Brazilian Art Research Articles

Activist Cartoons without Borders: The Political Cartoons of Brazilian Artist Carlos Latuff

Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff has been described by Allers in Menassat as “a one-man cartoon wrecking-ball when he hits the ink.” In the last few years of penning sharp cartoons, he “has been alternatively praised and vilified in the press for his depictions of suffering” in places like the Palestinian territories, Iraq, and the slums of Latin America. In this study, I use Latuff’s work to illustrate how the artist has formed a global identity based on political affiliation, rather than national origin. I show how the “affordances” of the Internet, namely, the ability of non-mainstream individuals and groups to self-publish, and the ability of activists to contact him directly, have allowed Latuff to be his own publisher and to contact his fans without intermediaries. The fearless cartoonist avoids “blockages” to free communication by posting on his website daring political cartoons that veer off from mainstream views on global issues. Furthermore, his cartoons draw their power from being centered on a marginalized global audience that most mainstream cartoonists ignore. His lateral communication with his 120,374 Twitter followers (September 13, 2012 count), coupled with his use of new forms of copyright protections, such as Creative Commons and Copyleft, have broadened his appeal to the general public whose members remix his work on walls, placards and T-shirts, and use it for their own political ends. Finally, I argue that the growing use of social media by social movements enhances the organizing capacity of activists internally, but also encourages lateral communication with the formerly unreachable “global other,” exposing the global communicators to views not readily available on mainstream media, and affording them a forum previously denied them.

Geopolitical Criteria and the Classification of Art

The article addresses the use of geopolitical criteria as a method for classifying art, so as to revise what is considered prejudicial to the appreciation of art in its symbolic and sociological dimensions. These criteria applied to Brazilian art produce classification models based on dichotomies such as exoticism versus civilization, centre versus periphery and nationalism versus universalism. These models have guided museum directors, historians, art critics and curators alike for more than a century. They are analysed in the critical discourses on Albert Eckhout's painting and the Baroque style, as well as those related to Brazilian modernism. This article concludes that only further investigation into the finer nuances of the interactions between individuals and groups will lead to a comprehension of the complexity of artistic creative processes, breaking free from the constraints of geopolitical classification categories and allowing a transit through yet unknown areas.

Bursting on the Scene

One would be hard-pressed to deny that the time is ripe for a special issue of an art journal dedicated entirely to Brazilian art. At least, the list of supporting evidence in this respect is exten...

Resources for Latin American art in the Gulbenkian Art Library

From its creation in 1968 the Gulbenkian Art Library has possessed a number of special collections, and these have been enriched through major bequests or through acquisition. Currently there are about 180 collections with relevance for the study of Portuguese art and culture: they include private libraries, the private archives of Portuguese artists and architects, and photographic archives. Material in the special collections is available through the library’s catalogue and some have already been digitised and are available on the internet, depending on their copyright terms and conditions. Among these special collections two have special relevance to the study of the history of Brazilian art and architecture: the collection of Portuguese tiles and the Robert Smith Collection.

Moacir dos Anjos and Agnaldo Farias in Conversation with Felipe Scovino

In this interview art historian Felipe Scovino engages in conversation with two important Brazilian critics and curators, Moacir dos Anjos and Agnaldo Farias. Dos Anjos and Farias discuss their thoughts on the 29th São Paulo Biennial, which they jointly curated, and relevant topics, such as: the temporal gap between the international reception of Brazilian artworks and Brazilian critical thought; the friction between the artwork and a foreign context; problems faced in the process of writing a history of Brazilian art, such as institutional precariousness and the relative lack of consistent public collections; and the implication of the multiple tasks – critic, curator, art historian – often performed by arts-related intellectuals in the country. Leading on from the diagnosis of these difficulties, the conversation also probes the specificities of the Brazilian artistic field and its inherent ambiguities.

