Nearly 40 years before Beatriz Milhazes created this monumental print, ‘O pato’ was only known in Brazil as one of many recordings of João Gilberto, the man who invented Bossa Nova. Gilberto is a man who walks to his own beat, he creates his tempo tensions by singing ahead or behind the beat. ‘O pato’ – a story about a duck coming along, smiling and singing (quack, quack), when a goose asks to join in the samba. Later comes a conran and a swan so that they make a quartet. They all go to a lake to rehearse but the sounds are so out of tune so it’s a disaster…
When we look at Milhazes’ composition it follows no rules and has almost a complete center build-up of so many layers it should be a natural to fail, but the fnal “crescendo” is so subtle and seductive we can only love it. It only seems right that the man who transcended both the establishment and his peers by creating a new music for his own country along with the rest of the world is paid homage by his compatriot artist who has done the same