The letters are, first and foremost, a testimony to their friendship and complicities, bonds that had grown since the mid-1950s, when they first met amid an atmosphere of huge creative ferment in Brazil. Their encounter turned out to be transcendental in the life and career of both, in a country that was, moreover, preparing for the surge of the so-called second Modernidade, the artistic development which, according to Ivo Mesquita, began in the 1950s and lasted until the 1980s. The letters are much more than unexpected, privileged accounts of the international art scene, told in the register of the intimacies of letter-writing. They are a testimony of affection, respect, trust, and fidelityùartistic tooùof two friends who were also two great artists. These layers present a mix of journeys, impressions, and clues about their works; proximities, complicities, and even hardships and worries, those that inhabit the life of human beings.This book gives continuity to the Ars Litterae series whichùfollowing the footsteps of LiberArs, artist books for allùhas the goal of making little known texts by twen
