about Abraham Palatnik

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2 sobre Abraham Palatnik Abraham Palatnik é um pioneiro da arte cinética, juntamente com Julio Le Parc, Carlos Cruz-Diez e Jesús Rafael Soto. Suas investigações nos campos da tecnologia, mobilidade e luz levaram a entendimentos inovadores dos fenômenos visuais, marcando a passagem entre arte moderna e contemporânea no Brasil. A inventividade dos seus trabalhos não apresenta paralelos nas suas experimentações com movimentos superficiais, aparatos cinéticos e relevos, ou no seu design de móveis. Sua primeira máquina cinecromática, Azul e roxo em primeiro movimento, causou um impacto profundo na discussão sobre suportes entre o júri de seleção da 1ª Bienal de São Paulo, em Ao invés de pintura ou escultura, Palatnik apresentou uma pintura cinética ou máquinas de pintar, como costumava chamá-las, nas quais tecidos sintéticos, motores, luzes e a integração do espectador com o ambiente eram usados como elementos estruturais. Levando Mario Pedrosa a cunhar um novo termo em arte: cinecromático, essa foi a primeira tentativa, no Brasil, de criar uma arte utópica do futuro. Influenciado pela força da linguagem usada em trabalhos produzidos por pacientes hospitalares, o artista começou a investigar as possibilidades artísticas de uma nova técnica baseada no uso da luz e do movimento em um tempo-espaço pictórico com a ajuda das mais recentes tecnologias. Ao longo dos anos, Palatnik criou mais de 33 aparelhos cinecromáticos expostos em sete edições da Bienal de São Paulo, de 1951 a 1963, bem como na Bienal de Veneza (1964) e na Bienal de Córdoba (1966). Com seus aparelhos cinecromáticos, o artista previu a corrente construtivista que emergiria com a criação do Grupo Ruptura (São Paulo, 1952) e do Grupo Frente (Rio de Janeiro, 1954) e que se estabeleceria com o Concretismo (1956) e o Neoconcretismo (1969). Palatnik nasceu em 1928, em Natal. Vive e trabalha no Rio de Janeiro. Participou de oito edições da Bienal de São Paulo, Brasil (entre 1951 e 1969), além da 32ª Bienal de Veneza, Itália (1964), ao lado de Mavignier, Volpi e Weissmann, entre outros. Entre suas exposições coletivas mais importantes estão 30 x Bienal (Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil, 2013); Arte construtiva no Brasil Coleção Adolpho Leirner (Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil, 1998; Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 1998), a 1ª Bienal do Mercosul (Porto Alegre, Brasil 1997). Suas individuais recentes incluem: Abraham Palatnik: A reinvenção da pintura, (Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasília, Brasil 2013); Abraham Palatnik (Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo, Brasil, 2012); Palatnik, une discipline du chaos (Galerie Denise René, Paris, França, 2012); Ocupação Abraham Palatnik (Instituto Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brasil, 2009) e Ordenando as nuvens (Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo, Brasil, 2004). Suas obras integram acervos de instituições como: Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói, Niterói, Brasil; Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil; Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Paraná, Curitiba, Brasil; MoMA, Nova York, EUA; Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Bruxelas, Bélgica; entre outras. about Abraham Palatnik Abraham Palatnik is a pioneer of kinetic art, alongside Julio Le Parc, Carlos Cruz Diez, and Jesus Soto. His investigations into technology, mobility, and light led to a groundbreaking understanding of visual phenomena, marking a passage between modern and contemporary art in Brazil. The inventiveness of his works remains unparalleled be it through experimentations on surface movement, kinetic apparatuses, reliefs and even furniture design. His first kinechromatic machine, Azul e roxo em primeiro movimento, had a profound impact on the discussion of art materials by the selection jury of the 1st Bienal de São Paulo, in Instead of painting or sculpture, he presented a kinetic painting or painting machines, as he liked to call them in which synthetic fabrics, motors, lights, and the spectator s integration with the environment were used as structural elements. Causing Mario Pedrosa to coin a new term in art: kinechromatic, it was the first attempt, in Brazil, to create a utopian art of the future. Impacted by the potency of the language used in works produced by inpatients, from then on, the artist set out to investigate the artistic possibilities of a new technique, based on the use of light and movement in the pictorial time-space with the aid of the latest technologies. Over the years, Palatnik has created more than 33 kinechromatic devices exhibited in seven editions of the São Paulo Biennial from 1951 to 1963, as well as in the Venice (1964) and Cordoba (1966). With his kinechromatic devices, the artist anticipated the constructive current which emerged with the creation of Grupo Ruptura (São Paulo, 1952) and Grupo Frente (Rio de Janeiro, 1954) and established itself with Concretism (1956) and Neo-Concretism (1969). Palatnik was born in 1928 in Natal. He lives and works in Rio de Janeiro. He featured in eight editions of the Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (between 1951 and 1969), and in the 32nd Venice Biennale (1964), alongside Mavignier, Volpi, and Weissmann, among others. His main group shows include 30 x Bienal (Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, 2013); Arte construtiva no Brasil Coleção Adolpho Leirner (Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, 1998; Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1998), and the 1st Mercosul Biennial (Porto Alegre, Brazil, 1997). Recent solo shows include: Abraham Palatnik: A reinvenção da pintura (Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasília, Brazil, 2013); Abraham Palatnik (Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo, Brazil, 2012); Palatnik, une discipline du chaos (Galerie Denise René, Paris, France, 2012); Ocupação Abraham Palatnik (Instituto Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil, 2009) and Ordenando as nuvens (Galeria Nara Roesler São Paulo, Brasil, 2004). His works are included in the collections of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói; Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro; Museu de Arte Contemporânea da USP; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Curitiba, all in Brazil; MoMA, New York, United States; Museo de Arte Latinoamericano in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Royal Museum of Fine Arts, in Brussels, Belgium, among others.

