In this 2005 article, the Brazilian art critic Rodrigo Naves reviews the performance of the economist, banker and collector Edemar Cid Ferreira. The article focuses on his role as “spokesman” for Brazilian art in the national and international markets, describing his meteoric rise to president of the Fundação Bienal in 1993. In the course of fifteen years, he would become a major force in the Brazilian visual arts. The writer supports the hypothesis that the banker moved into the art world seeking prestige that would serve to clean up his image, perhaps otherwise sullied by his links to corrupt, law-breaking politicians. Meanwhile, he used this affiliation as a “lever” to promote his commercial activities. Naves analyzed the establishment of the Associação Brasil 500 and of the 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 25th São Paulo Biennials (from 1994 to 2002) and the undeniable increase in attendance at such events. In the end, Naves deemed the transformations in these biennials negative, along with the exhibitions held under the aegis of the Associação Brasil 500, sponsorship that was ultimately damaging to the understanding of the highly diverse artwork involved in these events.

In his role as an art critic and professor, Rodrigo Naves (b. 1954) weighs the performance of Edemar Cid Ferreira (b. 1943) as a major public figure in the visual arts in Brazil. Cid Ferreira was a Brazilian banker charged and imprisoned in 2005 for money laundering, conspiracy and tax evasion. This article is a thoughtful study of the banker’s choice to take the visual arts under the umbrella of his “patronage,” since art is still considered to be an elitist field. Naves believes the banker did more harm than good to the Brazilian visual arts, and that this milieu is too weak to demonstrate any kind of social relevance.

Cid Ferreira himself speaks out in the introduction to a catalogue for the exhibition Côte à Côté: art contemporain du Brésil [Side by Side: Contemporary Art in Brazil], held in Bordeaux. In some sense, this was the origin of Brasil 500, held in 2000 by Ferreira’s own company, BrasilConnects. Ferreira praises the art produced in his country in order to increase its value as a product for export, stirring up a great debate that has been going on down to this day.

Art historian, critic, university professor and even a writer of fiction, Rodrigo Naves has been the editor of the supplement Folhetim, in the Folha de São Paulo, and of the journal Novos Estudos. He is currently editor for the project Espaços  da Arte Brasileira for the publisher Cosac Naify.