This is an article about an exhibition of contemporary artists from Pernambuco to be held at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC-USP), directed by the professor Walter Zanini. Zanini had visited Pernambuco to select artists to participate in the exhibition, specifically: Francisco Brennand, Maria Carmen, Gilvan Samico, José Cláudio, João Câmara Filho, Anchises Azevedo, Wellington Virgulino, Reynaldo Fonseca, and Tiago. Of this original list, only Fonseca and Tiago did not end up participating in the exhibition and were replaced by Abelardo da Hora, an established artist who was living in São Paulo by then. The text reproduces testimonies by artists who talk about aspects of their work and discuss the art milieu in Recife (the capital of Pernambuco). It also describes the selection process used for the São Paulo biennials. Moreover, Zanini confers on these artists the status of bearers of the tradition of their predecessors in Pernambuco: Joaquim and Vicente do Rego Monteiro, Cícero Dias, and Lula Cardoso Ayres.

In addition to being one of the curators of the First São Paulo Biennial (1951), art critic, historian, and curator, Walter Zanini (1925−2013) was the first director of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea (linked to the Universidade de São Paulo [USP]). As director there from 1963 to 1978, Zanini made outstanding efforts to provide incentives for the work of new artists as well as for marginalized artwork of all kinds. This included technological approaches to Conceptual art, from multimedia projects to visual poetics. He also taught at the Escola de Comunicações e Artes da Universidade de São Paulo (ECA-USP). 

The text brings to light the search for local elements added to the regional experience with this group of artists from Pernambuco selected by Professor Zanini. In his opinion, their work follows in a direct line from the work of Joaquim and Vicente do Rego Monteiro, Cícero Dias, and Lula Cardoso Ayres. These predecessors were modern artists from Pernambuco who were interested in popular and indigenous art. Both Dias and Ayres went through a period of investigating abstract art in the 1950s and 1960s. Moreover, the tie between Abelardo da Hora and the artists selected by Zanini goes back to the 1950s, when Samico, Virgulino, and José Cláudio set up a workshop, the Ateliê Coletivo, which was directed by da Hora between 1952 and 1957. The Ateliê fostered an interest in local craftwork and themes. One of its obvious supporters was the Sociedade de Arte Moderna de Recife (SAM), which sought to do away with the existing academic art education in the State of Pernambuco once and for all. Azevedo was the only artist from another state (Bahía), though he was living in Recife. As for “Tiago,” this must have been Tiago Amorim, an art colleague of João Câmara Filho.