TARSILA DO AMARAL (Brazil, 1886- 1973). "Illustrated... Lot 7

TARSILA DO AMARAL (Brazil, 1886- 1973). "Illustrated study for the book by Martim Cereré p. 72, II". Pencil on paper. Work reproduced in the artist's catalogue raisonné. DI398. Provenance: Luiz Buarque de Hollanda collection. Size: 29,5 x 21 cm; 39 x 34 cm (frame). Written in 1928 by Cassiano Ricardo, Martim Cereré is a book of epic poems that delves into the roots of the Brazilian people. In 1962, the artist Tarsila do Amaral rescued the text and created a series of illustrations to accompany the literary publication. This work is the result of that work Tarsila do Amaral has always been described as the artist who managed on the one hand to capture the European avant-garde and at the same time express her own roots, showing the Brazilian nationalist sentiment in a modern, free and original way. Tarsila began her training in an academic environment, like many of the artists of the time. She studied in Sao Paulo, but in 1920 she moved to Paris to take classes at an academy of classical art. She returned to Brazil in 1922 and found that Sao Paulo was hosting the Semana de Arte Moderno, where she met Anita Malfati and the poet Oswald de Andrade, her future husband. This whole atmosphere had a great influence on her, so much so that she decided to return to Paris in 1922, this time accompanied by Andrade. It was on this second trip to Paris that she began to get to know the European avant-garde. She meets Picasso, but in these years he is married to Olga and in his classical period. Tarsila will have a close relationship with Léger, who changes her aesthetic perspective. He not only brings her closer to the avant-garde, but through the avant-garde she recognises her roots. Through these artists who value the purity of uncontaminated art, other cultures, etc. All this makes him say that he wants to soak up or devour the aesthetic freedom presented to him by European artists in order to come to his country and create an indigenous but modern art, with his feet set on the roots of the country. In April 1923 he returned to Brazil. Shortly before her return, she wrote to her family from Paris: "I feel even more Brazilian. I am going to be a painter of my country; how grateful I am to have spent all my childhood on the farm! The memories of those times have become very dear to me. I want, in art, to be the little country girl from Sao Bernardo, who plays with straw dolls, as in the last painting I am working on... don't think that this tendency is considered negatively here. On the contrary. What they want here is for everyone to bring the contribution of their own country. This explains the success of Russian ballets, Japanese graphic arts and black music. Paris has already had too much Parisian art". She returned to Brazil accompanied by Andrade and the Swiss poet Cendrars, because Cendrars wanted to get to know the real Brazil. They travelled through the popular cultures of Brazil. In the spring of 1924, they visited the Rio carnival with the poet, one of the typical examples of the profane Brazilian festivals, where the races, costumes, traditions, etc. were at their purest. After getting to know this profane festival, they went to see the religious festival of Holy Week in the state of Minas Gerais. From this moment on, Tarsila painted a mixture of local indigenism and the heritage of cubism in her paintings.