A review of modernist trends in Latin American countries and the controversies unleashed by artistic avant-gardes in the 1920s are the underlying themes of the Primeiro Caderno de Cultura produced by the Memorial da América Latina under the direction of Ana Maria [de Moraes] Belluzzo. The project showcased essays by many different Latin American writers as well as historical manifestos and documents. Contributions included “La modernidad después de la posmodernidad” by the Argentinean anthropologist Néstor García Canclini; “Modernidad y Mezcla Cultural. El caso de Buenos Aires” by the literary critic Beatriz Sarlo; and “Neovanguardia y posvanguardia: el filo de la sospecha” by the Franco-Chilean art sociologist Nelly Richard. Professor Belluzo, in turn, reviews the theoretical reflections on modernism expounded by Peter Bürger and Jürgen Habermas in her attempt to express the specific qualities of modern Latin American avant-gardes. She identifies principles that were common to modern avant-gardes all over the Americas as she discusses the works of certain Brazilian movements, such as modernism in the 1920s, and Concrete and Neo-Concrete art in the 1950s and 1960s.
Ana Maria Belluzzo is a professor, researcher, and freelance critic who specializes in Brazilian art and modernism in particular. She is a teacher at the FAU-USP (Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo), and served as the coordinator of the Brazilian team that worked on the ICAA-MFAH project, “Critical Documents of 20th-Century Latin American and Latino Art.”
[For more on Professor Belluzzo’s research into Latin American avant-gardes as seen from a Brazilian perspective, see the ICAA digital archive, “A vocação construtiva da arte latino-americana” (doc. no. 808244) and “Reescrevendo a história da arte latino-americana” (doc. no. 808314)].