Tarsila do Amaral and Brazilian Modernism Explained

Introduction: Tarsila do Amaral

One of the most important Brazilian artists of the twentieth century, Tarsila do Amaral was born in São Paulo in 1886. She had a privileged childhood as the granddaughter of a wealthy farmer. This brought with it various advantages, including an education that taught her to read, write, embroider, and speak French (Damian, 1999). After finishing her studies in France and returning to Brazil, she left an enduring impression on the Modernist movement in the country. Together with her husband Oswald de Andrade, Tarsila worked toward creating a unique artistic perspective for the Brazilian people — one that would not reject the European forms and images that had ruled the country's art world until the 1920s, but would instead incorporate them into traditional forms to create an entirely new and more inclusive perspective.

The Modernist movement emerged in the midst of a Brazil subject to numerous dualities, including the diverse cultures within its borders, the division of labor, the distribution of wealth, and the tension between nature and industry. De Andrade concerned herself specifically with the inherent dangers of neglecting tradition and nature in favor of industrial greed.

After a lifetime dedicated to her artistic vision, Tarsila do Amaral died in 1973 in São Paulo.

Culture, Politics, and Arts in Brazil

Until the early twentieth century, the arts scene in Brazil was dominated by European forms and images (Amaral, 1995). Despite the fact that Brazil's cultural mix included not only Europeans but also black Africans and indigenous Indian tribes, art forms created by cultures other than the European were often considered inferior and unworthy of serious consideration.

This began to change when a group of artists, writers, and intellectuals gathered at the Teatro Municipal for an exhibition of works in painting, poetry, music, and lectures. This was the Semana de Arte Moderna (Modern Art Week) of 1922. While this event marks the historical starting point of Brazilian Modernism, artists had been involved in the movement prior to that week. Its importance lies in the fact that it represented a gathering of artists working within the same movement with the shared aim of creating a new and uniquely Brazilian artistic culture.

It is interesting to note that 1922 also marked the first centennial of the country's independence. One might therefore consider it significant that this year sparked an artistic revolution aimed at achieving cultural independence to match the political achievements of one hundred years earlier (Philippou, 2005).

This does not mean that the movement occurred in a political vacuum. The context of the Modernist movement in Brazil included various pressing issues — among them the lingering legacy of slavery, abolished only in 1888, and the challenges of industrialization, including a free labor market and an expanding urban transportation network. During the 1920s, São Paulo produced more manufactured goods than its primary rival, Rio de Janeiro.

With these developments, questions arose about the national identity of the country in terms of its social, political, and economic drives. Rapid change prompted new questions about national unity and the values that would bind its citizens. According to Kahl (1986), a national identity is an essential part of unity. He places emphasis on a "common value-system" as an adhesive that holds a society together. The upheavals and dualities of early twentieth-century Brazil appear to have eroded this adhesive somewhat, producing many different and competing viewpoints depending on social status, employment, and artistic outlook. The Modernist movement, in many ways, sought to stabilize and unify at least the artistic community of the time.

In these terms, Korfmann and Nogueira (2004, p. 126) emphasize the importance of recognizing the uniqueness of the Modernist movement in Brazil. They note that, despite shared terminology such as "avant-garde," this does not mean that the movement was automatically the same in its aesthetics and principles across different countries. Indeed, Brazil is so unique in nature that one must recognize the considerable differences between its artistic aesthetic and those of countries such as the United States. This is the very principle that de Andrade and do Amaral intended to promote through their work.

Hence, the Modern Art Week aimed to find a resolution for the longstanding artistic conflict between young self-identified modernists and the Brazilian Academy of Letters, the recognized body dictating legitimate artistic expression in the country. Despite the controversy surrounding the events presented during the Week, it marked one of the most important turning points in Brazilian artistic history — and for the art of Tarsila do Amaral in particular.

Thanks to the Modern Art Week, São Paulo distinguished itself from the culturally conservative Rio de Janeiro in yet another significant way: it became the location of the new Modernist movement and, as such, a culturally and artistically vital city — perhaps the most important in the country.

Tarsila do Amaral: Artist and Art

Tarsila do Amaral was somewhat unusual for her era, having been born into the rural aristocracy, as noted above. Girls born into this world were generally not expected to pursue education beyond the basics, with marriage considered the more appropriate path. She was well provided for throughout her life, with parents who ensured her material well-being even if formal education was not always prioritized (Damian, 1999). It was within this tradition that she entered into an arranged marriage with her mother's cousin in 1906. Although the marriage produced a daughter, do Amaral soon found herself craving independence and the fulfillment of her artistic ambitions (Damian, 1999).

She asserted her independence by studying sculpture, painting, and design under respected but very traditional Brazilian teachers — educators who advocated the dominance of European art forms and considered native imagery inferior. These were the traditional images of indigenous people and practices that had long been marginalized in the country's mainstream art world (Damian, 1999).

A pivotal period in do Amaral's life came when she traveled to Paris to study at the Académie Julian in 1920. Although she initially focused on conservative work under Émile Renard, her life and associations in Paris soon brought her to a new artistic consciousness, which she would use to begin creating works of her own design and inspiration (Damian, 1999). In 1921, for example, she returned to Brazil and immersed herself in the history and legends of the country to unearth its artistic heritage. She also became concerned not only with the subversion of ancient culture by a drive toward industrial profits, but also with deforestation and the destruction of the Amazon forests. She began incorporating these concerns into her artwork.

The entire decade of the 1920s was, for do Amaral, a quest toward building a singular and unique identity — one that incorporated her own concerns alongside the new artistic directions to which she had been exposed. Studying with artists such as André Lhote, Fernand Léger, and Albert Gleizes, she encountered movements like Cubism, Futurism, and Expressionism. She gained firsthand experience with new art forms while also developing an understanding of contemporary European artistic trends (Damian, 1999). Parisians, for example, were fascinated with what was termed the "new world" — ethnic art forms emerging from countries in Africa and elsewhere attracted considerable attention. It was this fascination that brought home to Tarsila do Amaral the possibility of presenting her own native culture and heritage with pride and respect.

In 1922, her artistic journey brought her into contact with a group of artists and intellectuals in São Paulo whose central search was for a Brazilian identity, and who questioned the dominance of European art and culture. Since this was precisely do Amaral's own focus, she found a sympathetic bond with the group (Damian, 1999).

This quest ultimately manifested in the Semana de Arte Moderna — a week during which various Brazilian artists displayed works that attempted to voice a social and cultural break from the norm of European art in Brazil.

This event is considered to be the most significant in Brazilian arts during the twentieth century (Nist, 2014). The aesthetic manifesto presented during the exhibition represented several things in terms of artistic recognition and development in Brazilian culture, including a public and decisive break with past artistic traditions and values. In an unprecedented fashion, the Modernist movement staged by the exhibition proposed a renovation of all art forms — poetry, the visual arts, music, and architecture alike. It was a movement that encouraged research and experimentation with existing and new forms, and constituted a revolt against traditions that had been dominant for centuries. One result was that Brazilian literature became incorporated into and recognized by the literature of the Western world.

The poets who participated in the movement sought not only new forms of artistic expression but also new forms of social consciousness — a new age of humanity, a common ground between culture and spontaneity, tradition and the original, and the social and natural realities of life. They also sought aesthetic ideals such as purity, novelty, a new unity between humanity and nature, and a closer relationship between artist and public (Nist, 2014).

Part of this drive was the Grupo dos Cinco, consisting of Anita Malfatti, Mário de Andrade, Menotti del Picchia, and Oswald de Andrade. This group focused on activism to effect renewal in Brazilian culture through techniques and forms of expression that created distance from the then-dominant European styles and subject matter, incorporating Brazilian themes in their work instead. Tarsila met Oswald de Andrade in 1922; he would later become her husband, and it was with him that she would bring much of her art and artistic philosophy to fruition.

Conclusion

Tarsila do Amaral was perhaps one of the most important figures in Brazilian Modernism. From her earliest years, she worked tirelessly to further her passion for art, her expertise, and her ability to create something entirely unique. She was remarkable in her fervor for preserving the roots of the past while embracing new developments and new learning. She demonstrated this in both her education and her art. Exposure to contemporary artistic movements like Cubism during her European studies did not lead her to adopt it to the exclusion of everything else. Instead, together with her husband, she succeeded in incorporating the best of Brazilian indigenous art forms with the newest forms she learned in Europe to create a unique Brazilian artistic identity.

In the same vein, her concern with the environment, cultural roots, and industrialism did not mean that she viewed new developments as inherently harmful. Instead, her art and her philosophy advocated for the side-by-side existence of old and new, where the best of both worlds could be incorporated into a harmonious whole.

This was the philosophy of Cannibalism and the foundation of the Brazilian Modernist movement. As such, Korfmann and Nogueira (2004) were correct in their assertion that this movement should be seen as unique to each country. Brazil, with its specific cultural mix and political concerns, was a country that birthed a Modernist movement unique to its environment. As such, the movement — and one of its most important representatives, Tarsila do Amaral — offers a fertile field of study for students of the arts and a source of inspiration for artists themselves. This is an invaluable gift that she and her associates left not only for her country, but for the world.