Aboriginal culture at the origin of art
Long before the arrival of colonizers, indigenous peoples practiced an art of painting far removed from the European standards of the time. Their main supports were the human body, ceramics and cave walls. The first peoples of Brazil have continued to use body painting and decorated ceramics right up to the present day.
Cave art shows a majority of hunting scenes, some of which date back to prehistoric times. These representations had ritual functions and were probably endowed with magical powers designed to promote hunting. The oldest cave paintings, dating back 11,000 years, can be found in the Serra de Capivara National Park. Subsequently, the colonial period completely ignored these pictorial traditions.
Towards the Baroque
Artists accompanied the first explorers to document their discoveries on this continent. Watercolorists and engravers reproduced the flora and fauna, landscapes and life of the natives. In the 17th century, following the Dutch invasion of the Nordeste, Flemish painters travelled to Brazil. Frans Post, the most famous, produced a series of paintings in the Dutch landscape tradition, depicting the region's flora and fauna. In addition to its aesthetic beauty, his work has value as a historical document. Several of his paintings are on display at theInstituto Ricardo Brennand in Recife. At the beginning of the 18th century, European Baroque permeated Brazilian painting, with a nuance of local influences. The codes of this major artistic style in Brazil - sentiment, drama and a taste for opulence - predispose it to convey the message of the Catholic Church. Very few of his works are signed.
Romanticism
The French were the inspirers of a romantic, academic Brazilian style of painting, in which the exuberance of nature and light played a predominant role. In 1816, the "French artistic mission", led by Joaquim Lebreton, brought in painters such as Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, Jean-Baptiste Debret and François-René Moreaux. Emperor Don João VI, a great lover of art, was behind this initiative on his return from Portugal, but he clashed with the supporters of the Baroque tradition. In the second half of the 19th century, the new Academia Imperial de Belas Artes (AIBA) created in Rio in 1826 gave rise to a painting scene unique to the country. Talented artists such as Victor Meirelles (Panorama de Rio, 1890) and Pedro Americo (Batalha de Avai, 1879) formed a solid collection.
The Pinacoteca de São Paulo brings together Brazilian art of the 19th and 20th centuries in all its variety. Paintings, sculptures, photographs and engravings by Paulist artists such as Almeida Júnior, Pedro Alexandrino and Oscar Pereira da Silva, as well as bronzes by Rodin, are all on display. Rio's Museu Nacional de Belas Artes houses the largest collection of 19th-century Brazilian art.
Modernism
At the beginning of the 20th century, São Paulo took on a prominent role thanks to the emergence of a wealthy class. A cosmopolitan spirit swept through the city. The modernist wave hit Brazilian artists in the 1920s. Its main representatives are Lasar Segall (of Lithuanian origin) and the Carioca Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, famous for his paintings of mestizos.
Brazilian modernism is a key movement in the country's artistic culture. In pre-war Europe, avant-garde movements such as Futurism, Dadaism and Cubism were shaking up the art scene. Brazilians were not content to simply copy these trends, they wanted to draw on elements of their own culture. A real break with the times. Brazilian modernism feeds on foreign influences, arranging them to suit its own taste. The plastic arts and literature were the main fields of modernist expression. In the work of painter Anita Malfatti and sculptor Victor Brecheret, precursors of the movement, we see the manifestation of expressionist values. Tarsila do Amaral and Vincente do Rego Monteiro, both painters, drew on the cubo-futurist trend.
The cultural effervescence of São Paulo is contrasted with the more traditional atmosphere of Rio. The Semana de Arte Moderna, or Semana de 22 (1922), conceived by the painter Di Cavalcanti and held in São Paulo's Municipal Theater, marked the beginning of modernism. The artists of the first phase of the A Primeira Geração (The First Generation) movement developed experimental art, following the lead of writers Mario and Oswald de Andrade. This first, more radical phase broke with social mores. The second and third phases, known as postmodernism, exerted their influence on the movement well into the 1960s. Candido Portinari (1903-1962) proved to be a prolific neo-realist painter (over 5,000 works). The universality of his work earned him several commissions, including murals for the United Nations headquarters in New York.
The first São Paulo Biennale was held in 1951. At last, abstract art and the avant-garde were given a broad platform for dissemination. The event was decisive for the evolution of Brazilian painting.
