{"title":"Cosmic Period (1968-1979)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eThe Cosmic phase, developed between 1968 and 1979, shows ESPIGA Pinto expanding beyond the imagery of the rural Alentejo into a wider symbolic universe. Geometry, space, technology, war, the environment and philosophical reflection enter the work, forming a visual language concerned with connection, imagination and the place of humanity within larger structures of meaning.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"cosmic-hand-in-the-seventh-space","title":"Cosmic Hand in the Seventh Space (Cósmica Mão no Septimo Espaço)","description":"\u003ch3\u003eAbout this work\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"PDq2pG_selectionAnchorContainer\"\u003eCreated in 1973, \u003cem\u003eCosmic Hand in the Seventh Space\u003c\/em\u003e belongs to ESPIGA Pinto’s Cosmic phase of 1968–1979, when his imagery expanded beyond the rural subjects of the preceding decade. The change was not a rejection of the Alentejo, but a transformation of its forms. Wheels became orbits, festive structures suggested cosmic architectures, and the human figure became a sign of energy, communication and change. \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eThe hand emerged as an important motif during these years; ESPIGA later described it as the ‘hand that creates and destroys’ in a short film \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eproduced for Portugal’s public broadcaster, RTP - in 1977.\u003cspan class=\"PDq2pG_selectionAnchor\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis new visual language developed as ESPIGA moved freely between printmaking, painting, sculpture, stage design, performance and interventions in public space. Technology, science fiction and poetic mysticism entered his work amid the political tensions and countercultural aspirations of the 1970s. The year 1973 was especially significant: ESPIGA participated in the XII São Paulo Biennial and received the São Paulo Biennial Prize for his sets and costumes for the Gulbenkian Ballet’s \u003cem\u003eDulcinea\u003c\/em\u003e. \u003cem\u003eCosmic Hand in Seventh Space\u003c\/em\u003e is one of only two prints he made in Brazil that year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eESPIGA would later describe his position as “feet on the ground, head in the cosmos”. Here, that movement between lived experience and speculative thought takes graphic form. The familiar human hand enters an unfamiliar universe, testing the relationship between individual agency and a larger cosmic order.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIts rarity and concentrated imagery make this print an important point of entry into one of the most experimental periods of ESPIGA Pinto’s practice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDetails\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eArtist: ESPIGA Pinto\u003cbr\u003eTitle: \u003cem\u003eCosmic Hand in the Seventh Space (\u003cspan\u003eCósmica Mão no Septimo Espaço)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDate: 1973\u003cbr\u003eMedium: Silkscreen on paper\u003cbr\u003eDimensions: \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e79.5 x 61.5 cm\u003cbr\u003eEdition: 17 of 200\u003cbr\u003eInscription: \"SÉTIMO ESPAÇO\"\u003cbr\u003eSigned and numbered by the artist.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe paper displays rectangular areas of adhesive residue and associated discolouration at the upper-left and upper-right corners, consistent with former masking tape. An elongated brown mark is visible in the upper margin above the printed image. Minor handling creases and fold lines are present, most noticeably across the upper half and along the margins, together with a small edge tear in the lower-right area. \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eA fine, near-vertical light crease, is also visible across the left portion of the large silver circular form. Mild, scattered foxing and areas of differential toning are also visible; the latter are consistent with uneven light exposure while the work was partially overlapped by other prints.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eThe printed image remains crisp and visually strong, with vivid colour and clear contrasts; the noted condition points are concentrated largely in the surrounding paper and do not significantly diminish the work’s overall impact.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlthough not in mint condition, the Estate has chosen to release \u003cem\u003eCosmic Hand in the Seventh Space\u003c\/em\u003e in recognition of its exceptional rarity. One of only two prints made in Brazil in 1973, a pivotal year in ESPIGA Pinto’s practice, it offers a rare opportunity to acquire an important work from this period.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis preliminary note does not replace a full physical condition report, available upon request.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e________________________\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eFRAME NOT INCLUDED.\u003cb id=\"docs-internal-guid-54304aff-7fff-6455-aa10-780d279b9845\"\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eThis artwork is sold unframed. Bespoke framing options and framing advice are available. Please contact us. Any frame, mount or room setting shown in images is for illustrative purposes only. Please check the stated artwork dimensions before ordering.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ESPIGA Pinto - Official Artist Estate Shop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53609406628187,"sku":null,"price":575.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1024\/1297\/6475\/files\/COSMIC-HAND.jpg?v=1785673578"},{"product_id":"festive-element-elemento-festivo","title":"Festive Element (Elemento Festivo)","description":"\u003ch3\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the work\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMade in 1969, \u003cstrong\u003eFestive Element\u003c\/strong\u003e occupies an important point in ESPIGA Pinto’s passage from the Alentejo works of the early 1960s towards the cosmic language that would define the following decade. It retains a connection to the popular and ritual forms the artist had encountered in the Alentejo, while moving away from figuration towards a more distilled vocabulary of signs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe title suggests an origin in village festivity: ornaments, processional structures and the visual language of sacred and pagan celebrations. These were not distant references for ESPIGA. After leaving the Lisbon School of Fine Arts and returning to the Alentejo in 1960, he revisited the region with adult attention, observing its fields, labour, clothing, markets, olive mills, harvest feasts and religious-pagan popular celebrations. In this work, that world appears to have been reduced to a near-abstract element, no longer a scene but a fragment of memory transformed into symbol.