This book is part of the ABC (Arte Brasileira Contemporânea) collection, published by Funarte (Fundação Nacional das Artes). As the title suggests, Artur Barrio is about the artist; it includes a selection of his essays, illustrated with a variety of images, such as: “Manifesto” (1969), “Das formas de atuação” (1969/70 and 1973…), “Lama/Carne Esgoto” [Mud/Sewer Meat] (1970), “Meu trabalho está ligado a uma situação subjetiva/objetiva…” (1970), “Trabalho: 1970 Arte” (1970), “O artista plástico. Divulgação do trabalho. Mercado de arte.” (1970/74), “Em relação aos aspectos: rótulos/escolas e possibilidades” (1975), “A crítica de arte não tem o saber” [Art criticism knows nothing about anything] (1974/75), “Da qualidade técnica do registro ou precariedade” (1970/75), and (untitled) [“Dada a divisão e conseqüentes reflexos no poder da decisão ‘das atuais diretorias’ do MAM do Rio de Janeiro (…)”] (1978). The book also includes a number of articles about the Situações [political performances in the streets or shanty towns during the height of the military dictatorship] and some of the artist’s other group projects during the 1970s. 

The ABC (Arte Brasileira Contemporânea) collection was started by Funarte in 1978 and became a pioneering reference work about Brazilian art in the 1960s and 1970s. Over the course of its sixteen years, and other than the book on Barrio, ABC published books about the ideas of and works by Anna Bella Geiger, Carlos Vergara, Rubens Gerchman, Antonio Dias, Wesley Duke Lee, Lygia Clark, Cildo Meireles, Waltercio Caldas, Lygia Pape, and Antonio Manuel. The list of those book authors includes critics, curators, and artists, such as Ronaldo Brito, Paulo Sérgio Duarte, Fernando Cocchiarale, Hélio Oiticica, Mário Pedrosa, Paulo Venâncio Filho, Frederico Morais, Ferreira Gullar, and others.

Artur Barrio (b. 1945) was born in Portugal and settled in Brazil in 1955. By the late 1960s he started creating his “Cadernoslivros” [Notebook-books] that included articles and records expressed in his own very unique language. Since then he has produced experimental works that blur the boundaries between art, existence, and the art world itself. 

[As complementary reading, see the following articles by Artur Barrio in the ICAA digital archive: “Se o corpo é o suporte = If the body is the support” (doc. no. 1110694); “Fantasias; Fragmentos” (doc. no. 1110600); “DOM,...O,,DE...P...PEL” (doc. no. 1110595); “Depoimento I” (doc. no. 1110598); “Barrio” (doc. no. 1110491); with the artists Dinah Guimaraens and Lauro Cavalcanti “Mitos Vadios” (doc. no. 1110494); and “Cadernoslivros” (doc. no. 1110597)].