BAKHTIN'S CIRCLE AND THE DICHOTOMY OF CONTEMPORARY PAINTING: IDENTITY POLITICS OR FORMALISM?

Abstract

This essay examines the polarization between “identitarian” and “formalist” painting in contemporary Brazil. It argues that identitarian production, by subordinating form to theme, empties the constructive dimension of the work. Turning to the Bakhtin Circle, the text defends the inseparability of form and content, proposing an approach in which painting is understood as an autonomous field of socio-historical knowledge.