In this text, Tadeu Chiarelli examines the meaning of printmaking in contemporary art. It adds nothing on a technical level, he argues, and—as the medium used for the reproduction of images in post-industrial society—it is brought into the sphere of advertising by photography and off-set printing. Among the young people of São Paulo, Chiarelli detects opposition to the hegemonic discourse of industrial production; authored images, subjectivity, and traditional methods are privileged over printmaking as mere reproduction. That stance is not reactionary, Chiarelli asserts, but rather a form of resistance that sheds light on existing conflicts and contradictions. The show Gravura Paulista is important because it underscores the hybrid nature of the artist’s initial gesture and of the artisan’s secular gesture in a cross of icons from mass culture and personal vision. For Chiarelli, this approach, though limited, is a valid reaction against the hegemonies that bolster contemporary art today.

The current director of the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Tadeu Chiarelli has done research and curated shows on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Brazilian photography and art. In that work, he establishes ties between art and photography, on the one hand, and the art world and its circuits, on the other, always with an emphasis on social questions. He has played a fundamental role not only in thought on the photographic medium, but also in establishing it as central to Brazilian art from recent decades.

In this text, Chiarelli tackles prejudice against printmaking and analyzes its merit as form of resisting and confronting a number of aspects of art today. The show Gravura Paulista was held at the Galeria de Arte de São Paulo from December 1995 to January 1996. For the first time, the show brought together in a commercial venue young printmakers trained by Evandro Carlos Jardim, who curated it. The author of original work, Jardim played a critical role in educating an entire generation of Brazilian printmakers.

[For complementary reading, see in the ICAA digital archive the following texts by Tadeu Chiarelli: “15 artistas brasileiros: colocando dobradiças na arte contemporânea = Putting Hinges on Contemporary Art” (doc. no. 1110500), “Amanhã hoje: Casa triângulo de 1988 a 1995” (doc. no. 1111344), “Apontamentos para um mapa das artes plásticas em São Paulo durante 1985” (doc. no. 1111351), “Apropriações: o lugar da arte como questão” (doc. no. 1111252), “Armadilhas para Narciso” (doc. no. 1111253), “Considerações sobre o uso de imagens de segunda geração na arte contemporânea” (doc. no. 1110502), “Da arte nacional brasileira para a arte brasileira internacional” (doc. no. 1075144), “Emmanuel Nassar: erudito e popular” (doc. no. 1110457), “Fotografía en Brasil: años 90 = Photography in Brazil in the 1990s” (doc. no. 1110894), “A gravura no espelho” (doc. no. 1111250 “Jac Leirner” (doc. no. 1111254), “La mirada contaminada: otras fotografías = The contaminated gaze: other photographies” (doc. no. 1110893), “Realidade e simulacro” (doc. no. 1111255), “Uma realidade... dilacerante: a produção de Nazareth Pacheco = Nazareth Pacheco’s output: a lacerating reality” (doc. no. 1111059), “Sobre a fotografia brasileira atual = On current Brazilian photography” (doc. no. 1110895), “Sobre as pinturas de Mônica Nador” (doc. no. 1111256), and “O tridimensional na arte brasileira dos anos 80 e 90: genealogias, superações” (doc. no. 1111352)].