3 Sequência de Imagens do Aparelho Cinecromático SF madeira, metal, tecido sintético, lâmpadas e motor/wood, metal, synthetic fabric, light bulbs and motor 61 x 98 x 17 cm

4 Aparelho Cinecromático 1964 madeira, metal, tecido sintético, lâmpada e motor/ wood, metal, synthetic fabric, light bulbs and motor 80 x 60 x 20 cm Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, Adolpho Leirner Collection

5 Aparelho Cinecromático S madeira, metal, tecido sintético, lâmpada e motor/ wood, metal, synthetic fabric, light bulbs and motor 80 x 60 x 20 cm MoMA Collection, New York

6 The Chromatic Plastic Dynamism of Abraham Palatnik: An Introduction to the First International Biennial of São Paulo Mario Pedrosa Tribuna da Imprensa, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Today is the opening of the first Biennial of Sao Paulo. There are several foreign delegations and some are brilliant. The Brazilian delegation is also represented by our best artists. Thus, all modes of modern art will be represented. As part of the Brazilian delegation, but without any frame of reference for classification due to its status beyond routine regulations, we will see what will be undoubtedly one of the most interesting contributions to the exhibition: the chromatic plastic dynamism of Abraham Palatnik. Palatnik will represent in this international show the cutting edge of the modern movement. He belongs to the avant-garde of pioneer artists that employ direct light as a medium of artistic expression. Palatnik abandoned the brush and the figure and, after a short abstractionist stage, decided to paint with light---daring to try to realize one of the oldest artistic utopias, as wrote Moholy-Nagy. Modern technological media are, for this purpose, found in more abundance today than in the past. The multiple luminous signs, the searchlights, spinning electric bulbs, the flashing electric boards, neon gas---all these already occupy the nocturnal spaces and transform the modern night into permanent artificial fireworks. Out here we have the luminous image that projects itself, that moves, that deflects and comes forward toward us---in its desperate desire to give us duration and simultaneity, space and time, indissolubly and concretely united. Modern physics is opening an even larger venue in this sense. Until now all these experiences of industrial or commercial nature are nothing but a brutal aggression to our spirit and senses. They are not a plastic organization capable of synthesis, of self-control, of internal structure, of superior signification---in short, of formal rigor. For the artist the old pictorial metier (the brush and chemically produced pigments) does not suffice. In order to be able to control, to direct, to shape light, the artist needs new instruments and familiarization with the advances of modern optics, from the issues of colorimetry to the virtualities of artificial light. Palatnik is lined up with the researchers of the plasticity of light, i.e. of the effects of space-time upon our sensibility. Some of these researchers, such as Wallace Rimington and Scriabin

