HISTORY OF _RT

History of _rt project is a confirmation. Qualitative and quantitative data is presented on 2,443 artists from 11 books used in undergraduate visual arts courses in Brazil. The intention is to evaluate the limited perspectives of the official history of art taught today, by bringing together and comparing basic information about the artists found in these books.

Based on an analysis of this data, it was observed that from a total of 2,443 artists, only 215 (8.8%) are women, 22 are black (0.9%), and 645 (26.3%) are non-Europeans. Of these 645 non-Europeans, only 246 are not from the United States. In total, there are 1.566 painters.

HISTORY OF ¹RT is² the area³ of human⁴ sciences⁵ in which⁶ there is a⁷ constructed⁸ narrative⁹ about¹⁰ the creation¹¹of objects and experiences¹² produced¹³ mainly¹⁴ by¹⁵ men¹⁶ who are white¹⁷ European¹⁸, or from the US¹⁹, and painters²⁰ (some of them, geniuses²¹)…²²

The data in these tables form the basis for producing a support material, printed in the form of a pamphlet like those found at the entrance to museums and cultural centers. With 13 thousand copies printed in Portuguese and 2 thousand in English, the material was distributed for free throughout 2017 at the entrance to museums in Brazil and other countries. The project was also exhibited at SESC Tucuruvi (BR) and Itaú Cultural Paulista (BR), and presented at the Data Justice Conference 2018 (UK).

More informations is available in the project’s official website: historyof-rt.org. See also the article we wrote on the project, titled “The History of _rt: deconstructions of the official history of art narrative." It has been published at Revista do Centro de Pesquisa e Formação do SESC n.8, in Portuguese, with an English translation forthcoming.

The project moved on with the publication of _rt Movements on the ARTMargins journal (2021). This text object materially represents the complex, relational articulation of art and history with particular emphases on the contingent relationships made by movements of different kinds: geographical migration of artists, displacement of art objects, performances, institutions/festivals, and theories/theorists.