The speech given by Lívio Abramo (1903–1992) at this seminar is of great interest because it underscores his ideas about art, morality, and the market. Once beyond the penury of youth, he considers art to be a vital option that has nothing to do with products for sale or the “advertising requirements” that satisfy his friends’ desires, including libidinous drawings that appeal to the masses and reject the demands of the establishment. Art should be closely aligned with an ethos rather than with money; it should be a moral pursuit, unconcerned with the whims of the market, a perspective he shares with the Swiss-Brazilian printmaker Oswaldo Goeldi. Abramo speaks of the irony of his colleague’s asceticism, explaining that Goeldi would rather give his work away than sell them to the businessmen who wanted to buy them. Abramo ends his speech by answering a question from a member of the audience who asks why he decided to leave Brazil. Referring to the military dictatorship that cast a long shadow over Brazil for more than two decades (1964 to 1985), his response is moving: physical and artistic survival with no concession that would conflict with any aspect of morality. He reports on the establishment of an important engraving studio in Asunción, the capital city of Paraguay, but also hints at the possibility of returning to his country. Lívio Abramo died in Asunción on April 26, 1992, three years after giving this speech. [See the ICAA digital archive for another statement by Abramo that was published in 1984, on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition of his work held at the MAM-SP, “Depoimento” (doc. no. 1110573)].
[As complementary reading see, in the ICAA digital archive, the following articles about the work of Lívio Abramo: by Geraldo Ferraz, (untitled) [Insere-se nossa primeira recordação de Livio Abramo num pequeno desenho (…)] (doc. no. 1110574), (untitled) [No Brasil, nos primeiros salões nacionais de belas artes (…)] (doc. no. 1110610), and (untitled) [Indiscutivelmente, em nossas artes do desenho (…)] (doc. no. 1110611); see also, by José Neistein, “Madeira, pedra e metal: os gravadores” (doc. no. 1110575) and “Livio Abramo: forty years of engraving and drawings” (doc. no. 1110608)].