7 (the composer), have created and designed light organs, while others worked with clavilux-like systems, as did Thomas Wilfred, Raoul Hausmann, Wetzel and Laslo, among others. The instrument of the young Brazilian pioneer projects---on a screen or any other semi-transparent material---compositions of colored shapes in motion. His point of departure was the kaleidoscope, but he found too crude the primitive system of having to look at the images with one eye while rotating a glass plate. The artist then wanted to expand vision, freeing the image from the little box in which it was confined so as to project it against the wall by means of a system of lenses. It was a revelation. These revelations, these visions of fantastic structures, could not have gone beyond child s play if the discovery had not led him to look for a way of controlling such structures, making them return to some initial forms and therefore creating a rhythm. It is true that the kaleidoscope was already arbitrary. In it the structures are generated at random by the manipulation of the viewer. The artist could not accept this arbitrariness, which excluded him from the work. He then wanted to intervene in the metamorphoses of the kaleidoscope to give plastic direction to these forms. The forms must multiply themselves, but according to a preliminary superior order determined by the artist. The projected luminous colors are not obtained with brushes and pigments. The kaleidoscopic motion also motivated the artist-inventor to set colors in motion, so that they could combine and develop from one to the other continuously. Palatnik s first apparatus consisted of a study of the projection capabilities of the lenses. At first, the possibilities were few: motion was determined by the heat irradiated from the bulb that activated the cylinders with the color shapes. In the first apparatus there was only one bulb and one cylinder. But with it the artist achieved his first goal: the possibility of controlling the projection, its orbits and angles, and with them to capture the ultramodern magic effects of colors and forms in motion. At last, color is freed from the constraints of its existence, from the object, from local, chemical materialism. Color becomes pure, direct, deriving from artificial luminous sources. A pigment color fixed on the canvas is an accident that can always be removed. But the color that originates from light source is at once concrete and imponderable. In fact, one or more chromatic light sources can be projected simultaneously in several places. Palatnik s new apparatus is a box with four walls; in each wall there is an opening. Each bulb can project and focus light in several places at the same time. The new apparatus does not produce only one movement---horizontal---as the first did; it also produces a second movement, which contrasts with the other in the vertical direction. This last movement acts as a kind of counterpoint. With this new apparatus the artist opens limitless possibilities to kinetic colors. In order to create yellow, for example, one does not need cadmium anymore, because projected light can generate the kinetic mixture of green and crimson and offer us a certain perception of yellow. Light becomes a means for plastic expression due to its own properties, such as fluidity, irradiation, dynamism, discontinuity, infiltration, enveloping expansionism, cooling off, etc. In addition, light creates negative forms and spectral volumes. Moholy-Nagy used to divide all these manifestations of light creation into two fundamental groups: outdoor luminous displays, which are abstract and take place in open space, and indoor displays, realized in enclosures. Palatnik s work can be categorized as what Moholy termed light frescoes, destined to animate walls or whole buildings with the plastic dynamism of artificial light, according to the inspiration and creativity of the artist. Moholy predicted that in the house of the future a special place would be reserved for the installation of these luminous frescoes, as is the case today with radio and the TV set. With Abraham Palatnik, Brazil starts its research in a domain practically unexplored, which might become, next to the movies, the fine art of new times---the true art of the future. It is an excellent introduction to the Biennial.

