The Royal Academy of Arts in London is hosting "Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism," a major exhibition featuring over 130 works by 10 Brazilian modernist artists from the first half of the 20th century, plus landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx. Curated by Adrian Locke, who has Brazilian heritage, the show includes iconic pieces by Tarsila do Amaral, Candido Portinari, and Alfredo Volpi, alongside lesser-known artists like Afro-Brazilian painter Rubem Valentim. The exhibition revisits a historic 1944 show at the same institution, which was the first to present Brazilian modernist painting in the U.K.
The exhibition matters because it highlights a period of Brazilian art that has been historically overlooked in Europe, where contemporary Brazilian art has received more attention. It also arrives amid a broader global interest in Brazilian culture, exemplified by the Oscar-winning film "I'm Still Here." The show's focus on artists who sought to forge a uniquely Brazilian identity—moving beyond European and North American influences—offers timely insight into a nation grappling with political division, including recent attacks on modernist cultural heritage by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro.