José Valladares comments on the issues debated at the Congrès International des Critiques d’Art, (Paris, 1948). At that crucial time just after World War II, the discussion revolved around the formation of an international association of art critics (later known as the International Association of Art Critics, AICA). However, the most contentious debates were carried on about realism vs. abstract art. In his text, the Brazilian art critic emphasizes the testimony set forth by the Italian critic Lionello Venturi. Having drawn the conceptual boundaries of the debate, Venturi defended, as an essential premise, the idea that all art must be judged based on its own visual art value system.

This text is a record of the participation of José Valladares (an art critic working in the state of Bahia, Brazil) in the Congrès International des Critiques d’Art, held in the French capital in 1948. The critic wished to inform his readers about the discussions that went on, many of them focused on the merits of figurative versus abstract art. This was postwar Europe, and this issue soon became the favorite debate topic in art discussions in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, the quintessential urban centers of Brazil. In the spirit of the times, these cities proceeded to develop Brazil’s first groups of artists moving into abstract art. During this same period in Bahia, an art renewal movement began to arise led by Mário Cravo Jr., Genaro de Carvalho and Carlos Bastos, in whose works we may detect a combination of elements taken from local culture (Afro-Brazilian) and some art exploration leaning toward abstract art.

With his background in the study of museum organization, the journalist/critic José [Antonio do Prado] Valladares (1917–59) was named director of the Museu do Estado da Bahia (1939–43). He also taught Aesthetics courses at the Universidade da Bahia (founded in 1946), subsequently renamed Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBa). At the same time, he wrote art criticism in the local press; in some cases, he was the first to consider the work of young artists who were the ones to introduce Modernist values into the art world of that region.

[In the ICAA digital archive, see the following writings by José Valladares: “Arte moderna na Bahia” (doc. no. 1110845), “Movimento artístico bahiano” (doc. no. 1110700), “O salão bahiano I: visitantes e instalação” (doc. no. 1110847), “O anjo azul”  (doc. no. 1110844), “A exposição de Carlos Bastos” (doc. no. 1110695), regarding Mário Cravo Jr., “Surge um escultor” (doc. no. 1110701), and on Poty Lazzarotto, “As gravuras de Poty” (doc. no. 1110846)].