Claudia Calirman's 'Brazilian Art under Dictatorship' Reviewed

Mirtes Marins de Oliveira reviews Claudia Calirman's book 'Brazilian Art under Dictatorship: Antonio Manuel, Artur Barrio and Cildo Meireles' (Duke University Press, 2012). The book examines how these three artists responded to the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964–1985), especially after the AI-5 decree of 1968. Calirman argues they avoided nationalist protest art, instead using ephemeral media: performance, body art, decaying materials, and conceptualism. The review praises documentation but criticizes schematic explanations that link Brazilian art to North American and European precedents (e.g., Andy Warhol, Vito Acconci, Joseph Beuys). It notes factual errors, such as misattributing sponsorship of the 'Do Corpo à Terra' exhibition to the military government. The review also highlights the 1969 boycott of the 10th Bienal de São Paulo, supported by 321 signatories including Pierre Restany, and the subsequent 'Contrabienal' protest in the US led by Gordon Matta-Clark. The author concludes that Calirman's diagrammatic approach reduces complexity and misses opportunities to explore the artists' contemporary relevance.