The manifesto that launched Rex Gallery & Sons in the city of São Paulo addresses in passing issues facing the visual arts in Brazil such as the paucity of galleries that support the production of artists, the lack of specialized art criticism, the spottiness of the information available on art, and the dearth of art books. The manifesto takes a stance by forming a group that would operate as a cooperative. The group would organize a venue for exhibitions, hold events, and publish a newsletter called Rex Time. Regardless of whether the initiative proved enduring or successful, it would be valid, the manifesto asserts, if it provided an alternative to artists moving abroad to produce their work. Significantly, the text was written at the beginning of a military dictatorship in Brazil that would last for over two decades (1964–85). 

Despite the solemn atmosphere in Brazil after a military coup on March 31, 1964 that did away with democracy and abolished civil rights, the tone of the manifesto that put forth the idea underlying the short-lived Grupo Rex is playful and biting.

Founded in 1966 by Brazilian artists Wesley Duke Lee (1931–2010), Geraldo de Barros (1923–98), Nelson Leirner (b. 1932), Carlos Fajardo (b. 1941), Luiz Paulo Baravelli (b. 1942), and  Frederico Nasser (b. 1942), the polemic Grupo Rex was critical of the art scene. It both ran a gallery, Rex Gallery & Sons, and put out a newsletter, Rex Time. In addition to the five shows the group held and the five newsletters it released, it engaged in other cultural activities, including organizing a lecture by sculptor Flávio de Carvalho.

The group disbanded and the gallery closed in 1967 with an event or happening organized by Leirner entitled “O encerramento do grupo e da galeria se dá em 1967 com o evento, considerado um happening, ‘Exposição não exposição’” [Non-Exhibition Exhibition]. 

The author of this text is journalist Thomaz Souto Corrêa (b. 1938). He was the editor of a number of São Paulo-based magazines before becoming the vice-president of Editora Abril, a major publishing house in Brazil. “Aviso: Rex kaput” [doc. no. 1111033], also by Corrêa, comments on the cessation of the Grupo Rex’s activities. See as well the anonymous text “O fechamento duma galeria paulista: Rex: bandeira arriada” [doc. no. 1111185].