Comic-Book Crás!: Brazilian Comics and Publishing Industry

Este artigo tem como objetivo resgatar a trajetória das histórias em quadrinhos brasileiras na década de 1970, considerada de especial relevância para o avanço da arte gráfica sequencial no Brasil. Nesse período, observa-se, de um lado, iniciativas de pequenas editoras localizadas em vários estados brasileiros, e, de outro, empreendimentos feitos por editoras de grande porte na publicação de material nacional. Como estudo de caso, apresenta a revista Crás!, produzida pela Editora Abril, de São Paulo, que reuniu talentos veteranos e jovens da arte gráfca sequencial brasileira. A análise dessa publicação revela as difculdades do quadrinho brasileiro frente às necessidades e limites das editoras comerciais e do mercado editorial no país.

Presença da Itália na produção do móvel e do desenho brasileiros: "Fábrica de Móveis Federico Oppido & Irmão"

Federico Oppido, nosso avô materno, nasceu na cidade de Tito, província da Basilicata, Itália, em 1877. Descendente de uma família que conta com pintores e artesãos entre os antepassados, foi desenhista, fabricante de móveis e decorador de interiores, na cidade de São Paulo, para aonde se transferiu em 1888. Estudou no Liceu de Artes e Ofícios dessa capital e manteve, desde, pelo menos, o ano de 1900, uma fábrica de móveis e tapeçaria, "Federico Oppido & C.", anos depois denominada "Fábrica de Móveis Federico Oppido & Irmão". Produziu obras no ecletismo, em art nouveau e em art déco, para particulares e por encomenda de artistas, arquitetos, políticos e industriais. Federico Oppido fez parte do movimento de modernização do móvel no Brasil, por ter realizado importantes trabalhos nesse último estilo e por ter colaborado com o artista suíço-brasileiro John Graz, na confecção de móveis tubulares, que decoraram os interiores das primeiras residências modernistas em São Paulo, projetadas pelo arquiteto Gregori Warchavchik. Outro mérito seu é ter feito de sua fábrica, na qual trabalharam diversos filhos e sobrinhos, um celeiro de artesãos, desenhistas e pintores, muitos dos quais se tornaram profissionais notáveis, que atuaram no ramo da marcenaria, das artes plásticas e desenho industrial. No ensejo do Momento Itália/Brasil: 2011-2012, em comemoração aos 150 anos da unificação da Itália, decidimos homenageá-lo, mediante a reconstituição de sua biografia, não só ligada à produção de sua fábrica como também ao "pessoal artístico" que ali iniciou seu aprendizado e trabalhou. Para tanto, apresentamos móveis de sua lavra e baseamo-nos na historiografia, na memória familiar e em dados que recolhemos em sua terra natal.

On the Trail of Lygia Clark

The black box, with its slightly enigmatic title, seems to put the object governing its existence at a remove–the oeuvre of the Brazilian artist Lygia Clark (1920-1988). But there is less editorial awkwardness here than signs of a conception of the archive championed by the author: the remove of the evidence is the space of a relationship to be constructed or “activated”, a sort of “void” or “incompleteness” to be crossed. Otherwise put, the work is not in the box. Nor, incidentally, is it in...

ARTE E EDUCAÇÃO: RE-CONSTRUINDO O PRESENTE

This research is on the line training process, Difference and Values Graduate Program (Master of Education), Universidade Estadual Paulista Presidente Prudente Faculty of Science and Technology, is entitled “Arts education re building-the present. It is a theoretical research with documentary analysis and literature review. We aim to understand how they are present in the National Curriculum Parameters for Third and Fourth Round Elementary School in the Art and Curriculum Proposal of the State of Sao Paulo Art in the 5th and 6th grade of elementary school, the teaching of visual arts and contemporary art experiences. Towards this goal, we draw a historical overview about the development of teaching art in Brazil and the formation of the artist mainly carried out in schools and monasteries in the colonial period and later in the ateliers of the artists. In education officer tried to follow its historical development, from the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes until the contemporary period, examining the methodological mainstream of art teaching which influenced the teaching of art in school. To understand the importance of art and cultural education in contemporary society appealed to thinkers of the Frankfurt School, especially Marcuse and their discussions of affirmative culture in society and given to the concepts of Cultural Industry and Halbbildung Theodor Adorno which assists us in understanding the aspects that hinder the formation today. The results from the analysis of documents (NCP and PCESP) tell us that the teaching of art in those is structured in the production, enjoyment and contextualizing the work of art, languages, visual arts, performing arts and music, trying to understand works of art devoted to modern and contemporary.

