From Ciccillo Matarazzo to Mário Pedrosa: a New Year's message and the end of the MAM Biennials

Abstract

This article introduces and provides the context for the transcription of a letter from the Brazilian art critic Mário Pedrosa to businessman Francisco Matarazzo Sobrinho, sent during the process that led to the autonomy of the São Paulo Biennials from the institution that gave rise to them, the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. Written in the heat of the moment, only one day after the closing of the 6th Bienal, which had Pedrosa as artistic director, the publication of the correspondence gains relevance as we understand it as a piece in a documental puzzle that reveals the countless political articulations made so that the autonomy process of the Biennials could be carried out. The consequences of such process, however, were perceived differently by Pedrosa and Matarazzo Sobrinho, a fact that can be read between the lines of the letter presented here.