This document is one of the texts in the first series of “Retratos-relâmpago” that Brazilian poet and diplomat Murilo Mendes (1901–75) wrote in 1965 and 1966. The series consists of his memories of historical and artistic figures who were important to his own literary formation, some of them his friends. As one of the Brazilian modernist poets, Mendes started writing art criticism in the forties, mostly on surrealist and abstract poetics and on kinetic art. In this personal text on André Breton’s legacy, Mendes explains the selective nature of his interest in surrealism, a movement that had serious consequences in his work as a poet and as a critic. While surrealism never really took hold in Brazil, there were artists, critics, and intellectuals in the twenties (Ismael Nery, Aníbal Machado, and Mário Pedrosa, among them) who were involved in that movement.
For further reading, see the following texts by Murilo Mendes: “A ação de Maria [Martins] como escultora” (doc. no. 1110395); “Almir Mavignier” (doc. no. 1090273); untitled [“Ismael Nery nasceu em Belém do Pará (…)”] (doc. no. 1110383); “Lasar Segall II” (doc. no. 1110671); “Nota Liminar” (doc. no. 1110369); “Recordações de Ismael Nery” (doc. no. 1110379); “Sugestões da Bienal” (doc. no. 1110911); and untitled [“Terá existido um pintor verdadeiramente surrealista? (…)”] (doc. no. 1110384)].