Tarsila do Amaral, Abaporú, 1928

Tarsila do Amaral painted Abaporú (1928) for her then husband (and longtime friend and collaborator) Oswalde de Andrade.  Though Tarsila began working in a more cubist style, by the late 1920's she was interested in Surrealism - a movement which she was exposed to while traveling in Europe. Her works such as Abaporú, with its strong distortions of the body, show parallels to the work of Spanish Surrealist Joan Miró.  

The dramatic foreshortening of the figure, with a tiny head and enormous feet, are interpreted as representing a particularly Brazilian (or South American) perspective.  The large feet are anchored to the ground, the Brazilian soil, while the tiny head represents less interest or importance in the intellectual world of the mind. These were articulating ideas that were already popular in Brazil at the time, particularly surrounding Oswalde's "Pau Brasil" manifesto of 1924.  In this he warned against academic influence and described Brazil as "wild, näive, picturesque and tender."

Tarsila did not title the painting before giving it to Oswalde; he named it Abaporú, which translates as "man eats." Soon after, Oswalde wrote his "Manifesto Antopófagia" (Anthropophagy Manifesto) and utilized the now aptly named Abaporú as one of the movement's central images.  The manifesto discussed a sort of cultural cannibalism, in which artists of the Americas would devour the art of Europe, internalize it, and then create their own distinct (and arguably superior) art.  This was an important crux of thought as it aggressively did away with any previous notions that South American art was good when it was replicating European art, namely that imposed through colonization.  In taking her interest in Surrealism (as she had seen it in Europe), and utilizing it to create this distinctly South American image, Tarsila was painting quite on par with the words of Oswalde's manifesto. 

References:

Barnitz, Jacqueline. Twetieth-Century Art of Latin America. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001.

Bary, Leslie. Oswald de Andrade's "Cannibalist Manifesto." Latin American Literary Review, Vol. 19, No. 38 (Jul. - Dec., 1991), pp. 35-37.

Art:

Collection of Eduardo Costantini (often shown at the Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires)