Brazilian Art in London: Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism
- Loren Assunção
- Mar 4
- 3 min read
Hi, I'm teacher Loren, and following the art news, I saw that there's a great exhibition happening with over 130 works by 10 Brazilian artists who marked the 20th century!
Exhibition period: January 28th to April 21st, 2025
Location: Main Galleries | Burlington House
They brought modernism to Brazil, blending international influences with our culture, landscapes, and indigenous and Afro-Brazilian identities.
You can check out works by names like Anita Malfatti, Tarsila do Amaral, Alfredo Volpi, Djanira, Rubem Valentim, and Flávio de Carvalho. Many of these works come from private and public collections in Brazil and have never been exhibited in the United Kingdom. Unmissable!
Organized by the Zentrum Paul Klee and Royal Academy of Arts.
Read the exhibition guide:
Modern Brazilian Paintings Exhibition
It is a little-known fact that in November 1944, the Royal Academy of Arts hosted the first and, to this day, largest exhibition of modern Brazilian art in the United Kingdom. It was divided into two sections, containing 80 paintings and 86 works on paper. An additional exhibition, "Brazil Builds," transferred from the Museum of Modern Art in New York under the aegis of the Anglo-Brazilian Society of London, presented a photographic history of Brazilian architecture in an adjacent gallery. Both exhibitions were accompanied by illustrated catalogs and subsequently traveled to various locations in the UK, including the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, before being displayed in Paris as part of the inaugural "International Exhibition of Modern Art" organized by UNESCO in 1946.
The "Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings" was an initiative of the Brazilian statesman Oswaldo Aranha (1894–1960) and is an excellent example of the use of culture to strengthen diplomatic relations between nations. Brazil declared war on the Axis powers in 1942, and by 1944, it was the only South American country allied to send troops to the European war theater. Aranha called on Brazilian artists to donate works for the exhibition, which would be sold for the benefit of the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund. Numerous works were purchased, 23 of which were donated to UK public collections by the British Council and other benefactors. Here, four paintings by Lasar Segall, Tarsila do Amaral, and Candido Portinari, and three works by landscape architect and artist Roberto Burle Marx, have been reunited at the original site of the 1944 exhibition, the Main Galleries of the Royal Academy.
Check out the catalog on display:
Catalog for 'Brazil Builds: New and Old Architecture, 1652 – 1942'
Candido Portinari
The Scarecrow 1940
Oil on canvas
Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, North Yorkshire Council
Tarsila do Amaral
Farm with Seven Piglets 1943
Oil on canvas
Private collection, São Paulo
Lasar Segall
Lucy with Flower 1939 – 42
Oil on canvas
Citti Ferreira spent her childhood and adolescence in France and Italy, and began her artistic training at the École Supérieure d'art et design Le Havre.
When she returned to Brazil in 1934, she became Lasar Segall's model. This painting was highly praised at the Royal Academy exhibition in 1944.
National Galleries of Scotland. Presented by the British Council in 1945, in recognition of collaboration on a series of exhibitions organized during the 1939-45 War.
Candido Portinari
Woman and Children 1940
Oil on canvas
Edson Queiroz Foundation Collection, Fortaleza
These and other works on display in the archive
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