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expressions-of-nature:

Taketomi Volcano by Alexander Lavrentiev

(via expressions-of-nature)

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joancasaramona:

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germanpostwarmodern:

In our latitudes the art of Brazil still leads a somewhat shadowy existence, especially with regard to the decades before the Second World War. With its current exhibition „Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism“ the Zentrum Paul Klee up until January 5, 2025 attempts to broaden our view on Brazilian modern art and takes a closer look at the origins of its modern art and the artists involved in it. In order to allow for an overview of the different artistic currents as well as the individual developments of the artists, the curators decided to limit the exhibition to 10 artists that represent different strands of Brazilian modern art: Tarsila do Amaral (1886-1973), Anita Malfatti (1889-1964), Lasar Segall (1889-1957), Alfredo Volpi (1896-1988), Vicente do Rego Monteiro (1899-1970), Flávio de Carvalho (1899-1973), Candido Portinari (1903-1962), Djanira da Motta e Silva (1914-1979), Rubem Valentim (1922-1991) and Geraldo de Barros (1923-1998). Gaining independence in 1889 Brazil at the turn of the 20th century was a country on the move, looking to define its identity. Naturally, artists of all trades also sought to define a Brazilian art, stripped off the colonial past and representative of the now independent country, efforts that culminated in the „Semana de Arte Moderna“ in São Paulo in 1922: financed by coffee tycoon Paulo Prado the art week sought to shift the focus from Rio de Janeiro to the economic center of Brazil but also presented a wide array of modern art, architecture and music. Subsequently, Brazilian artists, either financed by their families or on stipends, went to Europe: Anita Malfatti e.g. spent time in Berlin while Tarsila do Amaral, Candido Portinari, Vicente do Rego Monteiro or Geraldo de Barros stayed in Paris. What they brought home were the avant-garde ideas of the expressionists, futurists and cubists which they combined with Brazilian topics and traditions, indigenous and Afro-Brazilian imagery which became an idealized subject in the avant-garde arts.
The reflection of these plural influences can also be traced in the comprehensive catalogue, published by Snoeck, accompanying the exhibition: it contains substantial dossiers of each artist as well as contextualizing essays that paint a complete picture of the Brazilian avant-garde, including literature, architecture and design but also address critical topics like the appropriation of Afra-Indigenous imagery and the central role women played in Brazilian modern art. A very informative, beautifully illustrated catalogue!

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havaforever:

TARSILA DO AMARAL - Au Musée du Luxembourg
Figure centrale du modernisme brésilien, Tarsila do Amaral (1886-1973) est la créatrice d’une œuvre originale et évocatrice, puisant dans les imaginaires indigéniste, populaire et moderne d’un pays en pleine transformation.
À Paris, dans les années 1920, elle met son univers iconographique à l’épreuve du cubisme et du primitivisme, avant d’initier, à São Paulo, le mouvement « anthropophagique », prônant la « dévoration », par les Brésiliens, des cultures étrangères et colonisatrices, comme forme à la fois d’assimilation et de résistance.
Ses paysages aux couleurs vives laissent alors la place à des visions insolites et fascinantes, avant qu’une dimension plus ouvertement politique n’apparaisse dans ses toiles des années 1930. Le gigantisme onirique et la géométrie presque abstraite de ses dernières compositions ne font que confirmer la puissance d’une œuvre ancrée dans son temps et toujours prête à se renouveler.
Venant combler un manque de reconnaissance de l’artiste en Europe et présentant quelques aspects inédits de son œuvre, cette rétrospective nous invite au cœur du Brésil moderne et de ses clivages entre tradition et avant-garde, centres et périphéries, cultures savantes et populaires.