encore (interj.)
1712, from French encore "still, yet, again, also, furthermore" (12c.), generally explained as being from Vulgar Latin phrase *hinc ad horam "from then to this hour," or (in) hanc horam "(to) this hour". (Italian ancora "again, still, yet" is said to be a French loan-word). As a noun, from 1763; as a verb, from 1748. Related: Encored.
Miami, March 2019
The frequency of a timeless feeling overwhelms every space that holds Claudio Tozzi’s works. Since the 1960’s, when the pop art movement that emerged marked his works, making the spectator to find traces easily in his visuals. Tozzi initiated his trajectory as an artist with the appropriation of objects, images taken from newspapers, comics and photos associated with social issues through symbolic connotations. In the 1970’s he created a new syntax through the construction of a thread of reticules and chromatic granulations that led to structures and spaces full of intense symbolic meanings. From the 1980’s until his more recent works, he intensified his formal concerns and started to work with basic structural elements: lines, planes, colors and organic forms, materials that create formal analogies with pre-existing images and enlarge their constructive characteristics.
This exhibition has a Latin effortless name: Hinc Ad Horam, a hard to pronounce wording, which can be beautifully translated to From Then To This Hour. Encore. Desde Então até Este Momento. Hier Für Eine Stunde. It becomes a charming manifest in so many different languages once the viewers understand that Tozzi’s work is exactly that: timeless. Idealized by art advisor Antonio “Teco” Cavalvanti, the exhibition will include Tozzi’s latest works, from the high-end prints to colossal canvases, which together create harmony and almost tell an accentuated story of one of the most important Latin artists of our time. Each piece chosen for this show has a purpose, a meaning to be there.
Working with top galleries throughout the world, Claudio Tozzi has been acclaimed in several biennales, such as São Paulo, Venice, Paris, Medellín (Colombia), Havana, Makurazaki (Japan) and Mercosul. He participated in important exhibitions, among which the Brazil 500 Anos, probably one of the most important shows that Brazil has ever had. In 2018 he was the star in The World Goes Pop at the Tate Modern in London, curated by Sofia Gotti. His works are in Museums like International Pop at the Walker Art Center, Dallas Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Museo D’Arte Contemporanea in Villa Croce, Italy, among several others. In 2016 Tozzi’s work was chosen to be in one of the 13 posters that illustrated the Rio Olympics. Other artists who won the representation of the event were Beatriz Milhazes, Antonio Dias, graffiti artist Kobra and Latin American super-star Olga de Amaral. Alongsides many of his awards, also in 2016 he won and was laureated with the Art Press Award in Fort Lauderdale, which then started his path in the USA.
With the idea to cast more and more his international path, Arte Fundamental is proud to present the solo show Hinc Ad Horam, in which the audience is given the feeling of story telling where his art become real pieces of architectural tributes, being on paper, canvas or on his very known pop wood plates, pieces that now are scarce even in the secondary market. The distinction, according to the artist between North American Pop Art and the Latin Pop movement is basically that the narrative of American artists was based on consumerism and glamorizing images and marketed products, while most works in the 1960’s and 1970’s denounced Brazil’s military dictatorship. “I was an architecture student and like most young people then I was totally opposed to the coup, and my work clearly reflects that.”
About the artist:
Claudio Tozzi was born in 1944 in São Paulo, Brazil, where he lives and works. He is a professor of architecture at he University of São Paulo, where he also studied. Urban themes and social conflicts are predominant in his works and build his visual universe, mixed with pop aesthetics. The graphic language, as well as that of posters and pamphlets and Pop Art are strong influences for the compositions of the artist. The development of his recent paintings based on unique colors, with the intention of creating reliefs and depth using different tones in different areas of the painting. The works move towards an even more architectural and urban landscape construction. Several important pieces from his series known as Astronauts will be available, cooperating with the grandiosity of the recent series of architectural influences.
Whenever any Gentlemen are particularly pleased with a Song, at their crying out Encore ... the Performer is so obliging as to sing it over again. [Steele, "Spectator" No. 314, 1712]
