Ananas Tropical 1970

Lourdes Castro created ‘Ananas Tropical’ with paint and collage. Castro, born in Madeira, Portugal, spent much of her career in Paris, where she developed her distinctive shadow portraits. Here, the pineapple, a symbol of the tropics and exoticism, is rendered as a delicate white outline, in contrast to the solid black silhouettes of other fruits. This juxtaposition invites us to consider themes of visibility and absence, presence and erasure. What does it mean to represent the 'tropical' as an outline, a mere suggestion of form? Castro's work often explores the interplay between light and shadow, challenging conventional notions of representation. Through her innovative use of collage, she blurs the boundaries between object and image, reality and illusion. 'Ananas Tropical' is both visually striking and conceptually rich, offering a meditation on the complexities of identity, representation, and the enduring legacy of colonialism.