Following her early investigations into the rupture of the pictorial support in her late 1960s canvases, Helena Almeida deepened her exploration of the material conditions of the medium, producing a series of drawings made with horsehair thread on paper. Three works from this series open the exhibition. In these pieces, the line is not a stroke that describes, but rather an action that defines a place. It is an extension of the body—a way of inhabiting space. The line thus becomes a link between interior and exterior, between the pictorial plane and reality. Through this minimal and precise gesture, Almeida activates the space: the drawing opens up, the surface transforms into a stage, and the image ceases to be a representation and becomes a presence.
Prats Nogueras Blanchard
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