In poetic language, psychoanalyst M. D. Magno writes on the breadth of Tunga’s artistic production.  The text was published on the occasion of the artist’s first exhibition, which was held in 1974 at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro. The text addresses psychoanalytic issues that Tunga’s work suggests and puts in action, among them erotization. 

Freudian psychoanalyst M. D. Magno (b. 1938) wrote this text at the time of Tunga’s first show, held at MAM-Rio (1974). In fact, it was published in the exhibition’s brochure.

Antônio José de Barros de Carvalho e Mello Mourão (1952–2016), known as “Tunga,” emerged in the Brazilian contemporary art scene in the late sixties. One of the most well-known artists from Brazil, his work encompasses painting, sculpture, drawing, film, video, and experimental installation. In 1974, early in Tunga’s career, two shows of his work were held at the aforementioned Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM-Rio). In a show entitled Ar do Corpo [Air of Body], held in 1975, the artist interrogated interaction between viewers and the work, as well as the sexuality that ensues between the subject and the body.

For more information on that exhibition and on Tunga’s work in general from those years, see art critic Ronaldo Brito’s text “Transparência do Desejo” [doc. no. 1110561]. Tunga began gaining international recognition in the seventies. Brazilian critic Paulo Venancio Filho discusses the experimental role of Tunga and of Cildo Meireles in the essay “Situações limite” [doc. no. 1110974], written in conjunction with a 1989 show in Belgium featuring work by both artists.