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The Sea of Stains and the Arrow of Time: non-geometric abstraction between the Biennials of 1957 and 1959

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Author(s):
Marcos Pedro Magalhães Rosa
Total Authors: 1
Document type: Doctoral Thesis
Press: Campinas, SP.
Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
Defense date:
Examining board members:
Gabriel Ferreira Zacarias; Marcelo Ribeiro Vasconcelos; Michiko Okano; Francisco Alambert; Agnaldo Arice Caldas Farias
Advisor: Gabriel Ferreira Zacarias
Abstract

At the IV São Paulo Biennial, the first international retrospective of Jackson Pollock took place, which catalyzed profound changes in the Brazilian art world. These transformations were evident in the appreciation of a form of art seen as young and represented by abstract painting that rejected geometry. This thesis explores three facets of this change. On the institutional front, it focuses on the São Paulo Biennials, which, before this retrospective, tended to celebrate modernist artists whose careers dated back to the first half of the 20th century, such as Fernand Léger and Pablo Picasso. It is striking that after Pollock's exhibition, the preference shifted towards much younger artists who either referenced or attempted to surpass Pollock himself. In the realm of art criticism, 1957 marked the beginning of discussions about a transnational homogeneity in the way younger artists approached painting. Mário Pedrosa argued that this style had been born with Pollock but had developed with a younger and more Parisian generation. This new generation was said to have emptied the meaning of the formal achievements of the American master and produced conformist paintings driven solely by the desire for originality. From an artistic perspective, this was the moment of recognition for the painter Manabu Mabe, who was awarded at the Fifth São Paulo Biennial in 1959. Mabe was part of a group of immigrant artists who gathered to share knowledge and artistic opportunities. After Pollock's exhibition, he abandoned landscape painting and began to produce non-geometric abstractions. Between 1957 and 1959, he classified his production as "abstract expressionism" and experimented with North American techniques influenced by Pollock and Franz Kline (AU)

FAPESP's process: 17/17677-4 - Shadow of freedom: discourses about Brazil and the world in the 1950's visual arts
Grantee:Marcos Pedro Magalhães Rosa
Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate