TY - JOUR AU - Bessa-Oliveira, Marcos Antônio AU - Nolasco, Edgar Cézar PY - 2016/05/01 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Modern and contemporary, the bull insists on keeping itself as Art’s main character in Mato Grosso do Sul JF - PORTO ARTE: Revista de Artes Visuais (Qualis A2) JA - POARTE VL - 20 IS - 34 SE - Versão | Version DO - 10.22456/2179-8001.62322 UR - https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/PortoArte/article/view/62322 SP - AB - The State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, was established and politically from the geographic division of the State of Mato Grosso in 1977. The new State assumed the title of largest producer of dairy cattle and cropping in Latin America. Since then, various artistic themes have been addressed by local art production, as it has been done throughout Latin America: the artistic cultural productions turn their heads to their rural areas. From this period of division of states, cattle prevailed routinely as the most expressive theme of art production. In this production, cattle is preserved and supported both by the government and by its co-opted critics, which keep resonances in Mato Grosso do Sul’s artistic production. Horns, leather, iconographies, hot iron brands permeate the works made by artists born and residing in the State. This article aims to investigate critically this recurrence in artistic production between the years of 1977 and 2010, a period that marked the State of Mato Grosso do Sul as a particular artistic and cultural entity member of the National Assembly, by tracking the way in which the lowland landscape of the bull is still in keep with being an “artistic relief” representing the State. Using concepts like Charles Baudelaire’s beauty, as well as Theodor W. Adorno’s Essay as form, among others, this work aims to reflect on Mato Grosso do Sul’s current, post-division artistic situation. That is, why is the bull a constant in the state’s visual arts. ER -