The Norm of Whiteness: An Analysis of Contemporary Brazilian Art Through the Lens of Alberto Guerreiro Ramos

Abstract

Abstract This article is based on the understanding that Brazil, as a society built on solid colonial foundations, still faces, in the 21st century, issues inherited from this past. One such legacy, which is the focus of this text, is the standard of whiteness — or, in recent terms, hegemonic whiteness — understood as the norm through which social and racial relations are structured and the aesthetic standards of Brazilian society are defined. Drawing on the works of Alberto Guerreiro Ramos (1915–1982), a Black intellectual fundamental to sociological thought, who, as early as the late 1950s, problematized the issue of whiteness and anticipated current debates on the notion of hegemonic whiteness, the article analyzes contemporary artistic productions that have addressed this theme in their works. It is based on the premise that the art world constitutes a privileged social space for interpreting society, its ideologies, political projects, rules, and processes of authorization and subalternization. In this sense, the analysis sheds light on the questions raised by racialized subjects outside the spectrum of whiteness regarding the limits and possibilities of their legitimation in the national art field.

Keywords
whiteness; hegemonic whiteness; visual arts; legitimation; Alberto Guerreiro Ramos