This volume contains two essays and two statements by the modernist writer Mário de Andrade, made in his mature years. The first of these is considered a milestone in the reflection on modernism in Brazil, a lecture given in 1942 at the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Modern Art Week. The other texts reproduced here (“Vida e Obra” (“Life and Work”), an interview with Joel Silveira in 1939 for the magazine Vamos Ler! (“Let’s Read!”), “A elegia de abril” (“The April elegy”), first published as a presentation in the magazine Clima in 1941, and “A arte interessada” (“Interested art”), an interview with Francisco Assis Barbosa in the magazine Diretrizes in 1944) reflect on the role of the artist and the intellectual in society, presenting a thinker who was active and committed to transforming society and defending freedom in the face of the totalitarian