This is the most comprehensive exhibition catalog dedicated to the work of Brazilian artist Tarsila do Amaral (1886-1973), a pioneering figure in Latin American modernism. After studying with Fernand Léger (1881-1955) and André Lhote (1885-1962) in Paris, Tarsila, as she is widely known in Brazil, cannibalized modern European references to create a unique style of her own, true to her origins, with the use of caipira [Brazilian countryside] colors, as well as representations of typical and local characters, scenes, and narratives. Much of her work was made in dialogue with two leading modernist thinkers of her time: Mário de Andrade (1893-1945) and Oswald de Andrade (1890-1954). Her work also parallels the development o Oswald de Andrades antropofagia, a key concept in twentieth-century Latin American thought, a poetic program through which intellectuals of the tropics would cannibalize European cultural references in order to metabolize and produce something singular and hybrid of the
