Events

This study day examines Brazilian sculpture through the lens of the country’s relationship with Europe and North America over the last fifty years. Four papers, chaired by Dawn Ades (University of Essex) and Oriana Baddeley (Camberwell College of Arts), will explore key moments and events that influenced the perception, understanding and dissemination of Brazilian sculpture both within and outside its own borders.

Beginning with the 1951 São Paulo Bienal - which galvanised dialogues between Brazilian and international artists and helped identify Brazil as a modern nation - the study day will look at the innovatory and often radical character of Brazilian art from the late 1950s into the 1960s, before exploring the ramifications of the 1964 military coup, which deeply curtailed freedom of expression and sent many artists into self-imposed exile in Europe and North America.

The second part of the day will focus on the return to democracy in 1985 and the gradual socio-economic recovery, which encouraged greater integration of contemporary Brazilian sculpture within the international arts scene and the expansion of Brazil’s commercial gallery sector.

Speakers:

Michael Asbury (University of the Arts, London)
Art in Brazil from the 1950s to the 1960s: the avant-garde and the favela

Guy Brett (Independent)
Painting meets sculpture and something else is born

Milton Machado (Escola de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro)
Power to the Imagination: Art in the 1970s and Other Brazilian Miracles

Agnaldo Farias (Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, and University of São Paulo.)
Brazilian Contemporary Sculpture - new spaces and new references (and some old as well)