This text was published in the catalogue to the Primeira Bienal Nacional de Artes Plásticas held in the city of Salvador, in the state of Bahia, in 1966 and 1967. An exhibition honoring the work of painter José Pancetti was held hors concours in the context of that event. In the fifties, Pancetti lived in Bahia whose urban and human landscapes he painted. Along with fellow young artists Mário Cravo Jr., Genaro de Carvalho, and Carlos Bastos, Pancetti was an important force in a renewal of the art scene in northeastern Brazil. In addition to paying tribute to Pancetti, Wilson Rocha’s text condemns in no uncertain terms problems endemic to Brazilian art, among them the indiscriminate importation of international art and the widespread circulation of a spurious primitivism.
Only two editions of the Bienal Nacional de Artes Plásticas da Bahia were held. The event brought contemporary works by Brazilian artists from other parts of Brazil, largely São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, to Bahia. At this first edition, emphasis was placed on artists working in abstraction, as well as young artists close to the Pop and New Figuration movements. At the time, production of this sort clashed with local “modernist” production, which was still anchored in popular references and the region’s tradition.
[For other texts by Rocha on the event, see in the ICAA digital archive his essay on printmaker “Henrique Oswald” (doc. no. 1110851)].
