Roberto Magalhães began to stand out in the Brazilian art world after his paradigmatic exhibitions Opinião 65, Opinião 66, and Nova Objetividade. Though he was linked to the various styles presented at those events, his work had a certain unique quality both in terms of his concept of the figure and his handcrafted approach to technique. [Please refer to the ICAA digital archive for the following texts on the subject: “Opinião provoca manifesto,” by Harry Laus (doc. no 1110558); “Declaração Poética para Opinião 66,” by Franco Ceres et al. (doc. no. 1110375); “Opinião 65,” by Franco Ceres (doc. no. 1090499): “Opinião 65,” by Ferreira Gullar (doc. no. 1090530); “A Opinião Brasileira de 66,” by Frederico Morais (doc. no. 1110550); and “Esquema geral da nova objetividade,”by Hélio Oiticica (doc. no. 1110372)].
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, 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.
Roberto Pontual wrote Explode [AB1] Geração! (Rio de Janeiro: Avenir, 1984), (doc. no. 1110991), in which he 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 about 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, please see the archive for 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), “Expor:impor ou propor?” (doc. no. 1110954), “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), “Sistema de arte em questão: o que fazer?” (doc. no. 1111082), and “Waltércio Caldas: luz e enigma” (doc. no. 1110563)].
