“I am an abstract painter speaking in an international language,” says Beatriz Milhazes, “but I am interested in things and forms of behavior that are found only in Brazil.” She has called herself a “conceptual carnevalista,” and her work combines abstract painting and themes from the world she lives in. This interplay takes center stage in four large paintings inspired by the change of the seasons in her native Rio: there is the strictly modernist painting practice—she doesn’t apply the paint with a brush but sticks it on the canvas with the help of plastic sheets—and a theme grounded in reality, where the changes between the seasons are in mood rather than the small temperature differences of the tropics. A large mobile, originally made for the dance company of the artist’s sister in Rio, similarly works with real life materials from the samba and carnival traditions of the city.

The present volume collects these recent works, which the artist had first shown in a solo exhibition at Fondation Beyeler in Basle. For her exhibition at Galerie Max Hetzler in Berlin, Milhazes has added several new collages to further expand the context. In a conversation with Sebastian Preuß, she draws the connections between the work groups, describes the work day in her studio, and explains why in recent times her paintings have become more collage-like, and the collages more painterly. Richly illustrated with lavish fold-outs for the large paintings, work details, and installation views, the catalog conveys the colorful intensity of the paintings and proves the conceptual stringency of Milhazes’ work.

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In collaboration with Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin