120 Works by 50 Brazilian Artists

'Pop Brazil' at Malba: Art, Dictatorship, and Modernization in an Unmissable Exhibition

The exhibition brings together 120 works by 50 Brazilian artists who marked an era of intense cultural effervescence.
Curated by Yuri Quevedo and Pollyana Quintela, it examines the intersections between art, politics, and popular culture during the military dictatorship.
The exhibition allows visitors to rediscover the visual and critical power of a generation that transformed the history of art in Latin America. Malba opens two exhibitions this week featuring international artists whose work resonates in Argentina from different perspectives. Following its run at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, the exhibition 'Pop Brazil: Avant-garde and New Figuration, 1960s-70s' arrives at the Museum of Latin American Art, offering an updated panoramic view of one of the most productive periods in Brazilian art.

The exhibition, curated by Yuri Quevedo and Pollyana Quintela of the Pinacoteca, reflects the politically charged artistic practices developed in Brazil during two decades marked by rapid economic and industrial modernization, but also by political repression under the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1964 to 1985. The exhibition, which opens this Thursday at 7 p.m., will run until February 2, 2026.

It features 120 works by 50 key artists of that era, who validated mass media, political graphics, and conceptual art to amplify their critical voices through the language of popular culture.

It includes 120 works by 50 artists who were pivotal figures of that period and who validated mass media, political graphics, and conceptual art to make their critical voices heard through the language of popular culture. In the introductory text by Rodrigo Moura, artistic director of Malba, and Jochen Volz, director general of the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, it is specifically mentioned that the exhibition not only revisits the labels of “pop” and “political” in the art of the 1960s and 70s, but also seeks to “complicate the aesthetic and discursive strategies of a generation that responded to its context without abandoning formal experimentation.”
This is evident throughout the exhibition, which includes works from the Roger Wright collection—one of the most important in Brazil dedicated to those decades—as well as from Malba and Costantini. It features works by Anna Bella Geiger, Antônio Dias, Claudio Tozzi, Augusto de Campos, Gerty Sarué, Hélio Oiticica, Mira Schendel, Rubens Gerchman, Wanda Pimentel, and Wesley Duke Lee, among other relevant artists of that period.

It is true that there are resonances rooted in the local context, but it will be the visitor who discovers them, bearing in mind that some works will be recognizable, whether due to the figures involved or the figurative style itself, which was also part of a certain era in Argentina.

The exhibition aims to explore affinities and divergences within this Brazilian cartography, which, examined in light of the present, transcends its role as a historical archive to provide elements that allow us to examine contemporary culture.
Avant-gardes of the Past

The 1960s and 70s did not end in those decades in Brazil. Over time, they became the avant-garde of contemporary art, acquired market value, and were integrated into important collections.

Yuri Quevedo, speaking in understandable "Portuñol" (a mix of Portuguese and Spanish), defines the exhibition at the Malba as a celebration of the 120th anniversary of the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, which has always collected contemporary art. He also noted that the other tribute commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Opinião 65 and Propostas 65 exhibitions, two pivotal events in the Brazilian art scene.

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