Artandpolitics:popularcultureandthepopularizationofart

In 1961, the UNE's Popular Culture Centers were founded across the country. The first of them, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, emerged from the staging of a play by Oduvaldo Viana Filho (Vianinha) and Chico de Assis. Both actors and playwrights shaped by the experience of São Paulo's Teatro de Arena, they were writing in Rio the play A mais-valia vai acabar, seu Edgar, which was staged at Praia Vermelha, in the old building of the Architecture course of what is now UFRJ. The core group of artists, students, and general public who mobilized around the play was the seed of the CPC, housed that same year in the UNE building, located on Praia do Flamengo.

Image description: The image is a black-and-white illustration. In the center, there is a large gate with bars and ornamental details. On the right, a student walks, holding a book. In the background, inside the gate, another person is raising their arms. At the top, the text "UNIVERSIDADE DO BRASIL" is visible. Below, the title "Movimento" stands out in larger letters. In the lower left corner, the number "1" indicates that it is the first edition. In the lower right corner, it reads "Revista da União Nacional dos Estudantes Março 62".

Through its practices and events, the CPC created a collaborative atmosphere among artists from different fields. Although the visual arts were seen as less important than theater and film, the political thinking that ran through its meetings and actions helped shift the hegemony of the previous decade's geometric abstraction toward new themes. The most representative graphic work within the experience of the Rio CPC was that of the designer, philosopher, and poet from Bahia, Rogério Duarte, responsible for posters and for Movimento magazine, a reference of the time for its innovative layout. The idea of a “popular and revolutionary” art was interpreted in different ways by artists of the period, but the idea of turning aesthetic creation into a lens on the country's social reality set the overall tone.

Artists historically linked to the Communist Party, such as Carlos Scliar, collaborated with the CPC and with other initiatives aimed at popularizing access to the visual arts. Coming from the printmaking club experiences of the previous decade, Scliar was one of those seeking ways to broaden public participation. In 1967, for example, he coordinated a project that sold, at affordable prices, to any buyer, a set of five screen prints printed by Dionísio Del Santo, featuring works by Scliar himself, as well as Carlos Vergara, Rubens Gerchman, Anna Letycia, Glauco Rodrigues, Claudio Tozzi, and Anna Maria Maiolino.

Political changes in art were not restricted to the Brazilian context, and a series of international exhibitions held at MAM brought to the city and its artists the new Argentine and French figurations, marked by a strong expressionist tendency in the use of warm colors that addressed social conflicts and criticized the prevailing social order. Names that would emerge with force in the 1960s – such as Rubens Gerchman, Antonio Dias, or Carlos Vergara – engaged directly with these new foundations of creation and action.

Image description: The image is a painting in shades of black, yellow, and brown. At the top, there is a large number of abstract faces, some with big, expressive eyes. Among them, the word "CAMPEÃO" is written in yellow letters. Below, there is a pattern of horizontal yellow and black lines. At the bottom, there are more abstract faces, some with gray details. The word "FLAME" is written in white letters in the center of the bottom part.