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Painting bought by Soviet Union after Tarsila's 1931 Exhibition 

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Painting bought by Soviet Union after Tarsila's 1931 Exhibition 

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This painting is at the State Hermitage Museum Russia, St Petersburg. Click the image below to learn more.

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Entered the Hermitage in 1948; handed over from the State Museum of New Western Art in Moscow; purchased in 1931 from the Solo Exhibition of the Artist at the State Museum of New Western Art

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Entered the Hermitage in 1948; handed over from the State Museum of New Western Art in Moscow; purchased in 1931 from the Solo Exhibition of the Artist at the State Museum of New Western Art

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Painting: 'Operarios' (Workers) 1932 by Tarsila do Amaral

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Painting: 'Operarios' (Workers) 1932 by Tarsila do Amaral

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Painting: 'La Pompe à Essence' (The Fuel Pump) 1959 by Fernand Leger

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Painting: 'La Pompe à Essence' (The Fuel Pump) 1959 by Fernand Leger

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Another work (below) a lithograph, by Fernand Leger that was done well after Tarsila's Train Station.

What do you think about the works? Which do do you prefer and why?

It is flattering, if this was the case, that Leger admired and was inspired by Tarsila. This is common in artistic practices, it's how people innovate and get ideas. We've seen this with other artists in the course.

How do you get inspired for work or personal projects, where do you go, OR, who do you look to for inspiration?

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Painting: 'The Bather' 1932 by Fernand Leger

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Painting: 'The Bather' 1932 by Fernand Leger

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Do you see any similarities between the painting below, The Bathers by Fernand Leger and Tarsila's Anthropophagy (above)?

It is interesting how writings of some art scholars imply that Tarsila was influenced and trained in cubism from artists including Fernand Leger while she studied in Paris (1920-1923), yet Fernand Leger studied with Tarsila; he was a student studying in Paris at the same time as Tarsila; he was five years older that Tarsila.

The painting below by Leger was painted three years after Anthropophagy by Tarsila.
Do you see any similarities between the two?

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Video of painting 'Operarios' (Workers) 1932 by Tarsila

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Video of painting 'Operarios' (Workers) 1932 by Tarsila

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An excellent video providing a unique experience of Tarsila' painting. Try and watch the video (4 minutes) the whole way through. It's a great way to experience a work of art and look at parts of a painting you might miss with a quick view. An interesting fact: did you know that while in a museum most people spend less than one minute looking at a work of art?

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In 1929, Tarsil's family lost their fortune in the stock market crash, and Tarsila and her husband divorced. The following year there was a revolution in Brazil and a new authoritarian government came into power. In 1931 Tarsila traveled to the Soviet Union for an exhibition of her works at the State Museum of New Western Art in Moscow. While there, she traveled throughout the county and saw the poverty and plight of the Russian people. It affected her greatly.

When Tarsila returned to Brazil in 1932, she was involved in the São Paulo Constitutional Revolt against the dictatorship in Brazil. Along with others who were seen as leftist supporters, Tarsila was imprisoned for a month which in part was due to her travels to Russia which made her appear as a communist sympathizer.

Her painting style shifted dramatically as a result of her experiences.  After 1933, her focus transitioned to themes of social justice with an emphasis on the working class.

Painting below: 'Segunda Classe' (Second Class), 1933 by Tarsila

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Painting: 'A Lua' [the Moon] 1928 by Tarsila do Amaral

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Painting: 'A Lua' [the Moon] 1928 by Tarsila do Amaral

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Painting: 'E.F.C.B' (Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil), [train station] 1923 by Tarsila   

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Painting: 'E.F.C.B' (Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil), [train station] 1923 by Tarsila   

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Explore: MoMA - Exhibition "Tarsila do Amaral: Inventing Modern Art In Brazil,  2018 (web page)

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Explore: MoMA - Exhibition "Tarsila do Amaral: Inventing Modern Art In Brazil,  2018 (web page)

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Click the image below to learn more.

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"I want to be the painter of my country," wrote Tarsila do Amaral (1886-1973) in 1923. Born at the end of the 19th century to a family of coffee plantation owners in São Paulo, Tarsila―as she is affectionately known in Brazil―studied piano, sculpture, and drawing before leaving for Paris in 1920 to attend the Académie Julian, the famous art school that drew many international students. During subsequent sojourns in the French capital, she studied with André Lhote, Albert Gleizes, and Fernand Léger, fulfilling what she called her "military service in Cubism," ultimately arriving at her signature style of sensuous, vibrant landscapes and everyday scenes. The exhibition focuses on her pivotal production from the 1920s, when she navigated the art worlds of both São Paulo and Paris, and charts her involvement with an increasingly international artistic community, as well as her critical role in the emergence of modernism in Brazil. In 1928, she painted Abaporu for her husband, the poet Oswalde de Andrade, depicting an elongated, isolated figure with a blooming cactus. This landmark painting inspired the Manifesto of Anthropophagy, and became the banner for a transformative artistic movement, which imagined a specifically Brazilian culture arising from the symbolic digestion-or artistic "cannibalism"-of outside influences.

