Serafim/Oswald in dialogue with Pedrosa

Abstract

At the same time that Mário Pedrosa is starting his work as an art critic, Serafim Ponte Grande is released. The book can be considered one of the most radical books of Brazilian modernism, a book that quickly proves to be a radical experiment of the period as soon as we read the first pages. Written with a tone of snort and parody, Oswald proclaims himself to be “an obituary of the bourgeoisie, an epitaph of what I was”. Serafim proves to be, and this is the center of our argument, a book that harshly criticizes the Brazilian bourgeoisie, its way of life, in which we see the emergence of the communist man/Serafim, to paraphrase Eleutério. In this article, we intend to bring art criticism closer to the beginning of Pedrosas's production, with a focus on the painting O Sorveteiro by Portinari, which sought a social art - close to Mexican muralism, for example - to the novel Serafim Ponte Grande