Brazilian Modern Art has a particular presence that can be recognized in a split second. Fluid forms, bright colors, disproportionate figures, false perspectives, and strong sense of self- consciousness. The start of the movement was marked in 1922 at The Week of Modern Art festival where modernism had bloomed overnight.¹⁰ The festival introduced new, never seen forms of art to the audience. The works exhibited were of an experimental nature and featured influences from abroad, molded into the unique forms. Brazilian artists took complex western art movements like European Expressionism, Surrealism and Cubism and reinterpreted them in the way that incorporates simpler ways of life, more engaged with the Brazilian reality.¹¹ This resulted in the solutions that are unique and that relate to the traditions of the nation, and allow for fresh understanding and reinterpretation of “the primitive, the modern, and their fusion”.¹² 

The movement came at the time of heightened awareness of acted as a provocateur and opposer to the strict academism of Brazilian Academy of Letters. Quickly gaining traction amongst the society, as well as attention from other nations, Brazilian Modernism became an important milestone for the country.¹³

Key players in the movement included writers, philosophers, and painters. One of the most notable figures in the movement was brazilian poet Oswald de Andrade, whose Manifesto Antropófago (Cannibalism Manifesto) written in 1928 introduced a provocative idea about cannibalism as a form of cultural appropriation.¹⁴
Highly influenced by the visual strategies of art forms produced at the time, the manifesto turned out to become a mission statement of the Brazilian Modernism Movement and presented a strategy for producing artwork.¹⁵ In his writing Oswald explains the movement as a form of ‘cannibalization’ or consumption of other cultures as well as simultaneously referencing the primitivism of native to Brazil cannibal tribes. The two concepts come together to form a new form of consciousness for Brazil, which at the time was looking to strengthen its unique presence in the world.

Tarsila Do Amaral, Oswald’s
wife, is another figure whose work has become one of the most influential in Brazil Modernist Movement.

Before becoming an inspiration behind the ‘cannibalism’ movement, she studied in France where she worked with Fernand Leger in 1923. Leger’s works are known for their ‘mechanical’ character present in “machine-like forms and tubular figures...” where he achieves “...a sense of volume in the bodies of human figures by creating a darker outline around the figures’ rounded limbs and highlighting their centers with lighter paint.”¹⁶ In her work Tarsila reassigns the techniques she learned in Europe to celebrate and portray the lush landscape forms of her own country. Her painting Abaporu (Man Who Eats) has fully embodied the philosophies behind the Manifesto Antropófago and set a standard for the nation through the use native colors and vernacular subject that lay decidedly outside the mainstream of artistic expression.¹⁷

In 1930’s Brazilian art scene started to merge both anthropological movement’s vision with more conventional techniques celebrated by the old Imperial Academy, resulting in the generation of moderate modernism.¹⁸ Candido Portinari is a Brazilian painter who most successfully links the two schools together. In his work he masterfully integrates and enhances the unconventional forms of early modernism with structural order and figurative representation of the Brazilian people. Similarly to Tarsila, Portinari gained his experience in Europe, studying and experiencing art under the more conventional training.¹⁹ “[...] Portinari effected rational structuring of pictorial space modeled on precedents from the Italian Renaissance as well as certain post-Cubist solutions. He superimposed onto this rational structure modular human forms, exalting the figure of the Brazilian worker as a key protagonist in the country’s history.“²⁰ His success in achieving this balance prompted him to become an official painter for many significant events on behalf of Brazilian government.²¹
It is important to emphasize that the success achieved throughout Brazilian Modernist movement was rooted in the rich native Brazilian forms, be they societal primitivism or landscape. Building on the successful techniques found in European art movements at the time, Brazilian artist championed its cultural heritage. Brazilian modernism reignited people’s pride for its country through finding the right way of redefining the meaning of freedom and celebrating national identity, echoing the spirit of post-colonialism. These ideas commemorated through art transcended through various fields and can be found in architecture and landscape architecture as well.

Tarsila do Amaral. Abaporu. 1928. Oil on Canvas.