The art critic Frederico Morais maintains that the print is “one of the last refuges of the visual arts” from the emergence of the new avant-gardes throughout the 1960s, in particular, Pop art. In this text, the print turns out to be the democratic mode of expression par excellence. The possibility of a multiplicity of images not only allows each piece to be cheaper, but it also provides greater accessibility. In the writer’s opinion, that period is marked by the concurrent  “democratization of themes” that takes place in Pop art and the “democratization of the communications media” that emerges from silkscreen techniques. He even believes it was the period best suited for an art that is constructive by nature, in other words, an art of “pure, pedestrian colors,” that is “geometric” and features an “absence of textures,” etc. According to the writer, the rapid development of silkscreen techniques, along with the use of transparent paint, led to their slow but sure adoption by artists. What came into play were the attributes and qualities of these techniques, as happened with other media linked to graphic arts, and not just their use as a means of reproduction or the mere production of multiple copies.

Frederico [de] Morais (b. 1936) is an art critic whose voice has left a significant mark on Brazil. As a newspaper journalist, he was an art critic for years in Diário de Notícias and in O Globo, both published in Rio de Janeiro. In the 1960s and 1970s, as a supporter of several avant-garde movements during those years, he was known as one of the most active “committed” critics, in addition to serving as a curator.

In this text, Morais analyzes the presence of the print in the artwork produced in Brazil during the 1960s and 1970s, in the midst of the whirlwind unleashed by what were known as the “new avant-gardes.” The artists involved were those who espoused the innovative media and visual languages emerging in the art world. This document is one article in a catalogue assembled for the exhibition Mostra da Gravura Brasileira, held by the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo in 1974, organized and coordinated by the professor and artist Donato Ferrari. Moreover, this catalogue includes essays by the journalists Mário Barata and Jayme Maurício, as well as testimonials by printmakers such as Lívio Abramo, Oswaldo Goeldi, Iberê Camargo, Marcello Grassmann, Darel, Fayga Ostrower, and Abelardo Rodrigues.