This article is not about any of Cildo Meireles’ exhibitions in particular; it is more of an overview of the Brazilian artist’s body of work as a whole. Since the second half of the twentieth century his works have focused on political matters and the structures of art (its visual nature, links, relationships, and the circulation of a work of art).
The critic and curator Wilson Coutinho was active in his field in Rio de Janeiro from 1980 to 2003.
Cildo Meireles emerged in Brazilian art circles in the late 1960s. He attracted attention in 1969 at the Salão da Bússola [Compass Salon], an emblematic exhibition at the MAM-RJ (Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro) where he won the prize. He took part in events such as Do Corpo à Terra (1970), organized by the critic Frederico Morais in Belo Horizonte [in that regard, see in the ICAA digital archive by Francisco Bittencourt “A geração tranca-ruas” (doc. no. 1110681)]. In the mid-1970s he showed his work at the Sala Experimental do MAM-RJ, about which you can read the article “Sala Experimental” (doc. no. 1110602), written by Anna Bella Geiger, Ivens Machado, and Paulo Herkenhoff. Meireles was a member of the group that founded the magazine Malasartes, among other activities during that decade. He is currently one of the major contemporary artists in Brazil, and has had several retrospective exhibitions at important museums in Europe and the United States.
