Art and Education in Brazil and Argentina during the dictatorships: women artists in affirmation and refusal

This presentation aims to offer an overview of the relationship of art and education in Brazil and Argentina via the practices of women artists who also taught art during the dictatorships. The boycott of the Sao Paulo Biennial, persecution of art critics and censorship in art salons are the most visible image of the Brazilian art system during the authoritarian period (1964-1985). However, if we compare it with the situation in Argentina under military repression (1966-1983), we find a much harder impact on the art world. On one hand, in Brazil, experimentation with art and pedagogy happened inside and outside art schools: on the outskirts of the city and in the museum (Anna Bella Geiger), beyond the university building (Lygia Pape) and in the favelas (Celeida Tostes). On the other hand, in Argentina, the brutality of the regime and the dismantling of art institutions forced many artists into exile. Those who remained in the country reacted strongly. Our focus is on the refusal of some women artists to exhibit art, in what was called “the silence of Tucumán” and their involvement with education, as in the cases of Noemí Escandell and Graciela Carnevale. More than making a comparison, we intend to present the complex panorama of the entanglement of art, education and women artists in South America during the dictatorships.