In this lecture, given at the Seminário de Tropicologia de la Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, in 1967, the art critic Mário Barata explores the connection between painting and certain tropical areas as one possible way of determining the characteristic “authenticity” of historical moments that leave their mark on a country or a region. The search for “authenticity” often, therefore, manifests as a sort of “nationalism.” In his review, Barata considers Oswald de Andrade’s demand for a Brazilian style of painting; the regionalism advocated by Gilberto Freyre; the light, color, and traditions of Brazilian painting; the values of primitivism; indigenist and black subject matter; the defense of the social pact and, above all, the sense of being an undeveloped country that is expressed in modern art.

The Seminário de Tropicologia (1965) was the sociologist Gilberto Freyre’s brainchild; its goal was to compare what professionals in several fields of knowledge thought about life in the tropics. In 1966 the Universidade de Pernambuco (Recife) hosted the first of a series of recurring gatherings over the course of the next fourteen years. In its second edition, the seminar listed the following subjects: “The tropics and sociology, painting, gardening, geographic studies, attire, and industry.”

The other speakers at the seminar were Marco Aurélio Alcântara, Frederico Simões Barbosa, D. J. Bradley, Flavio de Carvalho, Fernando Henriques, K. A. Mann, Roberto Burle Marx, Mário Lacerda de Mello, and Marcos Vinícios Vilaça. This article, which was published in GAM magazine, summarizes Barata’s comments during the session, including anecdotes and questions about the existence of specificities in Brazilian painting.

The Brazilian sociologist and Congressman Gilberto Freyre (1900–87) was one of his country’s most influential thinkers, particularly in terms of race, during the first half of the twentieth century. In 1933 Freyre achieved international recognition for his great work Casa-Grande & Senzala,the first in a series of three volumes that included Sobrados e mucambos (1938) and Ordem e Progresso (1957) [on this subject, see the following articles in the ICAA digital archive: “Interamericanismo” (doc. no. 807911), and “A propósito da política cultural do Brasil na América” (doc. no. 807856)].