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Lot Essay
Expressive contours of tropical trees emerge mystically from Lucas Arruda’s Untitled (from the Deserto-Modelo series), a jewel-like canvas from his important early series of imaginative landscapes. While working in the landscape tradition, Arruda does not conceive himself as a landscape painter, instead viewing his practice as a ritualistic meditation on the recurring theme of nature as constructed in the mind’s eye; as the artist notes, “the only reason to call my works landscapes is cultural” (L. Arruda, quoted in A. Rigamonti di Cutò, “Lucas Arruda: ‘The only reason to call my works landscapes is cultural,’” Studio International, September 19, 2017, Online).
Currently the subject of his first European monographic exhibition, at the Museé d’Orsay in Paris, Arruda’s technical mastery is exquisite, as seen in the tactile assertion of paint across the mesmeric surface and the pigments contained within the composition. Arruda simultaneously seeks to discover a novel mental dimension or state of mind suspended within his paint medium. As Arruda notes, “every aspect of my painting has been worked out with great precision, including the scale, the choice of paints, the shape of the canvas, with a slightly different format for the jungle scenes to exploit the verticality of the trees. It’s more powerful to contain something as immense as a seascape on a tighter scale. It increases and concentrates the radiation, and the surrounding frequency” (Ibid.).
Arruda’s practice consists of paintings of abstracted landscapes and seascapes, as well as video art and jungle paintings. The present work is an example of the latter, his most celebrated subject which holds intimate ties to his personal history. While his other paintings have a strictly horizontal linear thrust, his jungle works incorporate a vertical format through the tree shapes, which increases and concentrates the radiative energy and frequency of the work out and across space. Discussing these works in an interview with curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, Arruda states, “in fact, I mostly paint imagined horizons. But, in the jungle’s case, there is a less elusive connection. I have a house in the jungle near São Paulo where I go all the time. I guess jungles hold a particular mystery, a sense of imminence – as if something is always about to happen. And for these kinds of paintings I often evoke a character: Curupira. He is a mythological character with inverted feet, a young trickster who protects the jungle. Like Hermes, or Loki, he fools us in order to prevent human connections to the forest. You never know what to expect from Curupira: he might help you or just as easily kill you. The legend says that he is the embodiment of the forest, and I find this especially compelling. The jungle is the only verticality in my work, which somehow grounds it. But Curupira is there to mess around with this idea” (L. Arruda, quoted in H. U. Obrist, “Lucas Arruda in conversation with Hands Ulrich Obrist,” Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, April 2018, online [accessed: 4/16/2025).
Arruda cites John Constable’s cloud studies, J. M. W. Turner’s late works, and Giorgio Morandi as influences, noting that “if anything, I identify more with Morandi, in the sense that I always use the same structure – a landscape with a horizon line. There’s a combination of mathematical and metaphysical impulses in my work” (quoted in A. Rigamonti di Cutò, op. cit.). The series title, Deserto-Modelo, comes from a line from the Brazilian poet João Cabral de Melo Neto, and indicates that the series is an ongoing effort, subverting the logic of an exhibition of a conclusion or self-contained moment in time to emphasize the enduring effort involved producing the works. Untitled was exhibited at the first solo show devoted to the artist in Europe in 2014 at VeneKasen/Werner, Berlin. Paintings from the series were just shown at the Zen Buddhist temple Daitoku-ji Ōbai-in in Kyoto, Japan. Arruda is presently being recognized with two solo exhibitions in France. Lucas Arruda. Qu’importe le paysage at Musée d’Orsay in Paris, which juxtaposes Arruda’s work with their collection of Impressionist masterpieces, is the first monographic exhibition in France to celebrate an artist from the southern hemisphere, while Carré d’Art in Nimes is holding a significant presentation of his Deserto-Modelo works as part of the Brazil-France 2025 season of cultural events.
Currently the subject of his first European monographic exhibition, at the Museé d’Orsay in Paris, Arruda’s technical mastery is exquisite, as seen in the tactile assertion of paint across the mesmeric surface and the pigments contained within the composition. Arruda simultaneously seeks to discover a novel mental dimension or state of mind suspended within his paint medium. As Arruda notes, “every aspect of my painting has been worked out with great precision, including the scale, the choice of paints, the shape of the canvas, with a slightly different format for the jungle scenes to exploit the verticality of the trees. It’s more powerful to contain something as immense as a seascape on a tighter scale. It increases and concentrates the radiation, and the surrounding frequency” (Ibid.).
Arruda’s practice consists of paintings of abstracted landscapes and seascapes, as well as video art and jungle paintings. The present work is an example of the latter, his most celebrated subject which holds intimate ties to his personal history. While his other paintings have a strictly horizontal linear thrust, his jungle works incorporate a vertical format through the tree shapes, which increases and concentrates the radiative energy and frequency of the work out and across space. Discussing these works in an interview with curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, Arruda states, “in fact, I mostly paint imagined horizons. But, in the jungle’s case, there is a less elusive connection. I have a house in the jungle near São Paulo where I go all the time. I guess jungles hold a particular mystery, a sense of imminence – as if something is always about to happen. And for these kinds of paintings I often evoke a character: Curupira. He is a mythological character with inverted feet, a young trickster who protects the jungle. Like Hermes, or Loki, he fools us in order to prevent human connections to the forest. You never know what to expect from Curupira: he might help you or just as easily kill you. The legend says that he is the embodiment of the forest, and I find this especially compelling. The jungle is the only verticality in my work, which somehow grounds it. But Curupira is there to mess around with this idea” (L. Arruda, quoted in H. U. Obrist, “Lucas Arruda in conversation with Hands Ulrich Obrist,” Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, April 2018, online [accessed: 4/16/2025).
Arruda cites John Constable’s cloud studies, J. M. W. Turner’s late works, and Giorgio Morandi as influences, noting that “if anything, I identify more with Morandi, in the sense that I always use the same structure – a landscape with a horizon line. There’s a combination of mathematical and metaphysical impulses in my work” (quoted in A. Rigamonti di Cutò, op. cit.). The series title, Deserto-Modelo, comes from a line from the Brazilian poet João Cabral de Melo Neto, and indicates that the series is an ongoing effort, subverting the logic of an exhibition of a conclusion or self-contained moment in time to emphasize the enduring effort involved producing the works. Untitled was exhibited at the first solo show devoted to the artist in Europe in 2014 at VeneKasen/Werner, Berlin. Paintings from the series were just shown at the Zen Buddhist temple Daitoku-ji Ōbai-in in Kyoto, Japan. Arruda is presently being recognized with two solo exhibitions in France. Lucas Arruda. Qu’importe le paysage at Musée d’Orsay in Paris, which juxtaposes Arruda’s work with their collection of Impressionist masterpieces, is the first monographic exhibition in France to celebrate an artist from the southern hemisphere, while Carré d’Art in Nimes is holding a significant presentation of his Deserto-Modelo works as part of the Brazil-France 2025 season of cultural events.