Brazilian Art Under Dictatorship: Antonio Manuel, Artur Barrio, and Cildo Meireles
Claudia Calirman
2012, Duke University Press
212 pages, plates
THIS BOOK makes a valuable contribution to scholarship about cultural production in Brazil under the military dictatorship, exploring as it does visual arts in the most repressive period of authoritarian rule from 1968-1975. Calirman, who was raised in Rio during this period, describes and explains how the arts developed in this oppressive climate. She focuses on the innovative ideas of Antonio Manuel, Artur Barrio, and Cildo Meireles whose work juggled political undercurrents and the artistic effort to respond to international artistic trends. The author traces their work and careers and explores how they sought to reconcile these competing demands. In so doing, she draws parallels with similar trends found in the avant garde in North America and Europe. – EC
