Fifty painters, four centuries of color and invention

From colonial Brazil to the Empire

Mineiro Baroque, Academy and National History Building

Mestre Ataïde brings clear and mixed religious painting to Minas Gerais. In the 19th century, Victor Meirelles, Pedro Américo, Almeida Junior, Rodolfo Amoedo and their contemporaries worked between the Imperial Academy, public commissions, portraiture and the genre scene. Their paintings set national stories, but also reveal tensions between European models, local realities and new social ambitions.

Sao Paulo, Rio and modernities

Anthropophagy, abstraction and neoconcrete experience

The Modern Art Week of 1922 accelerated a rupture already prepared by Malfatti, Segall and other smugglers. Tarsila, Di Cavalcanti, Portinari, Rego Monteiro and Cícero Dias absorbed the avant-gardes without abandoning Brazilian territory. After 1945, Volpi, Ohtake, Mabe, Clark, Oiticica, Pape, Schendel and Geiger further expanded painting: geometry, material, spectator participation, writing, and Geiger further expanded painting: geometry, material, spectator participation, writing and space became means of thinking about the country.

The ranking criteria

Influence, invention, preserved works and international scope

The rank combines historical importance, the originality of language, the quality of preserved ensembles, the influence on subsequent generations and international circulation. The choice combines canonical figures, popular artists, long-deprived women, painters from immigrant backgrounds and contemporary voices in order to make visible the real diversity of Brazilian creation.

Sources and routes

Extend the visit to Brazilian painting