Tarsila do Amaral exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg, until 02 February 2025
The Musée du Luxembourg is hosting the first-ever French retrospective of Brazilian modernist artist, Tarsila do Amaral, also known as Tarsila. She is one of Brazil’s most famous and best-loved artists and a central figure in Brazilian modernism. She was born in 1886 in a rural town outside of São Paulo, in a traditional Brazilian bourgeois family. She benefitted from a good education, studied piano and painting and traveled to Europe for the first time when she was 16. She was married by 18 years old, but her husband did not support her wish to pursue painting, so she divorced him and moved to Paris to study painting in 1920. Tarsila do Amaral enrolled at the Académie Julian, the famous school for modern art and also studied with André Lhote, Albert Gleizes, and Fernand Léger. She moved between Paris and São Paulo and used cubism as a means of developing her own style. Two years later, she joined the « Grupo dos Cinco », or The Group of Five, an art collective at the forefront of the modernist movement in Brazil. Whereas before, Tarsila’s style was heavily influenced by conservative European styles, after joining the group, she embraced modernism fully. In 1923, in a letter sent to her parents from Paris, she writes “I want to be the painter of my country. I am so thankful to have spent the whole of my childhood in the fazenda. My memories of that time have grown precious to me”.
Caipirinha, 1923, Tarsila do Amaral – Tarsila do Amaral Licenciamento e Empreendimentos S.A.
She travels through Brazil with her partner, Oswald de Andrade, one of the leaders of Brazil’s Modernist movement in the arts, and they explore the culture together. During this time, her paintings are heavily influenced by childhood memories and an idealization of favelas and life in rural Brazil. In 1928 she paints Abaporu, which inspires the Anthropofagia movement that seeks to reconnect to an authentic and multiracial Brazil and puts an emphasis on folklore
Saci Perere, 1925 © Photo Isabella Matheus © Tarsila do Amaral Licenciamento e Empreendimentos S.A
In 1931 she travels to the USSR with her new partner, Osório César, a left-wing intellectual and exhibits her work at the State Museum of Modern Western Art in Moscow. Her visit and the people she meets there will heavily influence her work and although a year later she spends one month in jail because of this visit, she adopts the precepts of social realism in her paintings, with a heavy focus on women’s working conditions
Operários, 1933- Tarsila do Amaral Licenciamento e Empreendimentos S.A.
She continues in this style until the 1950s, when she returns to cubist landscapes, takes on commissions and illustration projects and depicts the transformation and urbanization of São Paulo. She dies in 1973, leaving behind 270 paintings.
A Metrópole, 1958 © Tarsila do Amaral Licenciamento e Empreendimentos S.A.
The exhibition is organized chronologically and is easy to follow. It doesn’t require much prior knowledge of the Brazilian art scene, but there is not much text in English, with the exception of one video that’s subtitled in French and English so it’s better to prepare beforehand by downloading the guide in English (you can do that here) or getting the audio guide at the entrance. You can also book a guided visit here. It is definitely better to visit in the morning, when there isn’t much of a crowd and you have time and space to focus on the paintings.
More practical information about the exhibition and ticket prices here.
