Exploring Brazilian Modernism: A Fusion of Tradition and Innovation

As the 20th century dawned in Brazil, so too did a new modern art that would not only redefine the country’s artistic landscape, but also build cities in its own image. Brazilian Modernism brought with it a generation of artists and architects who fused European ideas from the Bauhaus and Modernism to create something indelibly Brazilian.

Adapting contemporary trends with artistic traditions, Brazilian Modernism was singular in its vision to create a modern art that incorporated the country’s vibrant culture. This was a new art for a new Brazil. Its international outlook and Modernist approach was embraced by Tarsila do Amaral, whose Abaporu became the banner for a transformative artistic movement, while the architecture of Oscar Niemeyer designed the new Brazilian capital city with a Modernist approach.

With an emphasis on cultural autonomy and national pride, Brazilian Modernism distinguished itself from other modernist movements, as through its portrayals of everyday life and striking architecture, artists drew on indigenous identity, European styles, and the Afro-Brazilian experience to create a distinct artform and a much-needed national identity.

Origins and Influences

From its roots in European avant-garde movements like Cubism and Futurism to its response to Brazilian society and culture, the impact of Brazilian Modernism is evident in the permanent monument of Brasilia’s Modernist architecture. It all began with the arts festival Semana de Arte Moderna (Modern Art Week) in São Paulo, 1922, which is today recognised as the starting point of Brazilian Modernism.

Indebted to the abstraction and fragmented perspectives of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, Cubism proved influential for Brazilian artists seeking to break away from traditional artistic representations. Italian Futurism was a similar influence, as its emphasis on speed and technology inspired Brazilian artists to capture the energy of a new urban life, while the Surrealism of André Breton and Salvador Dalí influenced Brazilian writers and visual artists.

Moulding these European influences into native themes, Brazilian Modernism also drew inspiration from the country’s indigenous population, as myths, legends, and artistic styles were incorporated into modernist works to reclaim and celebrate Brazil’s pre-colonial heritage.

Characteristics and Techniques

Brazilian Modernism was marked by an experimental approach. Its use of bold color, geometric forms, and dynamic compositions stood in opposition to historic artistic expectations. As Brazilian Modernists adopted Cubist techniques in their exploration of native themes, they merged geometric abstraction with local colors and subjects.

Mystical and mythological elements of Brazilian culture were embraced, while a modern sense of progress and industrialization in Brazil was represented through Futurist-inspired works that found a natural home in rapidly modernizing cities like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and particularly, Brasilia, which become an ode to Modernism.

Fusing a variety of cultural influences, Brazilian Modernists included elements of the country’s indigenous cultures, as native themes and techniques were all showcased, while Brazil’s large African-descended population were represented through music, dance, and visual arts. And these indigenous themes were fused with European modernist ideas to create something entirely new.

Key Figures

Tarsila do Amaral

“I want to be the painter of my country,” wrote Tarsila do Amaral prophetically in 1923, before becoming one of the leading Latin American Modernist artists, who encapsulated Brazilian aspirations for nationalistic expression in a modern style.

After moving to Paris to attend the Académie Julian in 1920, Amaral completed what she called her “military service in Cubism” that helped develop her style of sensuous, vibrant, everyday scenes. Tarsila’s Abaporu (1928) blended European ideas with Brazilian influences and would inspire the Manifesto of Anthropophagy by Oswald de Andrade. This painting became the banner for the art movement, which absorbed and transformed foreign influences, and cannibalized them into something singularly Brazilian.

Anita Malfatti

In New York, Anita Malfatti was considered an interesting member of the avant-garde, but her 1917 solo exhibition, Exposição de Pintura Moderna in São Paulo was met with opposition. Her Cubist distortions and vibrant color palette proved unpopular and weren’t recognized as a positive contribution to nationalism and traditions within art.

