ArtandDesign:theESDICase

The modernizing ideal of developmentalism that ran through various fields of society in the 1950s had a definitive impact on the visual arts. It was a decisive moment in which a new generation of artists and new institutions engaged in dialogue with European and North American avant-gardes, incorporating elements and ideas from abstractionism and its geometric branch, from Russian-rooted constructivism, and from design linked to the German schools of Bauhaus and Ulm. In this scenario, the 1951 São Paulo International Biennial became a definitive space of generational transition by placing, side by side, works by Di Cavalcanti and Portinari and the sculptures of Max Bill, such as the famous work "Unidade Tripartida."

Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of a modern interior, possibly of an office building or museum. On the left side, we see a person walking, followed by two others. In front of them, there is a series of metal structures that look like benches or exhibition tables. In the center, there is a sign with the inscription "ESDI." In the background, the view extends to a white wall with more similar structures. The ceiling is made up of light panels and metal beams, reflecting the lighting.

It was also during this period that the Museums of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo were founded, important vehicles for internationally emblematic works to circulate more frequently, or even for the first time, in Brazil, such as those by Alexander Calder, Piet Mondrian, Kasemir Malévicht, or other artists linked to European abstract art movements. This broadening of horizons had an impact on the formation of the artists who gradually came to occupy the new museums and culture pages.

Alongside abstract and geometric thought, promoted mainly through its manifestos and theories, comes the maturing of design as a theoretical and practical field in schools such as MASP's Institute of Contemporary Art. In this context, the Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial (ESDI), as it would come to be known, emerges in 1962 from MAM-RJ initiatives such as the Escola Técnica de Criação, drawn up in 1955 by the Argentine designer and professor at the Ulm School, in Germany, Tomás Maldonado, and the Gráfica Experimental course, created by designers Alexandre Wolner and Karl Heinz Bermiller in 1961. From these initiatives, the duo produced a plan based on the teachings of Ulm (where both had been students) and turned MAM into a creative laboratory that dovetailed with Governor Carlos Lacerda's (1960-1964) project to transform the city into an industrial technology hub.

Image description: The image is a commemorative postcard. On the left, "RIO 400 ANOS" is written in blue, with larger letters for "RIO" and "400" and smaller letters for "ANOS." On the right, there is a logo made up of four colored triangles—yellow, green, blue, and white—arranged in a cross shape. The blue color of the text contrasts with the postcard's white background.

The graphic design experience in Rio de Janeiro, beyond the creation of ESDI (first established as an autonomous entity, until being incorporated as part of UERJ, always located in the neighborhood of Lapa), created an interface with the visual arts through dialogue with the abstractionism and geometry of the Neoconcrete generation and with the strongly graphic appeal of the generation of painters of the 1960s. Key figures such as Pernambuco-born Aloísio Magalhães, creator of the logo for the Fourth Centenary of Rio de Janeiro, took part in this process, which developed at the Museu de Arte Moderna alongside the art courses and collective movements that emerged during the period. His work transformed the city – by then already a former national capital – into a national reference point for design.