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe date is significant. 1969 stands at the threshold of ESPIGA Pinto’s cosmic period, when the imagery of rural Alentejo began to open into wider questions of space, energy and universal order. \u003cstrong\u003eFestive Element\u003c\/strong\u003e can be read in that light: an early woodcut in which the material memory of the Alentejo begins to shift towards the more speculative, cosmic register of the 1970s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDetails\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eArtist: ESPIGA Pinto\u003cbr\u003eTitle: \u003cem\u003eFestive Element (Elemento Festivo)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDate: 1969\u003cbr\u003eMedium: Woodcut on paper\u003cbr\u003eDimensions: 48.5 x 66 cm\u003cbr\u003eEdition: Ed. Espiga, trial proof\u003cbr\u003eSigned and dated by the artist.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e________________________\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eFRAME NOT INCLUDED.\u003cb id=\"docs-internal-guid-54304aff-7fff-6455-aa10-780d279b9845\"\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eThis artwork is sold unframed. Bespoke framing options and framing advice are available. Please contact us. Any frame, mount or room setting shown in images is for illustrative purposes only. Please check the stated artwork dimensions before ordering.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ESPIGA Pinto - Official Artist Estate Shop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53613263487323,"sku":null,"price":1250.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1024\/1297\/6475\/files\/FESTIVE-ELEMENT_777fea93-a552-48b5-924f-7db426033cc8.jpg?v=1785518932"},{"product_id":"horse-with-festive-elements-cavalo-com-elementos-festivos","title":"Horse with Festive Elements (Cavalo com Elementos Festivos)","description":"\u003ch3\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the work\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCreated in 1968, \u003cem\u003eHorse with Festive Elements\u003c\/em\u003e stands at a pivotal moment in ESPIGA Pinto’s printmaking. The work belongs to the period immediately after his early Alentejo cycle, when motifs drawn from rural memory, popular festivity and the horse began to loosen from narrative setting and take on a more autonomous symbolic role.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRather than presenting the horse as part of a scene, ESPIGA places it within an arrangement of festive signs. These forms recall the visual culture of Alentejo village celebrations, including sacred and pagan processions, banners and ornamental structures. In this rare silkscreen print, those references are no longer documentary; they become part of the artist’s emerging language of movement, transformation and spatial invention, anticipating the cosmic direction of the 1970s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnother impression of this work was recently acquired by \u003cstrong\u003eMudas. Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Madeira\u003c\/strong\u003e. Following its acquisition, the work was included in an itinerant exhibition (2026) alongside figures such as Júlio Pomar, Menez, Paula Rego, Cruzeiro Seixas and Nikias Skapinakis, within a curatorial context tracing the evolution of Portuguese abstractionism and surrealism in the mid-to-late twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs a trial proof, this impression offers a particularly close connection to the development of the image. It marks a moment when ESPIGA Pinto was testing how the signs of the Alentejo could expand beyond their regional origin and enter the broader symbolic field that would define his cosmic period.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDetails\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eArtist: ESPIGA Pinto\u003cbr\u003eTitle: \u003cem\u003eHorse with Festive Elements (Cavalo com Elementos Festivos)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDate: 1968\u003cbr\u003eMedium: Silkscreen on paper\u003cbr\u003eDimensions: 50 x 70 cm\u003cbr\u003eEdition: Ed. Espiga, trial proof\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eSigned and dated by the artist\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eCollection note: Other impression is held in Mudas. Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Madeira\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eThe paper displays minor planar undulation at the lower-right corner and a small spot of blue pigment in the upper margin, above the printed image. These points are confined to the surrounding paper and do not detract from the work’s strong overall presentation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis preliminary note does not replace a full physical condition report, available upon request.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e________________________\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eFRAME NOT INCLUDED.\u003cb id=\"docs-internal-guid-54304aff-7fff-6455-aa10-780d279b9845\"\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eThis artwork is sold unframed. Bespoke framing options and framing advice are available. Please contact us. Any frame, mount or room setting shown in images is for illustrative purposes only. Please check the stated artwork dimensions before ordering.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ESPIGA Pinto - Official Artist Estate Shop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53613343605083,"sku":null,"price":1250.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1024\/1297\/6475\/files\/CAVALO-ELEMENTOS-FESTIVOS.jpg?v=1785517768"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1024\/1297\/6475\/collections\/EX981.png?v=1784310731","url":"https:\/\/shop.espigapinto.com\/collections\/the-cosmic-period.oembed","provider":"The ESPIGA Estate Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}