In this critical text, Frederico Morais asserts that Marcos Benjamim’s work looks to childhood experiences in the province of Minas Gerais, where Morais himself grew up, turning them into a way of life. As a child, the artist was surrounded by humble people who nourished his imagination, along with comic books and paintings he found in the workshop of his craftsman father. Morais remarks on a visit that Benjamim made to Valle del Jequitinhonha, where he was struck not by the poverty, but by the creativity of the people. Morais describes the artist’s development from early drawings and caricatures to objects constructed with rusty cans, rotten pieces of wood, and nails. In Morais’s view, Benjamim’s work partakes of both Arte Povera and filmmaker Glauber Rocha’s “aesthetics of hunger.” Morais makes reference to French philosopher Gaston Bachelard’s notion of “topophilia” in relation to the themes of the house, of memory, and of making that run through Marcos Benjamin’s production. He ventures the hypothesis that the artist’s drawings steeped in maternal figures and sculptures steeped in paternal figures encompass the ideas of body and home. Morais underscores the importance of touch and the hand in exceptional artisanal work. He mentions other artists who have also pursued the “house” theme—perhaps a sign of the crisis faced by modern man due to a lack of affect.

This commentary on the work of Marcos [Coelho] Benjamim (b. 1952) places emphasis on the questions of memory, eroticism, and artisanal practice, all of which the critic deems characteristic of a certain strain of contemporary Brazilian art. 

A draftsman and sculptor, Marcos Coelho Benjamim was born and raised in the state of Minas Gerais. His early work consisted of drawings and caricatures, but in the eighties, he began making large-format objects and sculptures. He is, indisputably, a major representative of art from this region of Brazil. His work combines pictorial memory with the international object-based practice characteristic of the “Geração 80.”

Frederico [de] Morais (b. 1936) is a major figure in Brazilian art criticism. Starting with his early work as a film critic in Belo Horizonte where he contributed to a number of the city newspapers, he has defended unconventional and experimental forms of expression associated with the avant-garde. In 1967, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, writing art criticism for the newspapers Diário de Notícias and O Globo. He was one of the most active “committed” critics of the sixties and seventies, supporting avant-garde movements and curating occasional experimental art exhibitions. Pursuant to the emergence of the “Geração 80,” he reformulated some of his political views and theories. 

Texts by Morais on the “Geração 80” include “Leonilson: a Geração 80 ficou para tras,” [ICAA digital archive doc. no. 1110961); on the “retour à l’ordre” in Brazil, see “Gosto deste cheiro de pintura” [I like the smell of paint] (doc. no. 1110992)]. Some of the countless texts on the “Geração 80” are found in the ICAA digital archive (see: “Dance a noite inteira mas dance direito” (doc. no. 1110945) y “Pintura dos anos 80: algumas observações críticas” (doc. no. 1110972).