A first-of-its-kind exhibition, featuring many never-before-seen works from private collections, the newest exhibition at the Royal Academy unpacks the history of Brazilian Modernism.
Compiling over 100 works from Brazilian artists across the 20th century, the brand new main gallery exhibition at the Royal Academy captures the unique diversity and cultural resources of Brazil. An identity informed by indigenous identities, the Afro-Brazilian experience of slavery, segregation and oppression, and linguistic and cultural links to Europe, has rendered Brazil to be one of the world’s most vibrant countries, most colourful cultures, with numerous significant contributions to world culture.
The 20th century saw a new modern art emerge that made everyday life the artistic subject, informed by increased introspection and self-reflection of what it means to be Brazilian, a country of many. Gone is the idolatry of the Brazilian ruling classes, as 20th century art in the country now switches the subject to the citizen, to the home, to the minutiae of daily life.
Among the featured artists are Anita Malfatti, credited as being the first to bring European and American Modernist forms to Brazil. At the time considered controversial, rule-breaking, and revolutionary, Malfatti’s rejection of photorealism and stylistic prioritisation of colour, impression, mood, and texture, where the realism pours from the subject rather than her depiction of it.
Her work is emblematic of the Brazilian modernist movement; counter-balancing the incorporation of new influences from Europe and America by using their techniques to depict the reality of Brazil. Their inspiration might come from far afield, but their loyalty to portraying the Brazilian realistically is strong and impassioned.
This upcoming exhibition at the Royal Academy is highly anticipated for a few reasons. One that the majority of works come from private collections, meaning that much of this art will see its debut in London this year. Much of the remaining works are public but have never left Brazil. The routes that flowed Modernism to Brazil are now inverting.
While well-known and famed in Brazil, English and European art followers may have never heard of artists like Malfatti and Amaral, with this first-of-its-kind exhibition potentially sparking a European interest in Brazilian art history, a country which, prior to Modernism, had no clear artistic theory of technique and style. Alongside carioca increasingly influencing UK music, and picanha now becoming a fixture of UK steakhouses, this exhibition may spur 2025 into being the year of the Brazilian.