Page 34 - Studio International - November 1973

Chagall, Calder, Pollock and Morandi attracted largest Picasso for its Civic Centre. Rich
Chicago visitors from all over the world. Important Chicagoans went first to Europe and then to
developments in contemporary art appeared in New York to obtain the art that adorned their
regionalism? Sao Paulo quickly after their inception so that North Shore mansions. A book on culture in
native artists had first-hand knowledge of
Chicago written in 1953 reported that
current art trends. Yet in spite of this exposure Knoedler and other galleries had closed their
Derek Guthrie and Jane Allen
to contemporary art, no Brazilian artist to date Chicago branches after World War Two, when
has achieved a sizeable international reputation they discovered they sold roughly four times
and Sao Paulo remains a provincial centre. more paintings to Chicagoans for Chicago
Is a new regionalism on the upswing in the Observers have noted that the most collections out of New York than out of
United States ? Or can the frankly regionalist enthusiastic response of Sao Paulo art patrons Chicago, even though similar works were
nature of Made in Chicago, the US entry is still given to Brazilian naives who available in both places. By 1955 few galleries
(albeit unofficial)1 to this year's São Paulo characteristically remain indifferent to remained and with one or two exceptions those
Bienal be explained on the grounds of international trends. If Matarazzo's ambition that did stay showed only out-of-town works.
diplomatic expediency ? Locally sponsored by was to stimulate Brazilian artists, his strategy Artists left Chicago in droves — among others,
Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art and of importing the best failed. Leon Golub, Claes Oldenberg, Robert
curated by Don Baum, the Visual Art The parallel with the temper of Chicago is Indiana, Robert Natkin, Jack Beale, Peter
Consultant of the Illinois Arts Council, and striking. For many years the guiding principle Holbrook and John Chamberlain. The only
a member of the Exhibition Committee of the of Chicago's cultural leaders has also seemed outlets for Chicago artists during the 50s and
ACH, the exhibition has sent works by twelve to be 'import the best', be it a 7o-foot Chagall most of the 60s were art centres, artist-
Chicago artists — Roger Brown, Edward C. for the First National Bank Plaza or the world's sponsored exhibitions (of which there were
Flood, Philip Hanson, Gladys Nilsson, James many) and the annual over-crowded Chicago
Nutt, Edward Paschke, Kerig Pipe, Christina and Vicinity show at the Art Institute.
Ramberg, Barbara Rossi, Karl Wirsum, Ray That situation is slowly changing. There are
Yoshida and H. C. Westermann — to the now at least six reputable galleries clustered
Brazilian Bienal near Ontario Street and Michigan Avenue,
Certainly the Chicago exhibition is a far cry and most show some Chicago work. Part of the
from, for example, the US section of the 1971 credit for the renewed confidence in local talent
New Delhi Triennale. That avant-gardist show, must go to the artists going to Sao Paulo and to
mounted by Walter Rasmussen of the Museum
of Modern Art in New York, was attacked by H. C. Westermann
some critics as being wholly inappropriate to Mad House 1957
Wood, glass and metal
the Indian context. Including works by Carl 100.4 x 50.9 x 50.9cm
Andre, Eva Hesse, Alan Saret, Richard Serra Lent by Mr and Mrs
and others, the exhibition confused many J. R. Shapiro, Illinois
Indian artists, and critics did not know whether
to be insulted or amused by the array of
seemingly unprocessed materials. John
Canaday: 'raw life of the New Delhi streets was
a full revelation of the silliness of the American
exhibit.'
An interpretation of the Chicago choice for
Sao Paulo is that the National Collection of
Fine Arts, the Smithsonian agency charged
with the task of organizing US overseas
exhibitions, took to heart Canaday's suggestion
that the agency tailor future overseas shows to
their foreign locale. For a number of reasons
the Chicago choice seems apt.
Sib Paulo, a sprawling industrial city, has
been called the 'Chicago of South America',
and by coincidence is Chicago's 'sister city' in
the Partnership for the Americas programme.
Like Chicago it is a tough bourgeois town of
unlimited cultural ambition, combined with
an ambivalent attitude towards its resident
artists. According to its first catalogue, the
Bienal, founded in 1951 by one of the city's
major industrialists, `Cicillo' Matarazzo, was
designed `. . . to place Brazil's modern art not
just in a mere confrontation, but in a lively
contact with the art of the rest of the world,
while at the same time an attempt would be
made to conquer for Sao Paulo the position
of a world art centre'. The first task was
carried out successfully. Brilliant exhibitions in
early Bienals of work by such as Picasso, Moore,

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