Abstract
The aim of this article is to investigate how the relationship between the US artist Alexander Calder and the Brazilian art critic Mário Pedrosa contributed to the emergence of the concrete art program in the 1940s and 50s. During his exile in the United States, Pedrosa had the opportunity to meet the artist, who became his friend. The consequences of this relationship can be seen in the articles written by the critic, which show, on one hand, a deep reflection on the artist’s work, and, on the other, the construction of a vocabulary to analyse modern art and of arguments mobilized to justify the development of concrete art on Brazilian soil. In the context of debates between figurativists and abstractionists, Pedrosa’s contact with Calder’s works and the transformation of the sculptor into a key figure for his critical program are comprehended in this paper as important factors in the changes that occurred within Brazilian modernism from the mid-twentieth century on.
Keywords
Mário Pedrosa; Alexander Calder; visual arts; art critic; concretism