BOOTY AND SOUL.CELSO FIORAVANTE ON A GUGGENHEIM FOR BRAZIL Brazilian art Brazilian visual art began in the 18th century with painting with a strong European accent. Only in the 19th century was an original Brazilian art style introduced by Belmiro de Almeida Jr. circles are variously welcoming and wary over news that Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, city, Brazil Rio de Janeiro (rē`ō də zhänā`rō, Port. rē` thĭ zhənĕē`r may become home to the first Guggenheim Museum Guggenheim Museum, officially Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, major museum of modern art in New York City. Founded in 1939 as the Museum of Non-objective Art, the Guggenheim is known for its remarkable circular building (1959) designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. branch in the Southern Hemisphere. In November, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is a nonprofit corporation founded in 1937 by philanthropist Solomon R. Guggenheim and artist Hilla von Rebay. Its primary accomplishment has been the construction of a number of international museums:
According to Ferreira, a Guggenheim complex in Rio would cost between $300 million and $500 million, several times the bill for the Bilbao branch. While the price is steep, the returns look promising: The Guggenheim Foundation would establish a presence in a highly visible city; investors would profit from an adjacent hotel complex and convention center; and Rio would attract still more tourists. Lauro Cavalcanti, director of Rio's Paco Imperial, is among the art world's optimistic: "The interest in a city with as many cultural institutions as Rio is a recognition of the health of the cultural milieu." Some in the Brazilian arts community, however, fear that existing cultural institutions, already short on finances, will suffer in the shadow of a Rio Guggenheim. "What's needed is a necessity study, not a feasibility study "A Feasibility Study" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 13 April, 1964, during the first season. It was remade in 1997 as part of the revived The Outer Limits series with a minor title change. ," cautioned Paulo Herkenhoff, curator of the 24th Sao Paulo Bienal and currently adjunct curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . Isabella Prata, director of the Nucleo Contemporaneo de Museu de Arte Moderna Sao Paulo, criticized the plan more vehemently. "The winner in this business is the Guggenheim, and the losers are all the Brazilian institutions. We're still acting like some Indians open to exploitation by a new set of colonizers.... Wouldn't it be better to invest in Brazilian institutions?" Teixeira Coelho, director of the Sao Paulo Museu de Arte Contemporanea, suggested a compromise-a more remote location (as with Bilbao), outside the Rio-Sao Paulo axis. "The museum should be installed in a city where there isn't a strong cultural and artistic context...[which] could stimulate cultural production and tourism," he said. The Guggenheim Foundation is in fact considering an outpost in Brazil's northeastern region--Recife and Salvador have been named--but this would be in addition to, not in place of, a Rio branch. Time will tell whether the Guggenheim ever comes to Brazil, but Brazil will definitely be coming to the Guggenheim--once, that is, Ferreira's association raises $8 million, the full cost of mounting the Guggenheim's "Brazil: Body and Soul," an exhibition of Baroque and modern art and architecture scheduled to open at the museum's New York flagship in September 2001. and at Bilbao the following spring. Celso Floravante is a journalist based in Sao Paulo. Translated from Portuguese by Clifford Landers. |
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