After getting involved in the Centros Populares de Cultura (CPC), poet and critic [José Ribamar] Ferreira Gullar (b. 1930), who had been an important advocate of the Neo-Concrete movement, adopted a highly critical stance on the problems of society in the early sixties. The book Vanguarda e subdesenvolvimento: ensaios sobre arte [Avant-Garde and Underdevelopment: Essays on Art] was written from 1965 to 1969, that is, in the wake of the military coup that led two decades of military rule (1964–85) that would cripple Brazilian life. It was during a period when the Brazilian left was beginning a process of self-criticism and reorientation that the author joined the Partido Comunista Brasileño (PCB). Indeed, that context makes itself felt in the tone of Ferreira Gullar’s essay, especially in his critical reading of imported avant-gardes.
For further reading, see the following texts by Ferreira Gullar: “Arte concreta no Brasil: etapas da pintura contemporânea XXXIX-Arte concreta V” (ICAA digital archive doc. no. 1090830), “Caráter nacional da arte” (doc. no. 807930), “Cor e estrutura-cor” (doc. no. 1091219), “Cultura posta em questão” (doc. no. 1110364), “Do quadro ao não objeto” (doc. no. 1091272), “Do que se chama escultura” (doc. no. 1087407), “I-O Grupo de São Paulo: I Exposição Nacional de Arte Concreta” (doc. no. 1087166), “I Exposição Nacional de Arte Concreta: 2-O grupo do Rio” (doc. no. 1090217), “Manifesto Neoconcreto” (doc. no. 1110328), “O meu e o seu de A. H. Amaral” (doc. no. 1111189), “Opinião 65” (doc. no. 1090530), “Pintura concreta” (doc. no. 1087208), “Tentativa de compreensão” (doc. no. 1091341), “Teoria do não-objeto” (doc. no. 1091374), and “Vanguarda e subdesenvolvimento” (doc. no. 1110361). See as well the following essays of his authorship on major Brazilian artists: “Esculturas de Amilcar de Castro” (doc. no. 1091573), “Lygia Clark” (doc. no. 1111070), “Na pintura, a arte plena de Iberê” (doc. no. 1110417), “Samico: gravador brasileiro=Samico: Brazilian engraver” (doc. no. 1110505), and “Ivan Serpa: ‘o artista já não pode fechar-se em si mesmo’” (doc. no. 1110374).