TheBrazilianNewObjectivityandTropicália

Among the great exhibitions held by the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s, one of the most important was Nova Objetividade Brasileira, a group exhibition that took place between April 6 and 30, 1967. As with another important show, Opinião 65, what occurs is a gathering of young and experienced names who come together around the idea of the Avant-garde. Unlike in 1965, however, the overt political bias of that period gives way to new experimental languages that open up new critical paths at a moment of authoritarian escalation in the country.

Image description: The image is a poster with a yellow background. In the center, there is a green circle with white and red letters that form the phrase "NOVA OBJETIVIDADE BRASILEIRA." Above and below the circle, there are four red stars arranged symmetrically. Below the lettering, it reads "MUSEU DE ARTE MODERNA RIO DE JANEIRO" in smaller letters.

The exhibition was the result of a series of movements around debates with artists, critics, and curators concerning the commercial nature of the works and the formation of an art market through the boom of galleries in the city. The critic from Minas Gerais Frederico Morais, by then already involved in the day-to-day life of MAM and author of an arts column in the Diário de Notícias, was one of the key figures bridging the generation of Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Clark – both taking part in the 1967 exhibition – and that of Rubens Gerchman, Carlos Vergara, and Antonio Dias. That same year, a group of artists went so far as to sign a manifesto entitled Declaração de princípios básicos de Vanguarda. Other names emerging during this period include Carlos Zílio, Anna Maria Maiolino, Glauco Rodrigues, and Maria do Carmo Secco. Besides this group organized in Rio de Janeiro, the exhibition also featured important names from São Paulo, such as Geraldo de Barros, Waldemar Cordeiro, Nelson Leirner, and Wesley Duke Lee.

Image description: This is a colorful illustration of an antique car. From left to right, we see the red car with black wheels and orange details. On the roof of the car, there are two human figures dressed in white, with black hats and elongated bodies. The figure in front is holding a red object. The background of the image is white. There is no visible text in the image.

The exhibition at MAM, however, did not have Morais's involvement in its organization. The curatorship was entrusted to another critic from the city, Mário Barata, with the catalog text authored by Hélio Oiticica. In his text, Oiticica defines six basic principles of this "New Objectivity," or "a typical state of the Brazilian avant-garde art of the present" (words from the catalog). These were: a general constructive will; a tendency toward the object as the easel is denied and overcome; participation of the viewer; engagement with and taking a stance on political, social, and ethical issues; a tendency toward collective propositions and the consequent abolition of the "isms" characteristic of the first half of the century in today's art; and, finally, the resurgence and new formulations of the concept of anti-art.

Image description: This is a photograph of an interior space, possibly a hallway or entrance area of a building. On the left side, we see several ornamental plants in ceramic pots, arranged on a surface covered with small stones. Moving to the right, we notice decorative panels hanging on the walls, with different textures and colors. A panel on the right features a floral pattern in shades of blue and red. In the background, there is a closed door and, beyond it, a white wall. The ceiling is made of wood, with indirect lighting.

If there was a single work that synthesized all the principles laid out by Oiticica in his manifesto-text, it was undoubtedly his "environment-installation," that is, a set of cabins the artist called Penetráveis, titled Tropicália. Surrounded by mother-in-law's tongue plants, sand, gravel, macaws, buried poems by Roberta Oiticica, as well as a television set, plant roots, and different smells, Oiticica put into practice his idea of the supra-sensorial, in which all the senses were meant to be activated by the visiting public. The work became famous mainly for having been turned, in 1968, into the title of a song by Caetano Veloso that would become the name of a cultural movement that transformed Brazilian art: Tropicalismo.