Tarsila do Amaral

Tarsila do Amaral (1886–1973) studied in Paris under Fernand Leger before returning to Brazil as a central leader of the modernist Grupo dos Cinco. In 1928, she painted 'Abaporu' ('the man who eats' in Tupi-Guarani), depicting an elongated naked figure with a colossal foot beside a cactus under a blazing sun.

The painting inspired her husband Oswald de Andrade to write the 'Manifesto Antropofago', advocating that Brazilian artists culturally 'cannibalize' European styles to birth an authentic indigenous modernism. Her 1933 social realist masterpiece 'Operarios' documented Brazil's multi-ethnic working class.