It’s almost inevitable when we think of pop art that names are loved Warhol also Liechtenstein It appeared as references, and in Argentina, think about what happened with some artists from the Di Tella Institute.
However, although pop may share origins and approaches with the growing issue of globalization, it still remains Media The advertisement, among other characteristics, had a position in Brazil closer to political criticism and social issues, as can be seen from the sample. Pop Brazil: the avant-garde and the new form, 1960s-70sIn it Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires (Malba).
The exhibition consists of more than 120 pieces of art by 50 artists and is curated by it Pollyanna Quintela and Yuri Quevedobrings together works from the Pinacoteca de São Paulo Collection and the collections of Malba, Costantini and Roger Wright, recognized as one of the most relevant art collections in Brazil and focusing on the production of the 1960s and 1970s, with references such as Anna Bella Geiger, Antonio Dias, Claudio Tozzi, Helio Oitica, Mira Shindel, Robbins Gershman, Wanda Pimentel and Wesley Duke Leeamong other things.
The sample that is presented in five centers is very clear: Crowds and public places, Stars and astronauts, Desire and triviality, Structure, image and backwardnessand flags event, He is alsoOrganized by Pinacoteca on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of two essential exhibitions of Brazilian art, Opinion 65 and Proposals 65Which, based on various controversies, revealed how “museums were not ready for the new relationships between popular culture and avant-garde art.”
But before entering the exhibition, there are some points of union and contrast between local and Brazilian pop music that reveal not only aesthetic differences, but also deep tensions between politics, the cultural industry, and forms of resistance.
“Brazilian pop music at this time refers a lot to the context of the civil-military dictatorship in Brazil. There are works that respond in particular to some of the events associated with this dictatorship,” Quintella said on tour with. Information cultureStressing that although “both countries experienced authoritarian regimes, the dictatorial regimes were different in nature and generated different artistic responses.”
For his part, Quevedo pointed to a structural difference between the two countries: “Argentina has had a larger cultural scene since the beginning of the 20th century. For Brazil, it is the beginning of a cultural industry, publishing industries, theaters. So, the general audience is about 12 years old in the 1960s, and it is not a cultural audience. It is a less developed scene than it is here.”
Another key characteristic of the neighboring country is that the relationship between art and the cultural industry has been characterized by collaboration between musicians, filmmakers and visual artists.
“There is a movement of cooperation between fields, cinema with Glauber Rochatheater with Like Celso. “There are well-known names in each of their areas of work, but they are working together at a time when, on the one hand, Brazil is experiencing this political radicalization, but on the other hand, there is great social euphoria,” Quintilla said.
This activity was translated into popular culture, which was not limited to music or visual arts, but expanded into public space and television, generating mass phenomena and new forms of interaction between the avant-garde and entertainment.
However, the reach of folk art to the general public has been uneven. While music achieved mass resonance thanks to television, the visual arts remained in more restricted circles. They did not appear, as here, on magazine covers.
“The visual arts were not like that prevailingAbsolutely. There was no specialized audience to visit exhibitions and follow the artists’ production. “Music did that on television,” Quintilla explained, highlighting that popular television music festivals of the time generated huge audiences and allowed artists such as Boyark Boy, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil They have become national icons.
One of the trademarks of Brazilian pop music was the appropriation and intervention of everyday images, which was one of the great axes of the aesthetic renewal of the 1960s: “Artists are interested in images already circulating in everyday life, that is, inspired by comic strips or newspapers, Photojournalismwith photo Che“Which is being reproduced on a massive scale at this moment everywhere,” Quintella says.
Regarding the difference with pop music in the United States, the exhibition proposes a central hypothesis: “When we hear pop music, we immediately think of a North American expression, but what happened is that the social and economic contexts were completely different. So, in the United States we have a stronger development of the industry, more homogeneous, with works that express a more direct relationship with consumer society.”
“While in Brazil it is very contradictory, because we see the influence of television, which shares events such as the space race or the television programs of popular music festivals. There are, for example, many people who do not know how to read, which is an ancient condition, very basic in a way. So what happens is that we often look at some works that bring this fragility. In other words, pop is not as a well-made product, but instead appears as a pre-industrial product,” Quintela adds. condition.”
The relationship of contention with dictatorship can be seen in crew…Pieces that take on the language of propaganda coexist and suggest direct and unambiguous readings with others as one enters the space of the symbolic, through the material, seeking to generate more complex readings.
They explained that this division occurred due to a historical issue: “From ’64 to ’68, artists became freer to criticize the dictatorship. So we have works that can range from caricatures of the army or those that combine the flag of the United States with Brazil or those that combine agricultural signs with the army, which are two more conservative sectors of Brazilian society.”
Thus, after the regime hardened in 1968, repression intensified and actions became more elusive and symbolic, such as Hazm Artur Barrio, The bloodied Troxa prototypewhich evokes unidentified bodies thrown like garbage in public spaces, is a piece that maintains, along with others, a haunting validity, because during the exhibition’s run, for example, the media showed the world how bodies were piled up in the streets of favelas in Rio as part of a police operation against drug trafficking.
in Stars and astronauts“The moment in Brazil, when the big cities are starting to become more crowded, and there is a strong exodus from the countryside” is shown, leading to “working with urban bases, buses, traffic” and in events such as “Apocalipopótesis”, which are observed on video, a precursor to the historical “Creation Sundays” organized by the curator Frederico Morais At the Museum of Modern Art in Rio, which brought together artists and the lay public in collective works that transcended the boundaries of space.
And on another wall, for example, this relationship between references Tropicaliaand television and popular culture, based on representations of celebrities that turned spectacle into “the show.” Roberto Carloswhich was called Jovem Guardawhich had the largest audience,” in addition to references to the golden era of football, with winning the World Cup three times in the years 58, 62 and 70, with No. Pellet.
“In Brazil, when you win the world championship three times, there is a government-run poster advertising campaign called ‘Brasil, Amo o Deixo’ (Brazil, love it or leave it), which reinforced the idea that those who remained in the country accepted the dictatorship or had to leave.
Micropolitics and shifting gender roles also found space in the heart Desire and triviality“, with “many of the works of women artists that question, for example, the domestic space, what is the role of the home, which was thought to be negative, since there was no politics, because it happened in the squares, in the public space. But, there too, the domestic space began to be treated as a space of revolution.”
in Construction, image and backwardness, Popular dialogues with other aspects of art, such as informality, while being in art Flags eventWhich occupies the lobby, combines partisan and political protest, with the placement of textile pieces used during the 1968 street event.
“The artists produced flags from very cheap materials, screen-printed, and they can be reproduced very easily. Even after this event, they came back to the scene to sell them and make a little money. What we are doing is displaying the original set of flags for the first time,” Quintilla said.
Thus, you can see some taking the heraldic heritage of European heraldry into their own hands Petrina Ciccaciwho was interested in “the middle-class imagination which dictatorship inspires and mobilizes at this moment such as morals and good customs” or Gerchman With your request for help, Mario IshikawameCommentary on the Vietnam War, or Gluco Rodriguez It serves as a provocation to imagine Brazil as a tropical or exotic country, the banana or the famous silk screen Be marginal, be a hero to Helio Oitica.
*Pop Brazil: the avant-garde and the new form, 1960s-70sat the Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires, Ave. Wild. Figueroa Alcorta 3415, Capa. General admission $9,000; Students, teachers and certified retirees, $4,500; Children under 5 years old and people with disabilities are free. Closed on Tuesday.