On the basis of a text by Robert Fontené, Lourival Gomes Machado formulates a criticism of theorists of abstraction, specifically of Fontené himself and of Belgian curator Léon Degand. Gomes Machado sees both those critics as advocates of a progressive vision of art with abstraction at the apex. In Gomes Machado’s view, abstract art entails above all else a rejection of the world today and the projection of a diversified future. Indeed, he argues, abstraction represents a wide range of visual creations and no single theory is capable of defining it, despite what many theories of abstraction would have us believe. The critic praises the thinking of Heinrich Wölfflin, though he does not go so far as to accept his notion that art vacillates between two styles. He criticizes the ideas of Kant and Hegel, asserting that the theoretical frameworks they apply to the field of art are not adequate, whereas Marxism provides a more pertinent vision.

In this text, São Paulo-based art critic, professor, and journalist Lourival Gomes Machado (1917-1967) formulates a criticism of theories of abstraction based on the writings of French abstract artist Robert Fontené.  Fontené was associated with the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles-Nouvelles Réalités in Paris at the time, even serving as its president for a period. Gomes Machado staunchly opposes a progressive vision of art history as evolving from figuration to abstraction, a vision proposed by Belgian critic Léon Degand (1907–1958)—the first director of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo before Gomes Machado took over that post. Gomes Machado also engages the work of Swiss art historian Heinrich Wölfflin (1864–1945), whose theories of formal analysis exercised great influence on early 20th-century art history. In Heinrich Wölfflin’s book Conceitos Fundamentais da História da Arte (1940), he refutes the idea that the classical and the baroque ensued in succession. The other article that Gomes Machado refers to, one in which Wölfflin defends abstract art, is “Demonstração do óbvio,” published in issue 113 of the literary supplement to the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo (São Paulo, December 27, 1958) (see “A presença dos concretistas,” ICAA digital arhgive doc. no. 1110728).

In 1941, journalist, critic, and art historian Lourival Gomes Machado—along with intellectuals of the stature of Antonio Candido, Paulo Emílio Salles Gomes, and Décio de Almeida Prado—launched the São Paulo-based magazine Clima. The aim of the publication was to encourage innovation in the spheres of literary criticism, film, and theater in Brazil. During the forties, Gomes Machado was an art critic for the newspaper Folha da Manhã and the editor of the international section of O Estado de S, Paulo. After the resignation of Belgian curator Léon Degand, Gomes Machado became the director of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM/SP), a post he held from 1949 to 1951; he was also the chief curator of the first and fifth editions of the São Paulo Biennial. His most well known text is Barroco Mineiro (1969), a selection of articles on the baroque from the state of Minas Gerais, a topic that Gomes Machado began investigating in 1953 in his Teorias do Barroco.