This essay posits the concept of “geometría sensível” [Sensitive Geometry] as one of the unitary characteristics of contemporary Latin American art, and notes the growing interest (within the region and further afield) in the art produced in Latin America. According to the author, the critic and curator Roberto Pontual, this trend is illustrated by a number of events, such as: the Art and Literature Symposium held in Austin, Texas (1975), the noticeable presence of Latin American artists at the Paris Biennial (1977), the Primera Bienal Latinoamericana de Pintura in Mexico City, and the Primer Encuentro Iberoamericano de Críticos de Arte y Artistas Plásticos in Caracas (both in 1978). For these and other reasons, Pontual claims there is a need “to cautiously address and engage with efforts to seek (…) a specifically Latin American identity”.

This is the introductory essay to the catalogue for América Latina: Geometria sensível, the exhibition organized by Roberto [Gonçalves] Pontual (1939–94) at the MAM-RJ (Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro) in June-July 1978 as part of the Arte Agora [Art Now] program of events. Despite his cautious assessment of what was considered the “state of grace of so-called Latin American art” which, in his opinion, could well be symptomatic of the opening of “new markets” via a “manipulation of a multinational nature,” the author chooses to give the exhibition he is curating a “constituent character” that is not limited to calculations or mere visibility, but is imbued with an intuitive, multi-sensory quality. While not granting greater importance to either of these extremes (reason and/or intuition), Pontual suggests that contemporary Latin American art tends to fluctuate between a logical, rigorous, mathematical kind of art and a more indefinite style that includes a form of alternation. “Geometria sensível” [Sensitive Geometry] is the name coined by the Argentinean critics Damián Bayón and Aldo Pellegrini as an umbrella term for this exhibition that included over two hundred works by a wide range of artists, including the Uruguayan maestro Joaquín Torres García and his compatriots Nelson Ramos and Washington Barcala; Alejandro Otero and Jesús Rafael Soto (from Venezuela); Ana Mercedes Hoyos, Edgar Negret, and Omar Rayo (Colombia); Jacques Bedel, Marcelo Bonevardi, and Mercedes Estes (Argentina); the Spanish artist living in Mexico Vicente Rojo and the Mexican artist Enrique Carbajal; Orlando Condeso (Peru); and the Brazilians and those living in Brazil, Adriano d’Aquino, Alfredo Volpi, Amílcar de Castro, Antonio Dias, Arcângelo Ianelli, Avatar Moraes, Eduardo Sued, Mira Schendel, Paulo Roberto Leal, Rubem Valentim, and Wilson Alves.

Pontual was one of the most prominent and active critics in the Rio de Janeiro art world in the 1970s. He also curated important exhibitions at the MAM-RJ during that period.

[As complementary reading, see the following essays by Roberto Pontual in the ICAA digital archive: “Corpos de afago e dor = Bodies of Caress and Pain” (doc. no. 1111211); “Crise da crise? A resposta também pode ser nossa” (doc. no. 1110986); “Os dois Brasis” (doc. no. 1110617); “Expor: impor ou propor?” (doc. no. 1110954); “Imagens da imagem” (doc. no. 1110688); “A natureza reposta em arte” (doc. no. 1111359); “Notas sôbre a xilogravura popular brasileira” (doc. no. 1111031); “Um panorama brasileiro” (doc. no. 1110604); “O quase mago Roberto Magalhães” (doc. no. 1111080); “Sistema de arte em questão: o que fazer?” (doc. no. 1111082); “Valtércio Caldas: luz e enigma” (doc. no. 1110563); and “Em torno do sistema da arte” (doc. no. 1110554)].