As we celebrated the trail blazing women in cinema a couple of weeks ago during the Oscar’s ceremony, I learned about an exhibit on Tarsila do Amaral’s (1886-1973) work at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.
Although Tarsila was a painter, she has clearly paved the way of all female artists in Brazilian Modern Art. In 1923, she wrote “I want to be the painter of my country.”
After completing her art education in Paris and learning from significant Cubism artists like André Lhote and Fernand Léger, she developed a painting style that departed from European Modern Art to ignite an important Movement in Brazilian Culture: Anthropophagy.
Anthropophagy or Cannibalism promoted the idea that Brazilian culture could be inspired by foreign influences, but it should primarily focus on its people, its landscapes, and its everyday reality.
As a gift to her husband, Oswald de Andrade, an important figure in Brazilian poetry, Tarsila painted Abaporu, which later inspired Oswald to write the “Manifesto of Anthropophagy”.
Tarsila do Amaral. Abaporu. 1928. Oil on canvas, 33 7/16 x 28 3/4″ (85 x 73 cm). Collection MALBA, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires.
As an ode to the biggest indigenous tribe in Brazil, the title Abaporu came from the Tupi language abapor’u”, abá (man) + poro (people) + ‘u (to eat), “the man that eats people”. Tupis were not cannibals, but Abaporu symbolized the digestion of external artistic influences to give place to the exaltation of Brazilian Culture.
Abaporu played with the proportions of the human body as many Modern paintings did, however it depicted, next to a genderless human, a cactus, a plant typical from Brazil’s Northeast region, whose bright yellow flower doubled as the sun.
Tarsila do Amaral: Inventing Modern Art in Brazil will be on display in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC through June 3rd, 2018. This is Tarsila’s first exhibit in the US, and compiles more than “100 works, including paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, photographs, and historical documents,” as listed at MoMA’s website.
Since some of her work is privately owned, this is an incredible opportunity to see her art up close. In addition to making such an important contribution to Brazilian Art and Culture, she is certainly an early 20th Century female icon to be praised.
-Andy
