Mario Pedrosa: Primary Documents

Description

This latest volume in MoMA's Primary Documents series provides an anthology of the writings of Mario Pedrosa, Brazil's preeminent critic of art, culture, and politics and one of Latin America's most frequently cited public intellectuals. It is the first publication to provide comprehensive English translations of Pedrosa's writings, which are indispensable to understanding Brazilian art of the twentieth century. Included texts range from art and architectural criticism and theory to political writings as well as correspondence with his artistic and political interlocutors, among them such luminaries as Andre Breton, Alexander Calder, Lygia Clark, Ferreira Gullar, Oscar Niemeyer, Helio Oiticica, Pablo Picasso, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Harald Szeeman, and Leon Trotsky. The book also features newly-commissioned essays by important scholars in the field that contextualize central themes of Pedrosa's writing and frame the importance of his thought for twentieth-century Brazilian art as well as the history of modernism writ large. These new translations will contribute to the international recognition of Mario Pedrosa's importance to the growing fields of global art history and theory. Publication of The Museum of Modern ArtMoMA Primary Documents Contributors: Aracy Amaral, Otilia Arantes, Dore Ashton, Catherine Bompuis, Kaira Cabanas, Lauro Cavalcanti, Marcio Doctors, Gloria Ferreira, Adele Nelson

Gloria Ferreira is an art critic based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Paulo Herkenhoff is an art critic, curator, and cultural director of the Museum of Art of Rio - MAR.

"Informative brief essays by critics and scholars, including some who knew and collaborated with Pedrosa, introduce the volume as a whole and preface each of the eight sections. Pedrosa's life and career are detailed in a chronology created by his grandson. This long-overdue volume makes an important contribution to the literature of modernism. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals." -- E. Douglas Choice "[T]his volume of the writings of Brazilian arts scholars Mario Pedrosa (1900-81) is indeed a welcome event. Pedrosa is considered to be a key figure in the criticism of contemporary Brazilian art, the sort of intellectual presence who both defines the parameters of the subject and establishes major theoretical foundations." -- David William Foster Hispania "This essential and third anthology focusing on Latin America renewed my admiration for Pedrosa's extraordinary critical legacy. It further explained his life's commitment to both artistic and political revolutions... The illustrations ... add significant visual and historical dimensions to this anthology." -- Simone Osthoff Luso-Brazilian Review