This text was originally published in the newspaper O Estado on May 27, 1945. The article is an informal interview that Mário Baratta had with Aldemir Martins at the beginning of Martins’ career when he was about to leave his city in the northeast of Brazil. The themes discussed were the predominant provincialism and the lack of an artistic market in the region. He also cited the importance of Antonio Bandeira’s influence on his early paintings.
Mário Baratta was born in Rio de Janeiro (1914−83) and relocated in 1932 to Fortaleza in the state of Ceara, Brazil, becoming a “Cearense for life” and a local and cultural emblematic figure. He worked as an art critic and was key in the establishment of the Centro Cultural de Belas Artes in Fortaleza, an entity that was responsible for the first art exhibition halls, the Salão Cearense de Pintura in 1941, followed by the Salão de Abril in 1943. Due to financial problems in 1944, the SCAP (Sociedade Cearense de Artes Plásticas) was created in 1946 to revive the Salão de Abril, an event that featured local artists that were in dialogue with what was being produced artistically in Brazil at the time, offering them national exposure.
[For additional reading, please refer to the ICAA digital archive for the following texts by Mário Baratta: “Antonio Bandeira e a pintura” (doc. no. 1110781), “Carta a Mario de Andrade” (doc. no. 1110783), “De como deve ser visto o binômio Clã-SCAP” (doc. no. 1111385), “Exposição cearense” (doc. no. 1111388), “Pincéis e violinos” (doc. no. 1110784), and “II Salão de Abril” (doc. no.1111387)].
