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ENTRE O SAGRADO E O PROFANO
(2008)
1
Cauê Alves
Several contemporary artists of the late 1900s and the early 2000s centuries turned to the art non-European
or non-Western. The most famous are the interests of Van Gogh by the Japanese illustrations, Gauguin by the
Tahitian art and Picasso by Africanmasks. In the field of popmusic, the famous
White Album
, from the Beatles
was largely composed during the journey performed by the quartet, in 1968, to India. The band decided to do
a sort of spiritual retreat with the Indian guru Maharishi Mahseh Yogi, after George Harrison became interes-
ted in the practice of transcendental meditation. This albummarks the vested interest of the pop band for the
oriental sonority and a gamut musical scale.
Rubens Gerchman, who since his first works in the 1960s approached to pop culture andmass media, was also
interested in India. It was only between 2000 and 2001 that he made two mystical trips to the country, where
he made hundreds of photographic records. Even being from a Jewish family, the artist became fascinated by
Hindu rituals and celebrations, as well as the spices, smells, colors and pigments of the region. The image se-
lection which he made privileged the Kajurao temple, which has columns and facades full of erotic sculptures
made in stone and terracotta.
Although in the Judeo-Christian tradition the sex and eroticism are profane, for the Hindu religion the
kama
(associated to love, to carnal pleasures and satisfaction) is one of the three pillars that are supporting the no-
tion of the world in traditional India. Beside the
dharma
, religious merit, and
artha
, acquisition of property and
wealth,
kama
, does not oppose to religion and even helps the lift of the spirit, since the man does not become
a slave of sexual pleasures and learn to enjoy of richness. The
Kamasutra
, book written in Sanskrit by the noble
Vatsyayana, between 100 and 400 d. C., without any guilt or sin, speaks about sex and desire.
The images made by Gerchman and that were used in 2007 to carry out the photo paintings composing the
erotic series, even leave from sacred themes do not opposed to the profane. The interferences with colored
pencils and dry pastel in the photographs, cause chromatic contrasts and makeup effects: or as red lipstick on
meaty lips, or as cheeks flushed from a character in full sexual activity. Some interferences are more subtle
and there are works where the photographic image is not completely covered. Sometimes the colors are just
surface colors, used like vestments or as packages of the bodies, but in general the framings are closed, cut-
ting out and highlighting some sensuous fragment. There is a hot air emanating from the images, a pleasure
and urgency, as if they needed to be seen “before the summer ends”.
The treatment and technique of the erotic series is similar to the urban series and both approach of a pop
visuality, as much as artisan that is his technique. Though they were the last works made by the artist, and
because he has limited physical strength, these photo paintings are of small proportions. That is why they
differ quite a lot of the recurrent large scale observed in his work of painting and installations. In this exhi-
bition are something of intimate, and the boxes montage accentuates this private and particular fact, as in
1
ALVES, Cauê.
Entre o Sagrado e o Profano
. In:
Rubens Gerchman
(1942-2008):
Fotopintura
. Exhibition Leaflet. Rio de Janeiro,
Cultural Pinakotheke, April 4 to May 2, 2008. (N.O.).