At first glance, her paintings seem exotic and curiously enchanting, only when examining them more closely, we notice their grave significance. Mankind's irresponsible acts cause a significant loss of species and their habitats, an interference and agitation of people's life and their health, an increase in CO2 emissions, and a harmfully altered water cycle around the globe.
Originally, Herter’s technique involved working with graphite, crayons, and watercolours, before progressing to acrylic paint, which is still her main medium today. Her starting points are memories of places, landscapes, and newspaper articles with images that touch her emotionally. This approach is combined with her deep-seated interest and continued research in photojournalism. Herter attempts to express the moments captured by the photographer in her painterly practice.
Herter states: “The quality of the photos and their characteristics such as focus, sharpness, and colour nuances contribute to the idealisation of the images. Once mounted or framed, the photos express an updated or a restructured vision”. Herter is fascinated by the objectivity of ‘news images’, in contrast to the contemplative nature of ‘paintings’ and the individual interpretations of the subject.
The imageries of fires, deforestation, fog, and empty and abandoned spaces are significant to her, alongside her desire to metamorphose these images from reality. Her recent Untitled, series with its strange alien beauty, exposes not only the environmental damage and destruction we humans create but also reveals an unearthly world which may exist on an exoplanet in the vastness of the universe.
Herter’s landscapes evoke a non-visual element. She states: “These are talking paintings and if our senses are awake, we still can hear and see them, even with our eyes shut”. We are encouraged to ask: Whose voices are they? Where do they come from? What do they say? Is Herter presenting the concept of synaesthesia, often defined as the simultaneous perception of two or more stimuli as one gestalt experience (Campen 2009)? She urges us to expand our cognitive aptitude to gain a broader perspective and pay attention to the concealed and the disguised, like a conviction of faith that cannot be seen. To her ‘Art’ is fire, the expression of the human spirit, of human uniqueness, and human power.
Ana Herter was born in Southern Brazil in 1951, and lives and works in Rio de Janeiro. She attained her university degree in Biology in 1990 and attended theoretical and practical studies at the Escola de Artes Visuais d Parque Lage - EAV, Rio de Janeiro. She also took private lessons with artists and theorists. In 2000, she opened her atelier. Her work is exhibited and collected throughout Brazil and other Latin American countries.
Image: Ana Herter, Untitled, 2020, acrylic on canvas, H150 mm x W300 mm.
Newsletter: Courtesy and ©Ana Herter and Renée Pfister 2024.
Video: Courtesy and ©Ana Herter, Royalty Free Music: Bensound.com/royalty-free-music: Echo of Sadness License code: VWYMH1SSUIEITIG0, and Renée Pfister Art & Gallery Consultancy, with the assistance of Gözde Altun, 2024. All rights reserved.