This exhibition attests to Aracy Amaral’s vast curatorial intuition in bringing together three-dimensional works from a number of sources, therefore shifting the perspective of the art debate onto the object. On the basis of a text by Mário Pedrosa, Amaral affirms the contributions that Dada and Surrealism made to modern art. This show occasioned a rereading of the art object—a topic that emerged in the sixties—formulating not only a historical revision of that genre but also asserting, at the height of the eighties, its place at the center of Brazilian art.
Aracy A. Amaral (b. 1930) is an art historian and critic. Since 1975, her work has revolved around Latin American art. She took part in the Austin Symposium in Texas where she came into contact with Latin American critics, such as Argentine Damian C. Bayón (1915−1990)—who organized the event—Juan Acha (1916−1995)—a Peruvian critic who lived in Mexico—and Marta Traba (1923−1983), an Argentine critic based in Colombia.
The instigators of the heated debate that took place in Brazil in the sixties were theorists Waldemar Cordeiro—associated with the Concrete group from São Paulo [see his text “O Objeto,” ICAA digital archive (doc. no. 1086891">1086891), written in 1956] —and later, Ferreira Gullar—leader of the Neo-Concrete group based in Rio de Janeiro, who years later (1960) would write “Teoria do não-objeto” (doc. no. 1091374). Those earlier debates were the parameters around which Amaral would organize a show that attempted to surpass the prevailing Manichean opposition. Pursuant to the Simposio sobre Arte No Objetual held in Medellín, Colombia (doc. no. 1111220), Amaral wrote “Aspectos do não-objetualismo no Brasil” (doc. no. 1111221). The text presented here forms an integral part of that inexhaustible debate on the art object (and its growing importance in the eighties), exemplifying how curatorial practice extends those generational concerns. For other cases, see (doc. no. 1111252) and (doc. no. 1086891">1086891).
