A biblioteca de Aracy Amaral: referências e exposições
[Aracy Amaral’s Library: references and exhibitions]
A private library is not just a collection of books, it is part of a biography, which reflects the interests and also the passages of a life, with encounters and disagreements between authors, other intellectuals, etc. In the case of Aracy Amaral, it is also the set of references that settled on the shelves and reflect the hard and fundamental erudite work during a life dedicated to studies, writing, critique, and artistic sensitivity. Aracy Amaral‘s donation of part of her personal library to the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo led the Paulo Mendes de Almeida Library to be proud of being the depositary of this intellectual legacy and to look retrospectively at her work in this museum.
Amaral‘s presence throughout mam‘s history has been constant since the institution’s early years, and the trajectories are almost concurrent. Freshly trained as a journalist, Amaral worked as a monitor at the 2nd São Paulo Biennial in 1954 (until 1961, the São Paulo Biennial was organized by mam), and acted as a reporter for Rio de Janeiro newspapers , covering the Biennial, as well as the São Paulo artistic scene . Since then, her contributions have only advanced, participating in dozens of exhibitions, writing essays and actively collaborating in the Art Commission (1996 – 2001) and in the Art Advisory Council (2014 – 2015) of mam.
In order to illustrate these numerous passages of Amaral with the museum, we have gathered here her authored production, referencing exhibitions for which she was responsible, whether for the critical content or the curatorship – the latter is a term more commonly used from the mid-1990s onwards and it would not be able to account for the entire critic’s presence at mam –, revealing the continuity of her cultural activities at the museum.
We chose to offer visitors precisely the richest material from her passages through mam: the catalogues of exhibitions by Aracy Amaral that document her activities and which are kept and available to the public here at the Library. These catalogues are subdivided by a typology that serves only as an access tool, between solo exhibitions, and historical and contemporary group exhibitions. At the same time, it is possible to discover the collection of books donated by the critic on the indicated sliding shelf, where the books are kept together in a way that represents her private library.
Service
A biblioteca de Aracy Amaral: referências e exposições [Aracy Amaral’s Library: references and exhibitions]
Exhibition period: March 2 (from 7 pm) to Jul 14, 2023
Location: Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo
Address: Parque Ibirapuera (Av. Pedro Álvares Cabral, s/nº – Gates 1 and 3)
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 am to 6 pm (last entry at 5:30 pm)
Phone: (11) 5085-1300
Admission: R$25.00 in full and R$12.00 half-price. Free on Sundays. Prior appointment required.
Half-price for students, with identification; low-income youth and the elderly (+60). Free for children under 10 years old; people with disabilities and accompanying persons; teachers and directors of the state and municipal public network of SP, with identification; MAM members and students; employees of partner companies and museums; members of ICOM, AICA and ABCA, with identification; employees of SPTuris and employees of the Municipal Department of Culture.
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