Artists

Tarsila do Amaral, Rubem Valentim, Anita Malfatti, Alfredo Volpi, Djanira da Motta e Silva, Flávio de Carvalho

Press release

A major exhibition featuring over 130 works by ten important Brazilian artists from the twentieth century, capturing the diversity of Brazilian art at the time. In the early 20th century a new modern art was emerging in Brazil. Starting in the 1910s and continuing into the 1970s, Brazilian artists were adapting contemporary trends, international influences and artistic traditions to create a new type of modern art; art informed by the vibrant cultures, identities and landscapes of Brazil. Everyday life in Brazil was the subject of this new modernism and the Indigenous identity and Afro-Brazilian experience were among the many influences these artists drew upon in their work. This was a group of people looking inward at their rich cultural resource to set a new course for modernism that was borne out across South America. The exhibition will bring an expanded view of Brazilian Modernism to UK audiences, showing work by artists who have historically received less exposure in this country, including Anita Malfatti, who spearheaded the movement, and Tarsila do Amaral, now internationally celebrated as a leading female figure of Brazilian Modernism. The exhibition will also include the self-taught artists Alfredo Volpi and Djanira da Motta e Silva, an artist of indigenous descent, Afro-Brazilian artist Rubem Valentim and performance artist, Flávio de Carvalho. The majority of works come from rarely seen Brazilian private collections, as well as Brazilian public collections, most of which have never been exhibited in the UK.