Time would heal her reputation, and her paintings, A Estudante Russa (1915), Torso/Ritmo (1915–1916), and O Homem Amarelo (1915–1916) show the development of her Cubist fusion style. Influenced by European and American Modernism, Malfatti’s art mirrored transformative 20th century ideals and her art contributed to evolutionary changes in the structure and response to modern art in Brazil.

Oswald de Andrade

One of the founders of Brazilian Modernism and a member of the Group of Five, Oswald de Andrade’s revolutionary Manifesto Antropofágico (1928) defined Brazilian Modernism as cannibalistic. He argued that countries should ingest the culture of their colonizer and use it as artistic inspiration. Controversial and outspoken, de Andrade wrote Manifesto da Poesia Pau-Brasil, in which he presented the aesthetic notions that would guide Brazilian Modernists. Born into a wealthy bourgeois family, Andrade was a financial supporter of Modernist artists, including Tarsila do Amaral, with whom he had a long affair.

Candido Portinari

A prominent and influential Neo-Realist painter, Candido Portinari is considered one of the most significant painters of Latin American Modernism, who introduced himself to US audiences when the Brazilian government commissioned him to paint three large panels for the Brazil Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Known for his portrayals of Brazilian workers and peasants, Portinari’s styled would be transformed by a three year stay in Europe, where he absorbed Picasso’s classical works of the 1920s. A prolific painter of more than 5,000 canvases, his large-scale piece Guerra e Paz was donated to the United Nations Headquarters in 1956.

Lina Bo Bardi

Despite battling prejudice as a ‘foreigner’ and a woman, the Italian-born architect and designer devoted her working life to promoting the social potential of architecture. Seeing how Brazilian vernacular design, which emphasises a harmonious relationship with nature, could influence modern Brazilian architecture, Bo Bardi designed the São Paulo Museum of Art and her now trademark Glass House in Sao Paulo’s suburbs.

Embodying a simple form of monumental architecture, Lina Bo Bardi’s museum design was formed from pre-stressed concrete and glass, while the building’s body is supported by two lateral beams over a 74-meter freestanding space. Her work has enjoyed a revival after a 1993 catalog of her works was republished in 2008, while her furniture has proved popular at auction.

Roberto Burle Marx

Often credited with introducing Modernist landscape architecture to Brazil, Roberto Burle Marx was a modern nature artist and designer of public urban spaces, whose work greatly influenced tropical garden design in the 20th century.

Despite the ethical complexities of collaborating with a military regime, Burle Marx made his voice heard as an environmental activist and an avant-garde Modernist. His Sítio de Santo Antonio da Bica estate is today a UNESCO World Heritage site and showcases his sense of timeless perfection and fusion of Modernism with a distinctly Brazilian style.

Oscar Niemeyer

“I am not attracted to straight angles or to the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man,” explained Oscar Niemeyer. “I am attracted to free-flowing, sensual curves. The curves that I find in the mountains of my country,” and his influence as one of the key figures in modern architecture would become evident in his design of civic buildings for the planned capital of Brasília.

He collaborated with other architects on the headquarters of the United Nations in New York, but it was his exploration of reinforced concrete, and its aesthetic properties that was highly influential in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Notable works in Brazilian Modernism

Brasília

Prior to the construction of Brasilia, the landscape in Brazil’s central plateau was open savannah, but Niemeyer’s architectural designs transformed it into a Modernist utopia. He gave the new city a formal unity, as he designed residential, commercial, and government buildings, including the residence of the President, the National Congress of Brazil, and the hyperboloid Cathedral of Brasília. Niemeyer and his town planner, Lúcio Costa created new concepts of city planning through pedestrianised streets and floating buildings supported by columns, creating space beneath.

Adopting a socialist ideology, all apartments in Brasília were initially owned by the government, as ministers and laborers shared the same buildings. After its completion, Niemeyer was named Chief of the College of Architecture at the University of Brasília and in 1963 he became an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects.

