In this reflection on popular culture, Mário Schenberg outlines his thoughts on the country’s political future and the ideology of a (longed-for) national culture. This essay is based on a questionnaire that was circulated among 29 representatives of what was referred to as “contemporary Brazil’s generation of young intellectuals,” a project organized by the writer Mario Neme (1912–73). Participants in the project described their hopes and fears concerning contemporary challenges in politics and culture in Brazil and the rest of the world. As a result of this exercise, Schenberg noticed that, since 1930 there had been a “magnificent pictorial epidemic in our field,” and was able to identify a certain “populist” trend among painters and writers. He was thus able to establish parallels between various key figures in Brazilian culture, as for example between the painter Candido Portinari and the writer Jorge Amado in terms of their heroic portrayals of ordinary Brazilians and the working class. And between the writer, politician, and journalist Graciliano Ramos and the painter known for his “psychological depth” Alfredo Volpi. And between the painter Tarsila do Amaral and the writer Gilberto Freyre, “based on the greedy interest shown by rich people in popular colors.” In fact, though a certain “aristocratic” form may still be apparent in some writers, though not “in the content of their work,” painting seems to have developed into a popular activity for ordinary people.
This essay is by Brazil’s leading theoretical physicist, the politician and art critic Mário Schenberg (1914–90), who usually published scientific articles on thermodynamics, quantum and statistical physics, astrophysics, and mathematics. He was president of the Brazilian Physics Society (1979–81) and director of the Physics Department at the University of São Paulo (1953–61). He served two terms as a congressman for the state of São Paulo. His association with the PCB (Brazilian Communist Party) had a devastating effect on his life after the military coup in 1964, when he was stripped of all his political, academic, and personal rights. These were the early years of the Brazilian military dictatorship that was in power for two decades (1964–85), a time Schenberg identified as a period of great creativity in Brazil. Two years later (1969) the 10th São Paulo Biennial “went ahead” though it was severely boycotted by other countries as a result of AI-5 (Institutional Law no. 5) that deprived Brazilian citizens of their constitutional rights. That year Professor Schenberg was fired and denied his right to a pension, and was forbidden to enter the USP campus.
On the subject of national cultures throughout the Americas, see an essay—of great importance because of its vision and pioneering nature—written by Machado de Assis in 1873, entitled “Instinto de nacionalidade” [doc. no. 1090436].
