Eastern European Modernism in Traveling Exhibitions in Brazil and South America (1948-1978)

• Grant number: 25/20387-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: October 01, 2025
• End date: September 30, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Art Fundamentals and Criticism
• Principal Investigator: Maria de Fátima Morethy Couto
• Grantee: Thiago Gil de Oliveira Virava
• Host Institution: Instituto de Artes (IA). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/12333-3 - Institutional geopolitics: art in dispute in international circulating exhibitions in Brazil (1948-1978), AP.TEM

Abstract

This postdoctoral research aims to analyze the networks that made it possible to organize art exhibitions from Eastern European countries in Brazil and South America during the specified time frame. In addition to tracing their itineraries across South America, the project will seek to identify the agents involved-whether artists, curators, critics, or diplomats. The participation of these countries in the São Paulo Biennial will also be addressed, as some of the exhibitions were connected to national representations at the event. The critical reception of these exhibitions and the artworks they featured will likewise be studied, as they introduced local audiences to alternative forms of modernism-marginal in relation to the dominant narratives of Western art history, yet in dialogue with the productions of major European artistic centers. (AU)