The Crisis of Modern Art as a Crisis of Democratic Culture: Critical Dialogues Between Italy and Brazil (1959-1979)

Dr. Diogo Rodrigues de Barros

My research conducts a comparative analysis of the uses of the concept of crisis in Italian and Brazilian art criticism from 1959 to 1979. The study’s central hypothesis proposes that interpretations of the crisis of modern art in these national contexts were connected to crises of democratic culture. These included not only the perils of Cold War-motivated political violence but also modern art’s declining presence in everyday life amid the expansion of mass culture. Focusing on a single concept allows for a clearly defined research focus and the analysis of an extended period, engaging with the diachronic depth inherent in the concept of crisis. As key reference points, I examine two pairs of critics who sought to define the crisis of art. The first pair is Giulio Carlo Argan (1909–1992) and Mário Pedrosa (1900–1981), who developed their theories of crisis through extensive writings in the 1960s. The second is Achille Bonito Oliva (1939) and Frederico Morais (1936), who articulated contrasting analyses of the crisis of art amid the political violence of Brazil’s post-1964 military regime and Italy’s anni di piombo.