Popau, Pop, or an “American Way of Living”? An Introduction to Aracy Amaral's “From the Stamps to the Bubble”

The introductory text foregrounds the article “From the Stamps to the Bubble” (1968) by Brazilian historian and curator Aracy A. Amaral. It seeks to locate the primary document within a broader historiography of Brazilian art in the second half of the 1960s, and examine the ways in which the military dictatorship, along with certain cultural exchanges facilitated by Brazil's economic development in this period affected artistic production. Placing particular attention on the multiple terminologies that were in use when the article was written, the introduction focuses on the contiguities of Pop Art in the Brazilian cultural milieu. It argues that Pop was present inasmuch as it inspired artists to initiate a process of radical experimentation, which empowered them to depart from an avant-garde tradition founded on geometric abstraction.