Though she is widely celebrated in her native country, this is the first exhibition in the United States devoted exclusively to Tarsila's groundbreaking art. Featuring over 100 works, including paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, photographs, and historical documents drawn from collections across Latin America, Europe, and the US, Tarsila do Amaral: Inventing Modern Art in Brazil is a rare opportunity to explore the work of this daring modernist.

The exhibition is organized by The Museum of Modern Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Organized by Luis Pérez-Oramas, former Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and Stephanie D'Alessandro, former Gary C. and Frances Comer Curator of International Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago; with Karen Grimson, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints, The Museum of Modern Art.

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Tarsila do Amaral: Inventing Modern Art in Brazil | MoMA

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Exhibition. Feb 11-Jun 3, 2018. "I want to be the painter of my country," wrote Tarsila do Amaral (1886-1973) in 1923. Born at the end of the 19th century to a family of coffee plantation owners in São Paulo, Tarsila―as she is affectionately known in Brazil―studied piano, sculpture, and drawing before leaving for Paris in 1920 to attend the Académie Julian, the famous art school that drew many international students.

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Painting: 'Anthropophagy' 1929 by Tarsila do Amaral 

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Painting: 'Anthropophagy' 1929 by Tarsila do Amaral 

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The title of this painting (below) refers to cannibalism,  its literal translation is 'the eating of flesh by other human beings'. Keep in mind, the title and painting are symbols for new way of thinking about art and culture that Tarsila and the Group of Five were working towards. Some suggest that Anthropophagy is a way of thinking about cultural assimilation, inspired by Oswald de Andrade, and that the philosophy describes an unusual and obscure creative philosophy, where the one doing the consuming wants to 'inherit the cultural qualities of his enemy'. More strangeness. If you are interested in  learning more about this idea, click here.

What do you think of when you view this painting? What are you drawn to?

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Video: Experience Tarsila's painting, 'A Lua' (The Moon) at the Museum

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Video: Experience Tarsila's painting, 'A Lua' (The Moon) at the Museum

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Get up close to Tarsila's painting 'A Lua' with the curator from the Museum Modern of Art when she talks about the museum's newly acquired painting.  Video is  3 minutes.

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The painter of her country | Tarsila do Amaral | UNIQLO ArtSpeaks

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Painting: 'Abaporu' 1928 by Tarsila do Amaral 

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Painting: 'Abaporu' 1928 by Tarsila do Amaral 

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This extraordinary painting (below) inspired Tarsila's husband Oswald de Andrade, who was part of the Grupo dos Cinco, to write "Anthropophagite Manifesto", an essay about cultural cannibalism. Sound strange? Definitely. It is unclear how widely it was read or considered at the time (though it re-surfaced in the 1960s and influenced other poets and artists), but scholars today interpret it as a rejection of Europe as the dominant culture with the premise that Brazilians could 'consume' European culture and then transform it into forms unique to Brazil.

It is also not clear whether the painting was titled before or after Oswald wrote the manifesto, but either way the painting Abaporu is viewed by scholars as a visual representation of Oswald's manifesto. The title (Abaporu) is taken from the Tupi language; the Tupi are an aboriginal people of Brazil.The literal translation is 'the man that eats people’ (!). Art scholars suggest that the idea of cannibalism can act as a metaphor for cultural ingestion and rebirth. Interesting. What do you think?

To view the paintings in this digital collage close-up, click on the images.

Do you see the title, Abaporu, fitting with the visual elements of the painting? How, if at all, does the title affect your impression and experience of the painting? What do you like or dislike about the Abaporu?

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Tarsila is considered one of the most influential modern artists in Latin American yet was relatively unknown in the United States until 2018 when the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago each featured a solo exhibition of her work

She was instrumental in moving Brazil's modern art movement forward. One of her most influential paintings representative of Brazil's modern movement is Abaporu; (next tile) it became a symbol for Brazil's new cultural identity and modernism with its large shapes, bright colours and out-of-proportion body parts.

Below: Tarsila do Amaral, 1925 (photographer unknown)