TEATRO, CINEMA E INFLUÊNCIA EXPRESSIONISTA EM <i>LIMITE</i> E <i>VESTIDO DE NOIVA</i>

O teatro e o cinema, enquanto meios de expressão aparentemente semelhantes, encontraram na estética expressionista (no decorrer do século XX) maneiras muito eficientes de potencializar suas próprias formas de comunicar. Assim, as artes dramatúrgica, literária e cinematográfica brasileiras acabaram também encontrando meios de vincular suas identidades ao potencial delineador do expressionismo. O famoso dramaturgo Antunes Filho explora as ambiguidades formais e temáticas do texto Vestido de noiva, de Nelson Rodrigues, a partir de um avanço sobre a linguagem teatral com uma câmera de cinema. Nesse filme-peça, a ambiguidade característica do texto rodrigueano se expande para uma metalinguagem que, de maneira paradoxal, aproxima e distancia o teatro do cinema. Da mesma forma, o filme silencioso Limite, de Mário Peixoto, usa o dispositivo cinema para, ao mesmo tempo, recapitular e sublimar o conteúdo expressionista do qual é herdeiro, tornando essas obras da arte brasileira exemplos de como a relação entre a influência estética e uma constante tentativa de superação então no cerne da relação entre cinema e teatro, arte e vida, passado e presente.

Ut pictura poesis: intermedialnost med tradicionalnim vizualnim pesništvom in sodobno digitalno poezijo

This article discusses the concept of intermediality, comparing traditional visual poetry and contemporary digital poetry. It shows that today’s somewhat fashionable concept of intermediality can actually be traced in the transposition of the classic concept of intertextuality from philosophical discourse, especially as developed by Barthes and Kristeva, to the domain of mediological discourse. The article briefly summarizes the tradition of visual poetry from antiquity to modernism, emphasizing its structure as basically concrete; that is, it implies a material and medial component of language or writing (écriture). This structure calls attention to its self-referential and referential aspect. The digital poetry that continues the line of development of concrete poetry, as it appeared in the 1950s and 1960s, belongs to a broader area of new media poetry that includes any experimental poetry that uses the “new” media. The problematic concept of intermediality can best be explored in a digital environment such as the holographic poetry (or holopoetry) of the noted and versatile contemporary Brazilian artist Eduardo Kac. Kac’s holopoetry is a special space-time event in the context of the holographic projection of the text in order to display its multilinearity, which primarily means breaking with the linearity of classic poetry printed in a book. Based on an examination of Kac’s holopoem “Havoc” from 1992 (in this example, the poem’s graphic integrity is temporarily lost), the paper challenges the simplistic deconstructivist interpretation that is applied to Kac’s poems and often to digital poetry in general: namely, that these poetic events can most persuasively be seen as figures for the unattainability of “pure” presence/absence, materiality/immateriality, reality/virtuality, and so on. The author argues that the “polluted” reading as a reading against metaphysics and tradition in the case of new-media poetry is unconvincing because the visually evident and naïve representation of a (would-be) Derridaean différance is nothing more and nothing less than the Baudrillardean simulacrum: an imaginary representation of the unreal. The author concludes by suggesting that the basic intermedial problems of contemporary digital poetry remain the same as in traditional visual poetry; that is, that they are only reproduced in the new media environment. Their new “materiality” and the extensive possibilities of technical manipulations that they offer should not deceive us that they ipso facto imply completely new ontological dimensions.

