PopArtandPoliticsinRiodeJaneiro

Among the group exhibitions that took place at the Museu de Arte Moderna and in the galleries that were emerging in Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s, four names based in Rio de Janeiro stood out as a renewal of Brazilian painting and art. The Rio-born Rubens Gerchman and Roberto Magalhães, the Paraíba-born Antonio Dias, and the Rio Grande do Sul-born Carlos Vergara were artists active during a period of profound transformations in the country. In their eclectic body of work, incorporating painting, sculpture, printmaking, and drawing, the city of Rio somehow made itself present.

Some of them were students at the Liceu de Artes e Ofício and the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes, while others made contacts as students or assistants of masters of the stature of Iberê Camargo (as was the case with Carlos Vergara) and Oswaldo Goeldi (as was the case with Antônio Dias). This articulation between generations creates a dialogue with a tradition of open studios and free courses that had already been taking place in Rio de Janeiro since the 1940s. As they were young people emerging in a period of political turbulence, a critical outlook on the country – which had also been part of modernist art – was a natural development in their work.

Image description: The image is a photograph of a "morar" box with the inscription "CAIXAS DE MORAR AIR" prominently displayed. On the left, we see two people walking, one of them holding an object. The "morar" box is in the center of the image, featuring a colorful, geometric design with human figures in different poses and expressions. The background is blurred, showing a street with people and buildings.

With the participation of all four in the famous group exhibition Opinião 65, held at MAM-RJ in August 1965, their names stood out in Rio's artistic circles, and they became part of a creative network that included filmmakers from the Cinema Novo group (largely formed during the meetings and screenings held at the Museum's film archive) and popular musicians (especially the young Bahian composers who would go on to create Tropicalismo). Filmmaker Antônio Carlos Fontoura even made the film Ver Ouvir in 1967, with Gerchman, Dias, and Magalhães showing their works and performances among ordinary people on the city's streets.

Image description: The image is an illustration in shades of yellow and black. In the center, there is a frame with a female figure inside a floral ornament. Above the frame, "UM AMOR IMPOSSÍVEL" ("AN IMPOSSIBLE LOVE") is written in black letters. Below the frame, there is another inscription that reads "A BELA LINDONÉIA" ("THE BEAUTIFUL LINDONÉIA").

The art of this generation brought to its works a pop and political vision of the themes and characters of Rio's urban environment, the city's social contradictions, its popular types and everyday dramas. Violence and mass culture, with their strong graphic appeal – comics, caricatures, television, and soccer, for example – are incorporated into key works of this period. Perhaps the most emblematic, having even become a song by Caetano Veloso, is the painting A Bela Lindonéia, a 1966 work by Rubens Gerchman. The theme of domestic violence against women and the use of popular elements such as beveled glass show a gaze upon ordinary lives rarely addressed in the visual arts.

Image description: This is a pop art painting depicting an urban landscape with mountains and a notable monument. On the left side, we see a colorful city, while the center highlights a mountain covered in green and purple vegetation. On the right, there is another mountain with tones of blue and purple. In the background, a large red and white structure stands out atop the central mountain. The sky is pink in color, giving the scene a soft tone.

It is also worth highlighting, even though he wasn't an active part of this group, the important work of Glauco Rodrigues, a native of Rio Grande do Sul who had lived in Rio de Janeiro since 1960. His work as a painter, draftsman, and printmaker was what most made use of the Rio landscape as a theme. Involved both in political figuration and in the Tropicalist movement, Glauco took part in the major exhibitions of the period. After a brief stay in Rome between 1962 and 1965, his work combines pop visuality with warm colors and a critical reflection on Brazilian colonial history.