Brazilian art critic Márcio Doctors discusses the actions carried out by the Rio de Janeiro-based group, A Moreninha, which was active in the eighties. The group members included the artists Ricardo Basbaum, Alexandre Dacosta, and Enéas Valle. Doctors discusses how, by means of parody, the group deconstructs codes and models for reflection on art. He observes that the work of these artists addresses the question of a new temporality innate to contemporary production. Instead of following the model of the modern—that is, revolutionary—artist, they make use of a postmodern structure based on addition. This is the basis for Doctors’s criticism of the trans-avant-garde, a movement that—owing to international criticism spearheaded by Benito Achile Oliva in Italy—came to be considered emblematic of the eighties.  

Art critic and freelance curator Márcio Doctors was the private secretary of Mário Pedrosa, a major Brazilian theorist, politician, and critic. He also wrote on art for the Rio de Janeiro-based newspaper, O Globo. He is currently the curator of the Fundação Eva Klabin Rapaport in that city.

Doctors has written on a number of artists based in Rio de Janeiro, among them Ivens Machado [see “Ivens Machado: exorbitando a pureza,” ICAA digital archive (doc. no. 1111382), Lygia Pape (see “Lygia Pape: a radicalidade do real,” doc. no. 1111257), and Eduardo Sued (see “Eduardo Sued: a geometria da fuga,” doc. no. 1111381)].

Artist, professor, critic, and curator Ricardo Basbaum emerged on the art scene in the eighties, writing about the alleged weakening of criticism during that decade (see “Cica & sede de crítica,” doc. no. 1111406), as well as “the return to painting” it witnessed (see “Pintura dos anos 80: algumas observações críticas,” doc. no. 1110972) and the singular work of Sérgio Romagnolo (see “Sérgio Romagnolo,” doc. no. 1111249). In the nineties, he formed part of the Visorama group while also editing the magazine Ítem. He was the coordinator of Agência de Organismos Artísticos (AGORA) and later, of Espaço Agora-Capacete. He was one of the curators of Panorama de Arte Brasileira (2001), and in 2007, his work was featured at Documenta in Kassel.