Pampulha Architectural Ensemble

Developed in 1940, the Pampulha Modern Ensemble was the centre of a visionary garden city project that was one first examples of Modernist architecture in the country – and would provide a template for Niemeyer’s  work in Brasilia.

Today, a UNESCO World Heritage site, the project was designed with Roberto Burle Marx and showcases Niemeyer’s ability to blend Modernist architectural principles with Brazilian culture. Niemeyer employed curved lines in the domed cathedral and the freeform shapes of the ballroom, while his use of reinforced concrete was considered innovative in its day. Fusing bold architectural forms, landscape design, and art into a harmonious whole reflected the influence of local traditions and natural surroundings on Modernist architecture.

Casa de Vidro

An icon of modern architecture in Brazil, Casa de Vidro was the home of Lina Bo and Pietro Maria Bardi for 40 years and took its name from its imposing glass façade. Created in a Modernist style with a courtyard allowing trees in the garden to grow into the heart of the house, Lina designed the house for her husband in the Mata Atlantica, the original rain forest surrounding Sao Paulo.

Constructed from thin reinforced concrete slabs with slender circular pilotis columns, the building consists of a main living area in a near completely open and Modernist style. A dining room, library, and lounge centred around a freestanding fireplace provide floor to ceiling views of the surrounding rainforest, offering a distinct symbiosis between modernity and nature.

Furniture by Sergio Rodrigues

Often credited as the father of modern Brazilian design, Sergio Rodrigues’ Mole Armchair introduced a distinctly Brazilian vocabulary to modern furniture design. It won first prize at the IV Concorso Internazionale del Mobile in Italy, 1961, and became an icon of Brazilian modern design in Europe, alongside the Sheriff chair (1957). Arne Jacobsen even said the Mole communicated the unique characteristics of Brazilian culture.

The chair is an ode to Brazil. Made from jacaranda wood native to sub-tropical South America, the leather straps of the understructure are typical of the gaucho culture of the pampas, and the tufted black leather cushions reflect the relaxed attitude of the Cariocas in Rio. “The piece of furniture is not just the shape, not just the material which is made but also something inside it. It’s the piece’s spirit. It’s the Brazilian spirit. It’s the Brazilian furniture,” he said.

Furniture by Carlo Hauner and Martin Eisler

Together, Carlo Hauner and Martin Eisler founded of the accessible furniture company Forma, which fused native woods with European-inspired tubular frames to become one of the most recognised names in Brazilian furniture. The company prospered in the 1960s and produced famous designs like the concha/haia (shell) chair and the Costella lounge chair.

It was a short lived, but prosperous partnership. After studying painting, the Italian Hauner moved to Brazil and forged a successful partnership with the Austrian born Jewish architect Eisler, who had fled Nazi occupied Europe. And while their partnership only survived until Hauner’s death in 1958, Forma has endured as one of the great South American design initiatives.

Ceramics by Francisco Brennand

At the age of 22, Brazilian painter Francisco Brennand visited Paris and transformed his approach to art. In the French capital he saw a ceramics exhibition by Pablo Picasso that would inspire him to focus entirely on ceramics, in which he earned recognition both in Brazil and internationally.

Brennand primarily displayed his work at his Oficina Brennand, which often centered on themes of the human body, eggs, and animals, and was on occasion deemed provocative. The New York Times disagreed though and called Brennand “the foremost artist in the city” and the Oficina Brennand “a metaphor for the city of Recife itself, consumed in simultaneous growth and decay.”

Legacy and Influence

Dynamic and transformative, Brazilian Modernism left a meaningful legacy that still informs contemporary art and design. It was fundamental in the creation of a distinct style that reflected Brazil’s diversity and consolidation of a new national identity. Not only redefining the country’s artistic expression, but also reinforcing and promoting its rich culture, Brazilian Modernism’s fusion of European avant-garde techniques with its indigenous heritage created something uniquely Brazilian that celebrated national independence, cultural diversity, and modern innovation.

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