In this essay, the art critic Roberto Pontual points to the emergence of the curator and the “sensationalism” of exhibitions. In his opinion, both started appearing in the 1960s. Pontual tracks the historical development of these issues that led to the recent problems of “international art fairs.” He notes that the quantitative and behavioral changes of the visiting public did not bring about a qualitative transformation in the education of visitors interested in the visual arts. The author concludes the article with an analysis of the Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, especially the 1985 edition curated by the French Brazilian Sheila Leirner.

A native of Recife in the state of Pernambuco, Roberto Pontual worked as a journalist and a literary and art critic in Rio de Janeiro. In 1969, he published the Dicionário de Artes Plásticas no Brasil [Dictionary of Visual Arts in Brazil], a point of reference in Brazilian art. An active participant in Brazilian art circles since the 1960s, he was one of the major art critics in Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s. He was also the director of exhibitions at the MAM-RJ (Museu de Arte Moderna) from 1973 to 1976. In 1978, he organized the exhibition Geometria sensível at theMAM-RJ, for which he earned still more notoriety. Due to the tensions produced by the military dictatorship, he voluntarily exiled himself to Paris in 1980 where he lived until his death in 1992.

Please refer to the ICAA digital archive for the text written by Roberto Pontual titled Explode Geração! (Rio de Janeiro: Avenir, 1984), (doc. no. 1110991). In it, the author attempts to articulate his personal, at times literary, views on Brazilian art of the 1980s, specifically as regards artists such as Mônica Nador and Ana Maria Tavares in São Paulo, and Leda Catunda, Sérgio Romagnolo, and Beatriz Milhazes in Rio de Janeiro. See also the manifesto he wrote on that generation in “Semana nacional de poesia de vanguarda: comunicado e conclusões” (doc. no. 1110501); for additional reading on this subject, see Ricardo Basbaum’s “Pintura dos anos 80: Algumas observações críticas” (doc. no. 1110972).

[As complementary reading, see in the archive the following texts written by Roberto Pontual: “Corpos de afago e dor = Bodies of caress and pain” (doc. no. 1111211), “Crise da crise? A resposta também pode ser nossa” (doc. no. 1110986), “Do mundo, a América Latina. Entre as geometrias, a sensível” (doc. no. 771399), “Os dois Brasis” (doc. no. 1110617), “Em torno do sistema da arte” (doc. no. 1110554), “Imagens da imagem” (doc. no. 1110688), “A natureza reposta em arte” (doc. no. 1111359), “Notas sôbre a xilogravura popular brasileira” (doc. no. 1111031), “Um panorama brasileiro” (doc. no. 1110604), “O quase mago Roberto Magalhães” (doc. no. 1111080), “Sistema de arte em questão: o que fazer?” (doc. no. 1111082), and “Waltércio Caldas: luz e enigma” (doc. no. 1110563)]. 

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