Brazilian Art Under Dictatorship

Brazilian Art under Dictatorshipis a sophisticated analysis the intersection of the visual arts and politics during the most repressive years of Brazil's military regime, from 1968 until 1975. Raised in Rio de Janeiro during the dictatorship, the curator and art historian Claudia Calirman describes how Brazilian visual artists directly addressed the political situation and opened up the local art scene to new international trends, such as performance, media-based art, and conceptualism. Focusing on innovative art forms infused with a political undercurrent, Calirman emphasizes the desire among Brazilian artists to reconcile new modes of art-making with a concern for local politics. She examines the work and careers of three major artists of the period, Artur Barrio, Antonio Manuel, and Cildo Meireles. Calirman explores the ways that they negotiated the competing demands of Brazilian politics and the international art scene, the efficacy of their political critiques, and their impact on Brazilian art and culture. She suggests that the art of the late 1960s and early 1970s represented not just the artists' concerns with politics, but also their anxieties about overstepping the boundaries of artistic expression itself.