Modernity in black and white : art and image, race and identity in Brazil, 1890-1945 / Rafael Cardoso, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro & Freie Universitat Berlin.
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press,
Copyright Date:
2021
Description:
xix, 263 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm.
Introduction. Ambiguous modernities and alternate modernisms -- Heart of darkness in the bosom of the modern metropolis : favelas, race and barbarity -- A pagan festival for the up to date : art, bohemianism and carnival -- The printing of modern life : a new art for a new century -- The cosmopolitan savage : modernism, primitivism and the anthropophagic descent -- The face of the land : depicting 'real' Brazilians under Vargas -- Epilogue. Images of a culture at war with itself.
Summary:
"The book provides a deeper understanding of modern art in the Brazilian context, moving the focus away from the self-declared avant-gardes and towards a broad panorama of modernizing tendencies throughout the period, 1890 to 1945. The backdrop of sertao, favelas, carnival and samba - often left out of accounts that restrict readings of modernism to erudite arenas like literature, fine art or architecture - are foregrounded in an attempt to situate artistic discourses within the social and political struggles of the period. Race, class and ideological conflict are given priority as tools for deconstructing complex debates, too often taken at face value or misread as merely reflexive of European phenomena. The anthropophagic movement (Antropofagia) rates special attention in teasing out the meanings of primitivism in the Brazilian context. The book examines a range of visual cultural materials including paintings, periodicals, graphics and photographs, revealing a hidden archive that calls into question the very essence of how modernism is usually perceived in Brazil. The enduring presence of archaism and violence behind an appearance of modernity reveals itself to be not an anomaly, but rather a product of the tensions inherent to the enduring oligarchical structures of Brazilian culture and society"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.