Art in Brazil

In Brazil you can experience more than just beach holidays and adventure holidays in the rainforest. Why not use your Brazil vacation to discover Brazilian art in more detail?
The production of art in the geographical area known to us as Brazil began with the indigenous people. The natives of Brazil, pre-Columbian Indians, created art in various forms. A well-known example is the Marajoara ceramics. Only after the colonization of Brazil by the Portuguese in the 16th century, Brazil got its present name. The arrival of the Dutch from 1624 onwards influenced the art in the region of Pernambuco. The Africans, who were brought to Brazil as slaves, also influenced the art and culture of Brazil. The term "Brazilian art" refers to all art objects that were produced after the Portuguese colonization.

The oldest known works of art in Brazil are cave paintings in the Serra do Capivara National Park in the state of Piauí. Their origin is dated to 13,000 B.C. More recent examples with geographical patterns and animal shapes have been found in Minas Gerais and in Goiás.
Among the most cultivated artifacts found in Brazil is the Marajoara pottery (800 to 1400 A.D.), which originated on the island of Marajó and in the area around Santarém. The ceramics are decorated with pictures and complex human and animal reliefs. Small statues and cult objects, such as small carved stone amulets called Muiraquitãs, are also part of this culture. Also in the Mina and Periperi cultures of Maranhão and Bahia, interesting, though simpler, ceramics and small statues were produced.
At the beginning of the 21st century, many of the ancient traditions were still practiced and maintained by the remaining indigenous people. These include body painting, ceramics and small statues.

The first active artists in Brazil were Catholic priests who came from Portugal to missionize the indigenous people. Jesuits played an important role in this, as they had many missionary institutions where they taught art in the form of spiritual plays, music, sculpture and painting. José de Anchieta was the first important dramatist. Agostinho de Jesus and Agostinho da Piedade created the first sculptures. Belchior Paulo, João Felipe Bettendorff, Ricardo do Pilar and some others painted the first pictures. Francisco de Vaccas and Pedro da Fonseca organized the musical life in the young colony. Basílio da Gama and Gregório de Mattos were the first secular poets. All artists worked under the influence of the Baroque, the dominant style in Brazil until the beginning of the 19th century.
Especially in the states of Minas Gerais, Bahia and Pernambuco, Baroque art flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries thanks to the increasing wealth and craftsmanship. The gold rush in Minas Gerais led to a rich and educated society living there. Minas was home to Brazil's most important Baroque artists: the painter Manuel da Costa Ataíde and the sculptor and architect Aleijadinho. Minas was also the birthplace of the neoclassical school of music and literature. Famous artists such as the composers Lobo de Mesquita and Francisco Gomes da Rocha or the poets Tomás Antônio Gonzaga and Cláudio Manuel da Costa were born here.

The arrival of a group of French artists and architects changed the Brazilian art scene in the 19th century. The group, which arrived in Brazil in 1816, reinforced the neo-classical style, of which only timid attempts had been made in Brazil before. Joachim Lebreton, leader of this movement, proposed the foundation of an Academy of Fine Arts, which was later restructured into the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes. The academy was the most important center for fine arts for almost the entire 19th century. It introduced a new concept of artistic education and formed the basis for a revolution in painting, sculpture, architecture, fine arts and crafts in Brazil. A few decades later, under the patronage of Emperor Pedro II, the Academy had its golden age and produced the first generation of Romantic painters. Victor Meirelles, Pedro Américo and several other artists created visual symbols of national identity. It must be said that Romanticism has taken a special form in painting in Brazil. Exaggerated drama, fantasy, violence or death scenes are portrayed differently from the bizarre European versions, as all exaggerations were avoided due to the academic training. The artists dealt with themes such as nature, sentimentality, religiousness, chauvinism and nationalism.

Literature also developed further in the direction of the Romantic-nationalist school with the works of Casimiro de Abreu and Manuel Antônio de Almeida. Around 1850, a change began, with Álvares de Azevedo at its centre, influenced by the poet Lord Byron. This second generation of Romantics was concerned with themes such as egocentricity, negativity, doubt, illness and death. These characteristics are less represented in the visual arts. Antônio Castro Alves wrote about the horror of slavery, while Antônio Gonçalves Dias and José de Alencar wrote about the persecution of the indigenous people. One of the greatest achievements of the Romantic Age in Brazil was the creation of a national identity based on indigenous descent and the diverse nature of the country.

