation of language and mre wih the act of language, wth ts ra cal affect on these who use ‘One could argue thatthe ene expressive tron since the Aenalssance may respond to this theoretical metaohor ofthe work tf art as enunciation, Robet Klee, speaking of Glerdano Bruno's De vinculs in gener, explains this eloquent: Humanism had posed the problem ofthe relation between eo nd form which expresses tin ator, loge poet aa he ‘suo ots endeavored ojo the "what to the howto fh for forme! beauty a justifcation move prefund thn the need for decoration. Buta for a ie went I naver denied thot inl tese Fels "what is expressed” must be present prior tots expression Thotis why soeoking simpistcay, humanism come toon end in the sconces ust asthe mathe of iwestigation become fut byitsel, and in ort juss the execution the manie's—became ‘on eutonomous value, When ortstc consciousness reached such ‘stage. oround 100, fund no art they tht could account forit Tere wos any the ancient natural magk—that fo sy, ‘0 general oestheic unoware of self which ruro host eel ‘ped inthe mognificentese0yhe entitled Oe vnculs In genere™ Cf couse all works of at within thie historia and theoretic ‘ramework-even the mast impersonal and neutl Conceptual puns— ae equivalent to acts of enunciation, insofar a6 they demonstrate ' personal use of language, The aiference inthe art of Ferrari and Schendel-and surly of oer artits whom one might lok st fom ‘bis perspectives that here the material made visible Is precisely ‘and primordial Inguite, and ie manifest in the disruption that ell tnunciations, 28 personal and unrepestable acts, effect on the Body of ascoutoe Poradovicaly, the height of this lsupton Is muteness, ‘he form of slonce that bacomes visible when signs ae Magile, when ‘the hand that draws them trembles. isin muteness, though, that ‘ne sense we might fin language's origin, a in those lines oF Broken he lane nf nenat but rained buildings. And after all