8 Aparelho Cinecromático 1958 madeira, metal, tecido sintético, lâmpadas e motor/ wood, metal, synthetic fabric, light bulbs and motor 111 x 68 x 20 cm

9 Aparelho Cinecromático 2SE /2004 madeira, metal, tecido sintético, lâmpadas e motor/ wood, metal, synthetic fabric, light bulbs and motor 80 x 60 x 19 cm Coleção particular / Private Collection

10 Aparelho Cinecromático 1969 / 1986 madeira, metal, tecido sintético, lâmpada e motor/ wood, metal, synthetic fabric, light bulbs and motor 112,5 x 70,5 x 20,5 cm

11 Ordenando as nuvens Luisa Duarte Ordering the clouds Luisa Duarte Hoje, no campo da arte contemporânea, há um debate candente acerca da capacidade de se preservar o lugar do experimentalismo, da aposta diante de um mundo, em geral, e um sistema da arte, em particular, cujas regras são cada vez mais ditadas pelo mercado e seu irrefreável pendor para o espetáculo e o jogo de cartas marcadas. Também estão na pauta reflexões sobre as inúmeras proposições que visam estabelecer vínculos entre arte e vida. Sendo que neste ponto, invariavelmente, escutam-se vozes que ressalvam a necessidade de não se deixar de lado a potência poética da obra de arte em propostas dessa natureza. Posto isso, detenho meu olhar sobre a produção de Abraham Palatnik e não tenho como deixar de ver uma conexão entre todos estes assuntos da ordem do dia e o percurso traçado pelo artista ao longo dos últimos sessenta anos. In today s field of contemporary art, a heated debate takes place that concerns the ability to preserve the place of experimentalism -- that is to say, a wager in face of the world in general --, and, in particular, an art system the rules of which are increasingly dictated by the market and its unrefrainable penchant for the spectacular and for stacking the decks in someone s favor. The debate agenda also includes reflections on numerous propositions aimed at establishing links between art and life, although at this point voices are invariably heard that remark on the need not to leave out the poetic potential of the work of art as regards this kind of proposal. Having said this, my gaze falls on the production of Abraham Palatnik, and I cannot avoid spotting a connection between all these topics for discussion and the track record that the artist has built for himself over the past 60 years. Palatnik desfruta hoje de um lugar próprio na história da arte brasileira e internacional. Adjetivos como pioneiro da arte cinética e transgressor são devidamente colados à sua obra, que surge de forma dissonante na I Bienal de São Paulo, em Ao invés de uma pintura ou escultura, Palatnik exibia então seu primeiro Aparelho Cinecromático uma máquina pictórica no qual tecidos sintéticos, motores, luzes, e a integração do espectador no ambiente são os elementos que estruturam o trabalho. Devido a este caráter dissonante, o trabalho quase foi recusado na exposição, bem como, mesmo depois de aceito, os organizadores tinham dificuldade em catalogá-lo, o deixando fora da disputa por premiação. At present Palatnik enjoys his own place in the history of Brazilian and world art. Qualifiers such as pioneer of kinetic art and transgressor have been duly pegged to his oeuvre, which first emerged as a dissonant exhibit at the 1st São Paulo Biennial, in At the show, instead of painting or sculpture, Palatnik showed his first Aparelhos Cinecromáticos (Kinechromatic Devices) or painting machines, as he liked to call them in which synthetic fabrics, motors, lights, and the spectator s integration with the environment were used as structural elements. On account of their dissonant nature, at first the works were nearly refused at the exhibition; later, following their acceptance, show organizers were unable to fit them in a category, and for this reason left the devices out of the contest. O aparecimento do transgressor Aparelho Cinecromático se deu após uma crise do então pintor figurativo. Durante a segunda guerra mundial, em uma estadia na antiga Palestina, atual Israel, Palatnik fez seu primeiro curso profissionalizante, aos 14 anos de idade. Na época, os blindados britânicos precisavam de mão de obra e lá estava o jovem brasileiro aprendendo os meandros dos motores de explosão, bem como a consertar jipes e tanques. Ao mesmo tempo em que convivia com a mecânica do arsenal bélico, também realizava um curso de pintura figurativa. De volta ao Brasil, no final de The transgressive Aparelho Cinecromático was conceived after a personal crisis of the then figurative painter. During World War II, when Palatnik was 14 years old and lived in a part of former Palestine that is now Israeli territory, he took a first course on industrial arts. In those days the British armored divisions were in need for hand labor and there he was, the young Brazilian, learning all about the meanders of internal-combustion engines so he could fix jeeps and tanks. Then, at the same time that he worked in close contact with the mechanics of wartime weaponry, Palatnik attended a course on figurative paint-