Ut pictura poesis: intermedialnost med tradicionalnim vizualnim pesništvom in sodobno digitalno poezijo

This article discusses the concept of intermediality, comparing traditional visual poetry and contemporary digital poetry. It shows that today’s somewhat fashionable concept of intermediality can actually be traced in the transposition of the classic concept of intertextuality from philosophical discourse, especially as developed by Barthes and Kristeva, to the domain of mediological discourse. The article briefly summarizes the tradition of visual poetry from antiquity to modernism, emphasizing its structure as basically concrete; that is, it implies a material and medial component of language or writing (écriture). This structure calls attention to its self-referential and referential aspect. The digital poetry that continues the line of development of concrete poetry, as it appeared in the 1950s and 1960s, belongs to a broader area of new media poetry that includes any experimental poetry that uses the “new” media. The problematic concept of intermediality can best be explored in a digital environment such as the holographic poetry (or holopoetry) of the noted and versatile contemporary Brazilian artist Eduardo Kac. Kac’s holopoetry is a special space-time event in the context of the holographic projection of the text in order to display its multilinearity, which primarily means breaking with the linearity of classic poetry printed in a book. Based on an examination of Kac’s holopoem “Havoc” from 1992 (in this example, the poem’s graphic integrity is temporarily lost), the paper challenges the simplistic deconstructivist interpretation that is applied to Kac’s poems and often to digital poetry in general: namely, that these poetic events can most persuasively be seen as figures for the unattainability of “pure” presence/absence, materiality/immateriality, reality/virtuality, and so on. The author argues that the “polluted” reading as a reading against metaphysics and tradition in the case of new-media poetry is unconvincing because the visually evident and naïve representation of a (would-be) Derridaean différance is nothing more and nothing less than the Baudrillardean simulacrum: an imaginary representation of the unreal. The author concludes by suggesting that the basic intermedial problems of contemporary digital poetry remain the same as in traditional visual poetry; that is, that they are only reproduced in the new media environment. Their new “materiality” and the extensive possibilities of technical manipulations that they offer should not deceive us that they ipso facto imply completely new ontological dimensions.

A Cidade e seus Artistas

Com o objetivo de compreender alguns aspectos da formação da identidade de certos segmentos de artistas brasilienses, tomei como objeto de estudo o Grupo Cabeças, quecongregou artistas de diversas expressões (músicos, artistas plásticos, atores, artesãos) que modificaram e movimentaram a vida cultural da Capital no período de 1978 a 1987. Nesteartigo será dada atenção especial à mídia brasiliense, procurando apreender a forma como ali foi se construindo uma identidade para o grupo.

Shared decision making in Brazil: history and current discussion

There is no SDM in clinical practice in Brazil. The first steps have been taken towards research and tool development recently. Likewise, our society is starting to get involved with decision making in health care. This paper aims to offer an overview of the Brazilian health system history, its values, and its influence on SDM. The participative social control concept is introduced as a result of the movement against the dictatorship era. In addition, the influence of social changes on the Medical Ethical Code is delineated. SDM state of the art in Brazil is also discussed and the challenges to implement it on clinical practice are described. Regardless the challenges, it is possible to make a positive assessment of SDM in Brazil.

L’actualité de Sartre sur la scène portugaise

Jean-Paul Sartre, prix Nobel de la littérature en 1964, a été le premier auteur à décliner, de plein gré, la distinction de l’académie suédoise: “Aucun artiste, aucun écrivain, aucun homme ne mérite d'être consacré de son vivant, parce qu'il a le pouvoir et la liberté de tout changer.” Ce sentiment de liberté et d’indépendance absolue de la pensée et de la création a fait de lui, on le sait, l’un des écrivains les plus controverses de son temps et un classique incontournable du XXe siècle. Distingué par une œuvre dont l’esprit de liberté et la recherche de la vérité symbolise la vaste influence sur notre époque, Sartre garde encore toute son actualité. Ses écrits littéraires et philosophiques en langue portugaise chez plusieurs éditeurs au moment de la dictature continuent à être réédités. Ses pièces de théâtre, jouées et traduites au moment de la censure, continuent à attirer l’attention des artistes portugais et brésiliens au début du XXIe siècle. Huis-clos, La putain respectueuse et Les Troyennes constituent un trio édificateur sur la scène portugaise car il s’agit bien pour les artistes portugais d’élever un modèle dramatique sur l’engagement de l’individu dans une méditation sur le tragique et la condition humaine.