The 19th century produced only two important composers in Brazil. José Maurício Nunes Gracia, a neo-classical composer and later the opera composer Carlos Gomes, the first Brazilian musician to receive international recognition.

In the late 19th century, Brazilian art became increasingly familiar with realism. Descriptions of nature, population and psychological romances spread through João Simões Lopes Neto, Aluísio Azevedo and Machado de Assis. Realist painters such as Almeida Junior and Pedro Weingärtner depict the different types of people and the characteristic colours and lights of the Brazilian landscape.

The 20th century began with a struggle between the old school and modern trends. In 1922, the Semana de Arte Moderna (Week of Modern Art) in São Paulo received much criticism from the conservative population. But it was an important step in Brazilian art. Exhibitions of plastic art, concerts and poetry readings were part of the festival program, which did not receive a very good feedback from the press and the public. Nevertheless, these artists are now regarded as the founders of modern art in Brazil. The festival not only wanted to introduce a broad audience to modern and experimental tendencies derived from European Expressionism, Cubism and Surrealism, but also to use national folklore as a basis for realistic art.
However, the radicalism of the first modernists could not last long in the society of the time. The original founding members separated in 1929 and went their own ways. After that, Brazilian art became a mixture of important modernist achievements, including freedom from the strictly academic agenda. A moderate modernism with conventional characteristics was born. The best example is the painter Candido Portinari, who became something like the official painter of the Brazilian government in the middle of the century.
The works of Chico Niedzielskis were spread throughout the country. It is known that his works were inspired by sacred geometry. He thus breaks the tendency to focus on Brazilian themes and seeks a more universal and contemporary form of Brazilian art. The spread of radical modernism in the visual arts at the beginning of the 20th century is not reflected in Brazilian literature. Clarice Lispector wrote existentialist novels and developed a very personal style, marked by streams of consciousness and revelations. João Guimarães Rosa changed the face of Brazilian literature with his experimental language and the playwright Nelson Rodrigues dealt with crime, prejudice, passion and sexual pathologies. In the 1950s, painting and sculpture regained strength through abstractionism and architecture also showed progressive features influenced by Le Corbusier. The greatest achievement of modernism is the urban core of Brasília, now a World Heritage Site, designed by urban planner Lúcio Costa and architect Oscar Niemeyer.

In the 1960s, the so-called "modernist" art movement began, making room for a contemporary mode of expression such as political art, conceptual art or pop. Around the turn of the century, some Brazilian artists began to abandon the traditional austerity of art in favor of a phenomenological approach and to explore the relationship between the art object and the observer. Among the most important representatives of this neo-concretism were the poet Ferreira Gullar and the artists Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Pape and Lygia Clark. The latter was often described as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.
The military coup of 1964 and the subsequent restriction of civil rights and freedom of expression in Brazil are described as a turning point in art. Artists like Clido Meireles and Rubens Gerchman began to create explicitly political art. Especially after 1968, when the military government legalized torture, Brazilian art was characterized by rather radical actions and events. The São Paulo Art Biennial, the second oldest art biennial in the world, opened with many empty walls, as it was boycotted by many artists. During the exhibition Do Corpo à Terra, which took place in 1970 in Belo Horizonte, some artists started shocking actions. Cildo Meireles set live chickens on fire in front of a live audience and Artur Barrio threw blood-soaked parcels into a river to give the impression that the people who had disappeared under the military government had "reappeared" in this cruel way.

Brazilian Pop Art is very critical and often completely rejected consumer culture, unlike the ambivalent and distant criticism of American Pop Art. Waldemar Cordeiro is one of the most expressive artists who worked with digital art and robotics in the 1960s and 1970s. Antonio Dias and Carlos Vergara introduced the aesthetics of comics, playing cards and other popular forms of visuality into their work. Hélio Oiticica's Tropicália, a colorful, haunting installation piece, contained references to the slums of Rio de Janeiro. The title refers to the cultural movement of the same name, which goes back to the Manifesto Antropófago of the 1920s and looked at the myths of an exotic and "wild" Brazil from a more ironic perspective.
Some artists such as Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Clark, Naza and Cildo Meireles are also internationally renowned. Contemporary Brazilian art and photography are among the most creative in Latin America and are internationally known thanks to exhibitions and publications.

There is much to discover on a trip to Brazil. Not only museums and galleries are good places to learn more about Brazilian art, but also entire cities. The historical baroque town of Ouro Preto is worth a visit!

Sources: www.brasiloo.de, www.educabras.com, www.thebrasilians.com