12 1947, Palatnik conhece o artista Almir Mavignier, que o leva até o Centro Psiquiátrico Nacional Pedro II, no bairro de Engenho de Dentro, Rio de Janeiro, onde funcionava o ateliê coordenado pela Dra. Nise da Silveira ( ), destinado a tratar pacientes psiquiátricos com técnicas ocupacionais como a pintura e o desenho. Instaurava-se ali, de forma pioneira, novos métodos de tratamento psiquiátrico no país. Palatnik relata um diálogo com um paciente do ateliê. Uma vez o Isaac me disse: Estou procurando o rei da China. Onde?, perguntei. Nas nuvens, ele respondeu. Esta pequena narrativa vale a pena ser recontada por seu aspecto agudamente revelador do que viria a ser a dupla vocação de Palatnik. A de inventor, homem que sabe e gosta de lidar com a tecnologia, e a de artista. Misto dos dois, Palatnik possui muito do ideário construtivo na vontade de integrar arte e vida. Existe em sua produção uma convicção de que a arte, ou ao menos a percepção artística, pode estar em todos os lugares e para todos os públicos, disseminada pelo cotidiano. Do adolescente que trabalhava nos blindados da segunda guerra mundial, ao jovem que se impressiona com a produção feita no ateliê do Engenho de Dentro, há uma ponte que conecta realidade e delírio no melhor sentido do termo, no que se refere à expansão da consciência com vistas ao novo. O uso da palavra nuvens pelo paciente Issac pode ajudar a entender o arco estendido pela obra de Palatnik. As nuvens direcionam nosso olhar para o céu, para o alto, para além da realidade dada, para além do já classificado nos livros. Este apontamento é co-irmão de uma característica intrínseca à arte, qual seja, a de criar mundos até então inexistentes. Palatnik vem buscando conjugar esta linha tênue e delicada entre o mundo que nos cerca e a capacidade de gerar surpresa que o ato de criar leva consigo. Em uma de suas entrevistas encontramos a seguinte afirmação: Para inventar alguma coisa é preciso ter um comportamento anti-convencional. Eu acho que as indústrias deveriam contratar artistas porque eles possuem um potencial perceptivo que pode resolver inúmeros problemas. Tal afirmaing. Upon returning to Brazil in late 1947, he met Almir Mavignier, an artist who took him on a visit to the art studio at Centro Psiquiátrico Nacional Pedro II, in Rio de Janeiro. In this studio directed by Dr. Nise da Silveira ( ), psychiatric interns took up painting and drawing as occupational therapy activities. With her pioneering initiative, Dr. Silveira introduced new approaches to psychiatric treatment in Brazil. Palatnik recollects part of his conversation with Isaac, an intern working at the studio. I m looking for the king of China, Isaac told him. Where are you looking? Palatnik asked. Up on the clouds, the intern replied. Ao relato da breve conversa segue-se a constatação surpresa diante da discrepância entre a palavra esquizofrenizada e a coerência fantástica do que eles, os loucos, faziam no ateliê. Este encontro com a produção dos pacientes de Engenho de Dentro foi seminal para o destino da carreira do artista. Ali Palatnik se viu em dúvida sobre tudo o que fazia até então, achando que nunca conseguira alcançar a exuberância expressiva dos pacientes da Dra. Nise. O resultado foi uma mudança profunda de rota, com o apoio fundamental do crítico Mário Pedrosa, que se desdobra nos inclassificáveis para os padrões daquele tempo - Aparelhos Cinecromáticos. This brief and surprising dialogue brought up the artist s awareness of the discrepancy between the schizophrenized word and the fantastic coherence of the work that lunatics executed at the studio. This encounter with the interns was seminally influential for Palatnik s career. At the mental institution, as the artist called into question his entire production up to that time, he reckoned he would never reach the same high level of expressive exuberance of Dr. Silveira s patients. Ultimately and with the fundamental support of critic Mário Pedrosa, Palatnik took a dramatic change in course that led to the unclassifiable (by the then effective standards) Aparelhos Cinecromáticos. This short narrative is worth retelling because it keenly reveals Palatnik s two-fold vocation as an inventor, i.e., a man who knows how to, and enjoys, dealing with technology, and as an artist. The combined result of the two vocations is what ultimately inspired Palatnik to nurture constructive ideas and the will for joining together art and life. His production is informed by the belief that art, or artistic awareness, at least, may be found everywhere, readily available for all types of audience, and disseminated via everyday things. Between the teenager working on World War II armored vehicles and the young adult deeply impressed by the artistic production at the mental institution, there is a bridge connecting reality and delirium where the latter is presented with its best denotation, in reference to the expansion of awareness with a view to novel and unusual. The intern s choice of the word clouds may help us envisage the great arch that spans Palatnik s oeuvre. Clouds direct a person s gaze upward, to the sky, beyond the given reality and beyond things that have been classified in books. This notation is kindred to a characteristic intrinsic to art: the capacity to create previously inexistent worlds. Palatnik has been seeking to conjugate this delicate and soft line between the world that surrounds us and the capacity for amazement that is inherent in the creative act. In one of his interviews, he said: To invent something, one must have a non-conventional behavior. I guess manufacturing companies should hire artists for their perceptive potential that could resolve countless problems. This statement synthesizes the experimental

