Laissez-Faire (Rainbow Flag)

2010 - Painting (Painting)

53.54H x 53.54W inches

Alexandre da Cunha

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In Laissez-Faire (Rainbow Flag) da Cunha has turned a beach towel into both a painting and a flag. Where the printed surface of the towel originally served to enliven this commodity, here the pattern—now stretched and re-presented—suddenly refers to abstract painting’s promises of transcendence. And its crisply painted shape pulls the printed colors into the rectangularity of the canvas and, as da Cunha notes, the graphic iconicity of flags.

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Alexandre da Cunha reinvents found objects in surprising ways that combine the material characteristics of Arte Povera with the concerns and techniques of painting. Da Cunha’s work often features flags—either as a found material per se or as a constructed form—that reflect the artist’s interest in issues of nationality, governmental politics, allegiance, and culture.

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Colors:

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• abstraction.n.04
• spectrum.n.01
• flag.n.01
• commodity.n.01
• iconic.a.01
• transcendence.n.01
• brazil
• concrete
• political
• assemblage
• political minimalism
• abstract
• abstract sculpture
• brazilian