Ambassador’s Residence

A new Ambassador came into post at the refurbished Residence in Brasilia in 2004, which gave us the opportunity in the following year to update the displays of art. Several modern and contemporary works were selected to reflect the city’s vibrant modernist architecture. These included La Java, a late 1960s painting by Mario Dubsky, and David Taborn’s painting Homunculus (Lottery) (1999), which we placed in the entrance hall. They provide colourful foils to Peter Stroehling’s portrait of Thomas Cochrane, the Admiral of Brazil in the 1820s. In the dining room, Victor Pasmore’s lyrical abstract painting from 1982, Composite Image (Sea Green), was hung alongside a mid-nineteenth century series of historical prints showing views of Brazil. Earlier in the year we bought Kenneth Martin’s 1970 painting, Chance and Order 4 (Green) at auction. Acquired with a mind that it might be displayed at the Residence, its triangular shapes perfectly echo the building’s architectural details.

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Kenneth Martin's painting Chance and Order 4 (Green) can be seen in this view of the drawing room at the Ambassador's Residence

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