The artist Tarsila de Amaral (1886-1973), a figure of Brazilian modernism, was the subject of a fine retrospective at the Musée du Luxembourg in 2024/2025. Her work is tinged with the indigenous and popular imagination of a country opening up to modernity. She initiated the anthropophagic movement, which advocated the devouring of "dominant" foreign cultures as paradoxical acts of resistance and cultural syncretism. Initially consisting of highly colorful landscapes, her work took on a progressive, anti-fascist political dimension from the 1930s onwards. The last artistic phase took on a dreamlike, abstract connotation.
The Carioca Emiliano Di Cavalcanti (1897-1973) is another of the great names of Brazilian painting, too little known in France. A friend of Fernand Léger, and like him interested in the plastic research of the Surrealists, he presented "a form of synthesis between Brazilian culture and European avant-garde movements". His work remained realistic and primitive, almost naïve, and attests to the painter's empathetic eye for the people of the cities and countryside, and in particular for mixed-race women, the neglected heart of Brazil at the time. Traces of Cubism and Expressionism are, as in Tarsila de Amaral's work, an expression of the depth of the "anthropophagic" movement, which opposes the cultural domination of the "first world" while recalling the organic links uniting the two continents and the peoples who make them up.
Contemporary art
1984 marked the official return of painting with the exhibition Onde está você, geração 80? (Where are you, 1980s generation?). It brought together 123 artists in Rio de Janeiro, most of them beginners, who offered a fresh take on painting.
The MAC, Rio's contemporary art museum in Niteroi, designed by Niemeyer's skilful pencils, boasts a rich collection of contemporary Brazilian artists. The Museu de arte do Rio (MAR) offers temporary collections of contemporary art and photography. Near Belo Horizonte, contemporary art enthusiasts can visit the magnificent Inhotim Park. The figures of contemporary art, very well known in Brazil, struggle to transcend the country's borders.
Hélio Oiticica, painter and sculptor, pioneered concrete art in Brazil. Oiticica died at the age of 43 in 1980, but left an important body of work, respected by international critics.
Romero Britto, born in Recife in 1963, represents pop art. Inspired by the modern masters, he uses many popular colors and themes in his work. The artist has also created a collection of everyday objects.
Os Gêmeos, or the São Paulo twins Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo, are today a benchmark in the world of graffiti. With their yellow characters and their colorful, poetic universe, they build a dreamlike world that is no less critical of reality.
Street art in Rio
Brazilians differentiate between tagging or "pichação", seen as an act of rebellion, and "grafite", which is an artistic process. Since 2009, the Brazilian government has legalized the practice of street art, subject to the owner's agreement. Even more so in Rio de Janeiro than elsewhere, street art is literally exploding, revealing its beautiful diversity for all to see. It is a means of expression that proclaims popular values and bears witness to current opinions. Whatever its message, the mural remains colorful and passionate. However, there is a growing number of initiatives in favor of thoughtful, high-quality art. The most significant of these are the street art festivals that bring together artists from all over the world.
Exploring the streets of Rio, it's possible to appreciate some of Brazil's greatest signatures. Rafaela Monteiro aka Rafa Mon comes straight from the world of fashion. Her frescoes can be recognized by their dreamlike, poetic tone. The world-famous Eduardo Kobra expresses his art in monumental frescoes with a realistic bent. Originally from the suburbs of São Paulo, he adds to his colorful compositions the kaleidoscopic effects for which he is renowned. In addition to exhibiting in Paris, Spain and Argentina, Marcelo Eco scatters works throughout Rio. He likes to reproduce in a graphic style the portrait of a moustachioed man with a pointed chin, who could be Salvador Dalí. In any case, you'll find him all over Rio de Janeiro, in a variety of forms, and particularly on the Avenida Nossa Senhora de Copacabana.
Where to see street art? In Rio, the walls of the Botanical Gardens and the metro are famous for their frescoes. To guide you on your stroll through the city, here are a few other ideas. The tramway fresco in Santa Teresa is a reminder of the importance of this means of locomotion in the daily lives of the city's inhabitants. The Botafogo district, rich in street art, brings together artists who are more concerned with form than substance. Here, far from political messages and reminders of reality, an abundance of colorful nuggets embellish the urban environment just for the fun of it. In contrast, the works in Centro reclaim the memory of historical events, from rural life to slavery. This is where you'll find the world's largest mural: Eduardo Kobra created a commission in the center for the Olympic Games on the theme of indigenous tribes and the five continents. It is recognized as the world's largest mural. In the chic, trendy district of Ipanema, anonymous graffiti artist Oraculo Project spreads love through stencilled messages scattered across the floor. In English and Portuguese. The same artist colors tree trunks red to raise awareness of forest destruction.