13 ção condensa a vocação experimental de sua obra e a intenção de integrá-la ao mundo num sentido dilatado. Temos aqui uma imaginação criadora a serviço do agora. vocation of Palatnik s oeuvre and his intention to incorporate it into the world in a broader sense. Here what we have is a creative mind at the service of the now. Esta atenção ao cotidiano se desdobra em poética também nos trabalhos reunidos na Galeria Nara Roesler. As pinturas, os relevos com cartões e as progressões em madeira, todas obras recentes, surgem como conseqüência da produção anterior do artista, sejam os Objetos Cinéticos, sejam os Cinecromaticos. Os trabalhos que vemos hoje têm algo da natureza da música, possuem ritmo e duração, e assim como o som, parecem querer burlar o espaço físico dado, esgarçando opticamente os limites do quadro. This attention to everyday life also unfolds into a poetics found in the works on display at Galeria Nara Roesler. The paintings, the cards with reliefs, and the progressions in wood are all recent works that come up as a consequence of the artist s earlier production, whether they be his Objetos Cinéticos, or his Cinecromaticos. The works that we see today somehow relate to the nature of music, they have rhythm and timing, and like sound they seem willing to elude the given physical space, optically causing the edges of the picture to look threadbare. Aqui estão presentes, no plano bidimensional, o movimento, a duração, as cores, a tentativa de dar ordem ao acaso. Um exemplo disso são as progressões em madeira. As primeiras obras desta série foram feitas ainda na década de 1960, surgindo do olhar atento de Palatnik para fragmentos de troncos deixados numa marcenaria. Ele nota então os padrões que a madeira possui naturalmente e se põe a ordenar os mesmos, num movimento de dar disciplina ao que é aleatório. Tudo começa com uma visada cuidadosa para o que já existe, uma abertura para o acaso, mas que só se desdobra em obra por o artista saber que é preciso estar atento ao acaso, ao inesperado, pois ali moram possibilidades poéticas insuspeitas. In the two-dimensional plane, Palatnik s oeuvre contains movement, duration, colors, and an attempt to systematically arrange chance. An example of this disposition is in the artist s progressions in wood. The early works of this series, created in the 1960s, resulted from Palatnik s attentive gaze on fragments of a tree trunk that were left at a cabinetry workshop. Noticing the natural patterns of the wood veins, he proceeded to order the fragments with the intention of imposing discipline on random things. Everything starts with a careful broad view over existing things, a breach for chance that only yields a work because the artist knows that he/she must be alert to chance, to the unexpected, because that is where unsuspected poetic possibilities reside. Dito tudo isso, continuo a enxergar uma singular conexão entre aspectos essenciais da obra de Palatnik e muitas das questões que permeiam o debate no campo da arte contemporânea nos dias que correm. Sua obra nos mostra a força do caráter experimental da arte, a possibilidade do uso da tecnologia sem perder de vista a vitalidade poética, e ainda a incorporação do mundo mais prosaico e seus acontecimentos, prontos para serem ativados pela percepção do artista e reordenados, apostando na potência poética do que é, num primeiro momento, casual. Mas sem esquecer que é ela, a aposta no acaso, que está na origem deste existir com vitalidade, ânimo, movimento, fantasia, e beleza por fim. Isso pode valer para uma vida, isso certamente vale para descrever como surgem, diante dos nossos olhos, os trabalhos de Abraham Palatnik. Having said all this, I still perceive a singular connection between essential aspects of Palatnik s work and the many issues that nowadays permeate the debate in the field of contemporary art. His oeuvre reveals the might of the experimental character of art, the possibility of using technology without losing sight of poetic vitality, and also the incorporation of the more prosaic world and its events, all of them ready to be activated by the artist s perception and reordered, waging on the poetic potential of things that, at first, are casual. However, one should bear in mind that the wager on chance is what informs this existence with vitality, spirit, movement, fantasy and beauty at last. This may apply to life, and this certainly applies to the description of how Abraham Palatnik s works appear right before our eyes.

