A NEGRA: TARSILA DO AMARAL
AND THE IMPACT OF BRAZILIAN
ARTISTIC IDENTITY BY THE
SOCIAL HOOK
This short article is part of the first part of the concluding monograph of the MoMA course on Modern Art, written by Gabriel Green Fusari
Tarsila do Amaral is the brazilian most famous artist of all the time. She was born in Capivari (São Paulo State) in 1886, and was the precursor of the anthropophagic movement, which defends that brazilian culture is a mix between their native culture and the european culture,She always put their characteristics of Brazil’s lifestyle, biome and social critics on her works.
A Negra (Black woman, 1923) is one of them, which deal with this issue of identity. In Brazil, black people represents 54% of the population of this coutry, according to data released by IBGE in 2015. The masterpiece is the predecessor of the anthropophagic movement, because it was a work made in her art school in Paris (France), lead by Fernand Léger. Semiotically and descriptivelly speakings, the art work is the cubism technique of style, which was in acme in France in 1920, combined with her memory of a black woman with a big breasts who take care of her in the childhood.
Art, more specifically painting, was the way she express herself about her culture and political thoughts, her way to print and paint the identity of her country’s lifestyle on a blank canvas. Personally, I’ve choosen this artwork because 75% of the victims of murder in Brazil are black, according to the Violence Athlas, a study made by Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) and the Brazilian Public Security Forum.
The same research indicates that 66% of female murders, the victims are black woman, happening 13 homocides per day. In 2017, for exemple, 65.602 murders like this has been registred in Brazil. Assuming that this is a problem of public and social calamity, we social human beings should take care into account such date and, above all, value black lives and their cultures and expressions in our society.
Author: Tarsila do Amaral
Museum: MAC USP, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Year: 1923
Technique: Oil on canvas
Size: 100cm x 81.3cm
Movement: Modernism
