Herbert Banglione

The artist Herbert Baglione, born in São Paulo, is surely among the most internationally famous and significant representatives of the Brazilian graffiti movement. And Baglione’s art, in terms of its aesthetics and pictorial language, has always seen a path of further development, change, and professionalization. At first glance, his works may initially seem monochrome and minimalistic, yet they soon begin to reveal the artist’s figured motifs with filigreed details and differentiated coloring, while simultaneously reflecting the distinctively calligraphic but also clear and sophisticated personal style of Baglione’s street paintings. These are invariably based on narratives repeatedly confronting viewers of the Brazilian’s works – simply longing to be discovered. It is in the minds of the audience that they first begin to tell their stories. Baglione’s art indeed lays claim to more than just beauty – it thrives off of the dialogue with the viewer, a dialogue where we encounter characters and scenarios somehow reminiscent of a cross between ancient cave paintings by the Pueblo in the American Southwest and depictions of aliens. Always clearly recognizable here are the extremely human forms as well as the simplified iconic human symbols, which in Baglione’s works are often drastically stretched and arched. For Baglione this represents a way to highlight the extreme ranges of the human body and its imperfections – and also to contemplate his sometimes-anorexic, sometimes-obese figures, which in Baglione’s works emerge as icons of an egocentric culture, inspiring one to reflect on the multifold, diverse facets of life.