14 Objeto cinético K / 2002 madeira, fórmica, ímãs, metal, motor e tinta industrial / wood, formica, magnets, metal, motor and industrial paint 72 x 96 x 16 cm

15 Objeto Cinético CK / 2005 madeira pintada, latão, motor e tinta industrial / painted wood, brass, motor and industrial paint 120 x 40 x 40 cm

16 Objeto cinético P / 2000 madeira, fórmica, ímãs, metal, motor e tinta industrial / wood, formica, magnets, metal, motor and industrial paint 100 x 54 x 23 cm

17 Objeto cinético KK /2003 aço, madeira pintada, latão e motores/ steel, painted wood, brass and motor 83 x 36 x 36 cm

18 Objeto Cinético - Aranha Azul 1966 / 2004 madeira, fórmica, ímãs, metal, motor e tinta industrial/ wood, formica, magnets, metal, motor and industrial paint 86 x 86 x 20 cm

19 Objeto Cinético 1986 Tinta industrial, madeira, fórmica, metal e motor/industrial paint, wood, formica, metal and motor 90 x 90,5 x 23 cm Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo Collection

20 Objeto cinético 1965 / 1986 madeira, fórmica, ímãs, metal, motor e tinta industrial / wood, formica, magnets, metal, motor and industrial paint 130,5 x 36,2 x 36,2 cm Coleção particular / Private Collection