Ferreira Gullar's art criticism and the debates of concretism in Brazil. Issue 1 (2nd January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: da Silva, Renato Rodrigues
• Is Part Of: World art. Volume 7:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 157
• Page End: 187
• Publication Date: 2017-01-02
• Subjects: Ferreira Gullar -- art criticism -- Lygia Clark -- concretism -- neoconcretism -- Brazil; Art -- Periodicals; Art, Comparative -- Periodicals; Art; Art, Comparative; Periodicals; 700.5
• DOI: 10.1080/21500894.2016.1270228
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2150-0894

Abstract

Abstract : The history of Brazilian constructivism has not been written yet. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, this trend transformed the visual arts, industrial and graphic design, photography, architecture and poetry of the country, introducing avant-garde proposals. Concerning the visual arts, recent articles analyse neoconcretism, which was launched at the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro in 1959. The scholarship concentrates on the latest moments of this movement but fails to consider its origins, the debates of concretism in 1957 and 1958. Despite this shortcoming, scholars recognize the decisive participation of poet and critic Ferreira Gullar in these debates. Thus, this paper focuses on his early art criticism, which was mainly published in Jornal do Brasil, considering: (1) Mário Pedrosa's influence on his ideas, (2) the defence of artistic autonomy, (3) the concrete debate over the notion of symbol, (4) his collaboration with Lygia Clark, and finally (5) the deconstruction of the easel painting. It tackles uncharted historical events, since recent research at the archives of that newspaper has allowed the republication of his articles and reviews, which still demand detailed investigation. Indeed, this paper examines Gullar's art criticism to demonstrate that he slowly but decisively separated the group of artists of Rio de Janeiro from Paulista concretism. After addressing the events in a historical narrative, I conclude that his ideas not only were an original contribution to Brazilian constructivism, but also created space for the organization of a new movement.