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The recent work of São Paulo native Gustavo von Ha reveals his newest facet in approaching the problem of authorship and authenticity in art, while at the same time playing with his greatest paradigm: painting. With Inventory: other art, the artist presents a set of works, taking as a model the modernist painting of the 1950s and 1960s, which were characterized by gesture, that is, by the artist's expressive marks on the surface of the canvas.
Ana Magalhães
curator MAC USP
This work of imitation over almost a decade also made the artist realize that when he imitates the gestures of other artists, a by-product or another product, a performance, emerges.that is, a question-activating device,“without it necessarily being a parody. In fact, it is on the threshold of what the artist himself did”, he states. “The intention is not to approach forgery, although I have had contact with some to study the process of other artists.”, he adds.
In the series of fake trailers released by his production company HEIST FILMS ENTERTAINMENT, created in 2011, the very strategy of circulation of the projects – which overflow the conventional art space, being shown in cinemas and on the internet – means that a continuous crossing of border of extremities that ranges from credible to absolutely false.
Luise Malmaceda
Harper's Bazaar Art, 2015
Art can be seen as an equation with several different components, one of which is allegory. Artists can downgrade some elements of this equation and highlight others. Works of art almost always have all the elements, what changes from work to work is which element is prioritized. (...)
Sergio Romagnolo
plastic artist
Even though controversial, Von Ha's “original copies” were endorsed by the families of the two artists, responsible for their estates, but all sales must be reported. Paradoxically, all drawings copied by the artist must be cataloged with the Lenilson Project or Tarsila do Amaral's family.
by Paula Alzugaray
ISTOÉ | VISUAL ARTS | Edition No.: 2221 | 01.Jun.12
The Heist Films Entertainment Project consists of the invention of a fictitious company to create trailers for films that do not exist, with the aim of discussing limits between reality and fiction, image production mechanisms, cultural industry, instant celebrity and intellectual property.
One of the most inventive Brazilian artists, Gustavo von Ha, 34, from São Paulo, has never shied away from appropriating and reinterpreting other people's works to give life to his authorial streak. Among his most praised works is, for example, the distorted prints of canvases by Tarsila do Amaral and Leonilson, which could be appreciated in their original form only when viewed through spheres glued to the images.
Rodrigo Levino
Veja Magazine 02/12/2011
Reflections and mirrorings are recurring subjects in my production, in this way I deepened my investigation through some instruments that were widely used by artists from the Renaissance onwards, such as the camera lucida or copying through projections through concave mirrors and the darkroom. The appropriation of images becomes a resolved issue as we work with reflections.
Heist Films Entertainment, in addition to being the title of this exhibition, is the name of a film production company created by Gustavo von Ha to develop and distribute trailers for films that will never be made. TokyoShow [The Search for Love], Gasoline 1 [Hollywood in Flames 1], Gasoline 2 – Back to the fire [Hollywood in Flames 2] and Paranormal [Garota Diabólica] have advertising pieces, professional actors and actresses, pages on the Internet and in social networks, DVDs distributed on pirated film stands and posters (...)
Tomás Toledo
curator
(...) By copying drawings by Tarsila do Amaral from his Pau-Brasil phase, the artist re-establishes the problem of artistic training and treats that modernist experience as a canon for contemporary production. He goes even further when he works on sheets of paper from a hundred years ago and chooses frames, sometimes bought in antique shops, sometimes deliberately aged.
Ana Gonçalves Magalhães
MAC-USP curator
If the process of creating images started from their pre-existence, if assuming them individually as an image means merging all its elements, including what is 'signature' in the original, then how can we solve this without also going through the mirror, in search of the author's identity? (...)
Marcos Moraes
independent curator
In the works that Gustavo von Ha presents at this time there are two subjects that stand out, they are: the mirror and marriage.
Sergio Romagnolo
plastic artist
Na última quinta (5), o perfil do Museu de Arte Contemporânea da USP (MAC-USP) no Instagram foi tomado por um montagem em nove quadros onde apareciam as imagens da famosa escultura da Vênus de
Willendorf e do cantor Michael Jackson (1958-2009).
Tatiane de Assis
Revista Veja 06/05/2021
ART! BRAZILIANS
