In this statement, Ronaldo Brito takes the opportunity to clarify that the journal he cofounded, Malasartes, marked a moment in the Brazilian art world where there were different meanings for the various cultural participants. In his opinion, the journal entered into Brazilian politics, and it was through the journal that Brito had his first experience as a critic in the art world. He believes the discussions stimulated by Malasartes reached the sphere of the sociology of art, intervening in art and culture that was submissively serving the art market. If the journal was not the first to provide incentives in the Brazilian cultural scene, it was a conduit for adopting new approaches and reaffirming others, raising issues such as that of the artist/editor. The rapid success garnered by the journal precipitated its fate, which was split in two opposing directions. One would have opened the journal to arts discussions with broader horizons; the other defended the sociopolitical radicalization of the publication. Since these were mutually exclusive and the proponents on both sides ruled out mediation, the editors decided to close the journal. Other isolated initiatives did not lead anywhere, and all the timely issues raised in the journal remained in limbo. 

This statement is part of the ideological criticism of the art market circulated by Brito in the 1970s through Arte em Revista. Here the critic writes an assessment of the shrewd dissemination of the journal Malasartes (of which he was one of the cofounders and editor). Although only three issues were published, there is no doubt that its pages marked a cultural zenith in the mid-1970s. This was just when the Brazilian military dictatorship prohibited anything that would disturb the political system or the status quo.

Ronaldo [Correia de] Brito (b. 1951), who is from the state of Ceará, is one of the most important and influential art critics on the Brazilian art scene. He has published his essays in books, journals, and exhibition catalogues, also contributing to the newspaper Opinião. Brito was one of the founders of the journals Malasartes and Gávea. In the 1970s, he was prominent in the art world, and promoted the reexamination of the Neo-Concrete movement and its legacy in Brazilian contemporary art.

Brito also wrote about one of his Malasartes colleagues, the São Paulo sculptor José Resende, in “Em forma de mundo” [see doc. no. 1111278]. For Brito’s analysis of the Brazilian art market in the 1970s, see “Análise do circuito” [doc. no. 1111095].