In this text, Ana Maria Belluzzo analyzes the graphic exhibition Quásares, by Carmela Gross, focusing her argument from the point of view of the observer. She states that without the assistance of the usual references, the observer is forced to interpret the strange images either by way of sight or by sense. Similar to energized bodies, the basic nature of these graphic stains is the product of a complex technical manipulation that is in dialogue with the representation of what is real. Moreover, it does so based on work selections that have no references and yet generate a complete breakdown of semantics. Instead of sign saturations (a characteristic of the technological era) the artist—in this case Gross—rescues the explicit view of the image, which happens before the logical brain perception (primary mental images).

This critical text, by the art historian Ana Maria [de Moraes] Belluzzo, is on the exhibition Quásares,presented both at the MAM-RJ (Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro) from August 18 to September 7, 1983 and at the Centro Cultural São Paulo, from September 13 to October 13 of the same year. The artist, Carmela Gross (b. 1946), also participated in 1967 in the collective exhibition linked to the group Rex. She started teaching in 1972 at the ECA-USP (Escola de Comunicações e Artes da Universidade de São Paulo), an institution which brought together artists and critics such as Regina Silveira, Julio Plaza, and Walter Zanini. In her work there is a starting point: the deconstruction of drawing codes, and the creation of sensible gestures through mental and technical movement.

The series Quásares ends the cycle of one of the most cerebral proposals by Gross, who will then shift toward a production of a pictorial and sensory nature, without ever abandoning her artistic concept based on the idea of “mental processes”.

Belluzzo teaches at the FAU-USP (Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo de la Universidade de São Paulo), and at other educational institutions, where she does important analytical work along with research and historical reflection. Among other exhibits, she was also responsible for the curatorship of Tradição e Ruptura (1984) and of O Brasil dos Viajantes (1995).

[For supplementary reading on Gross’s work, see in the ICAA digital archive by Walter Zanini “Os carimbos de Carmela” (doc. no. 1110666); by Miguel de Almeida “Carmela, projeto para novo céu” (doc. no. 1110663); and by Sheila Leirner “O traço, sob uma visão radical” (doc. no. 1110673)].