Um exemplo de aplicação da Microscopia Raman na autenticação de obras de arte

In the present work, Raman Microscopy was employed in the characterization of the pigments used in a drawing assigned to Tarsila do Amaral, one of the most important Brazilian artists. The work (colored pencil on paper), supposedly produced in the 1920 decade, is of a very simple composition, where blue, green and brown were the colors used. Prussian Blue was found as the blue pigment, whereas green was a mixture of copper phthalocyanine and a yellow dye, probably a diarylide; the brown pigment was a carbonaceous compound. Prussian Blue was replaced by phthalocyanine as pigment since the end of the 1930's and the possibility that it could have been used as pigment in the 1920's can be ruled out.

O texto em delay

O ensaio foi elaborado como leitura da exposição "O Corpo Denso das Imagens" de Sergio Romagnolo. Trata-se de uma interpretação feita a partir da recuperação de textos e falas dispersas do artista publicadas em catálogos e livros nas décadas de 1980 e 2000, além de depoimento breve cedido por e-mail.

De Anita à academia: para repensar a história da arte no Brasil

A partir de uma citação do romance Mocidade morta, de Gonzaga-Duque, e da análise de algumas pinturas brasileiras, produzidas entre a segunda metade do século XIX e a primeira do século XX, este texto problematiza alguns paradigmas da história da arte no Brasil. Enfatiza a necessidade de rever a periodização da arte brasileira, uma vez que as diferenças entre produções "acadêmicas" e outras "modernistas" parecem apenas tópicas.

Rediscovering Interdisciplinarity in Contemporary Brazilian Art: The Work of Willys de Castro

The Active Objects series is the contribution of Brazilian artist and poet Willys de Castro (1926–1988) to Neoconcretism, which was an avant‐garde movement in Rio de Janeiro from 1959 to the mid‐1960s that changed the parameters of Brazilian art definitively. A typical Active Object is composed of a wooden structure covered with painted canvas that is hung on the wall like a regular painting – but the evident tri‐dimensionality of the object purposefully contrasts with the flatness of its frontal surface. Thus the artist addressed the potential conflict between sculpture and painting to the benefit of a fruitful interdisciplinary practice. The reception of these works, however, is still based on Ferreira Gullar’s formalist writings of the late 1950s, and does not consider Castro’s poetic production, which informed the series. Based on poststructuralist theory, the article analyses his works in an attempt to understand their complex regimes of signification.

O esquema genealógico e o mal-estar na história

Este ensaio questiona a tendência “genealógica” hoje estabelecida nos discursos sobre arte brasileira, no campo do “sistema de autores”, cujas raízes datam de meados dos anos 1970, e propõe a retomada da análise e da reflexão históricas. Discute a transição da abstração geométrica no pós-1964, eclipsada pela entronização do neoconcretismo como pedra angular da arte brasileira contemporânea, nas leituras “genealógicas”. Na contramão das últimas e apoiado em argumentos de Oiticica e Pedrosa, a tese do ensaio é a de que a formação do sistema visual brasileiro, configurado em torno da abstração geométrica, nos anos 1950, consolida-se na superação dialética da abstração geométrica pelas proposições críticas e experimentais que a sucedem. A crônica da resistência da arte brasileira, da ditadura militar ao neoliberalismo, segue o fio da análise da forma objetiva (A. Candido) de obras de Oiticica e Antonio Dias, esta última até o ano 2000.