Lista negra: um álbum de animais inexistentes

• Autor(a) principal: Guerra, Rui Jorge Fonseca Leal
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10451/41274
• topic: Ruskin, John, 1819-1900; Desenho; Animais; Natureza; Extinção; Conservação da natureza; Domínio/Área Científica::Humanidades::Artes

In a context characterized by environmental degradation which has resulted in the extinction of a large number of species, we also propose a practical work that, while celebrating the unique conditions of the planet’s biodiversity, can also serve to maintain in our culture creatures already extinct, allowing the audience to reflect on some of the milestone moments of our civilization. A list of extinct animals from the 16th century to the present day was drawn up with the objective of creating drawings that could be presented both in book form and as an exhibition. This list originated from 3 different series of drawings, which are at the core of the artistic project. The first series, consisting of 75 drawings, feature anthropomorphized portraits of animals that are extinct and others that have never existed. The second series, made up of 20 drawings, places some of the animals drawn in the previous series in situations that suggest a narrative and invite the creation of a story. Finally, the third series consists of 10 portraits drawn in profile, without direct anthropomorphic characteristics. Theoretical and graphic research deals with the relationship between drawing and nature, taking into account their different aspects. The relationship between drawing and memory of extinct species is one of the fundamental arguments that outline the written artistic and environmental context. The richness of the drawing, as a field, is directly linked to the biodiversity of our planet, and in this way it is possible to delineate an overview of the representation of nature in drawing, from prehistoric art to the 21st century, highlighting the ways in which the natural influences the cultural, and what we, after hundreds or thousands of years, we can intuit through culture past stages of the natural world. The 19th century, following the industrial revolution, led to a redefinition of the paradigm concerning the relationship between art and nature, materialized in the theoretical and artistic work of authors such as Ruskin, Turner, Audubon, Haeckel, among others. The close relationship shared by drawing and reality has, on several occasions throughout history, blurred the boundary between real and imaginary, to the extent that mythological creatures were confused with real animals. In other cases, a single drawing would become the icon for an entire species, such as Dürer’s rhino. However, in the mid-17th century, the study of live animals began to become a widespread practice, provoking a change in the way they were represented in drawings. All the mechanisms of representation enunciated translate the draughtman’s experience of the world, inevitably addressing the artist’s visual understanding of the world, whether this work is factor fiction.