The Private circuit of art exhibitions in Rio de Janeiro in the 1880s: a transitional phase from the academic art system to the modern one

Abstract

This article is a piece of doctoral research that aims to analyze the historical course of five private exhibition halls active in the 1880s in Rio de Janeiro: Salão De Wilde, Glace Élégante, Casa Vieitas, Galeria Moncada, and The Insley Pacheco's Studio. Based on the data collected until then in texts published between 1880 and 1889, this material is available on the Digital Periodical Archive of the National Library and mentions the spaces of the private circuit. Therefore, the objective is to analyze the characteristics that constituted the artist's image, the aesthetic experience, the conception of art, and the institutional structure prevailing during the temporal and geographic scope of the investigation. Supported by Larry Shiner’s research, in which the philosopher defends a possible systemic organization of art in different historical periods, along with the author’s contribution, Bruna Fetter, who discusses the importance of institutional organization in each era; this study examines artistic activities and relationships among private circuit agents of the period and seeks to demonstrate that the decade in question constituted a transition phase from the academic system to the modern one.