ABSTRACT
Alexandre Melo was one of the principal art critics of the 1980s. His writings appeared regularly, and then with ever-increasing frequency, in major international art journals. This chapter focuses on the exhibition Art and its Double, curated by Dan Cameron, he explores the new trend of the appropriation of images and objects, informed by the theoretical tenets of Post-Modernism. He stresses the critical and ironic ambiguity inherent in the ways in which appropriationism vexes notions of authorship, originality, and the commodification of cultural signs. To bolster the quality of the selection of galleries included: rendering it broadly representative of international, contemporary art practices; and to accentuate its commercial character, stimulating the collection of art in such as a way as to integrate the art fair fully into the world market. The attempt to emphasize the importance of the market is rounded off by a dense program of complementary activities.
