The Modern Art Week () was an

arts festival An arts festival is a festival that can encompass a wide range of art forms including music, dance, film, fine art, literature, poetry and is not solely focused on visual arts. Arts festivals may feature a mixed program that include music, lit ...

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, that ran from 10 February to 17 February 1922. Historically, the Week marked the start of Brazilian Modernism; though a number of individual Brazilian artists were doing modernist work before the week, it coalesced and defined the movement and introduced it to Brazilian society at large. The Week took place at the Municipal Theater in São Paulo, and included plastic arts exhibitions, lectures, concerts, and reading of poems. In its breadth it differed significantly from the Armory Show, with which it is often compared, but which featured only

visual art The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and texti ...

. It was organized chiefly by painter Emiliano Di Cavalcanti and poet Mário de Andrade, in an attempt to bring to a head a long-running conflict between the young modernists and the cultural establishment, headed by the Brazilian Academy of Letters, which adhered strictly to

academicism Academic art, academicism, or academism, is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. This method extended its influence throughout the Western world over several centuries, from its origins i ...

. The event was controversial at best and divisive at worst, with one member of the Academy, Graça Aranha, ostracized for attending. He had opened the week with a conference titled "The aesthetic emotion in modern art". Due to the radicalism (for the times) of some of their poems and music, the artists were vigorously booed and pelted by the audience, and the press and art critics in general were strong in their condemnation (such as in a famous episode by editor, writer and art critic

Monteiro Lobato José Bento Renato Monteiro Lobato (; 18 April 1882 – 4 July 1948) was one of Brazil's most influential writers, mostly for his children's books set in the fictional Sítio do Picapau Amarelo (Yellow Woodpecker Farm) but he had been previous ...

). The group that took part in the Week, contrary to their initial intentions, did not remain a unified movement. A number of separate groups split off, and the original core members had separated by 1929. Two divisions predominated: the Anthropophagics (cannibalists), led by

Oswald de Andrade José Oswald de Souza Andrade (January 11, 1890 – October 22, 1954) was a Brazilian poet, novelist and cultural critic. He was born in, spent most of his life in, and died in São Paulo. Andrade was one of the founders of Brazilian modernism ...

, wanted to make use of the influence of European and American artists but freely create their own art out of the regurgitations of what they had taken from abroad (thus the term anthropophagy: they would "eat" all influences, digest it, and throw out new things). The Nationalists wanted no foreign influences, and sought a "purely Brazilian" form of art. This group was led by writer

Plínio Salgado Plínio Salgado (; January 22, 1895 – December 8, 1975) was a Brazilian politician, writer, journalist, and theologian. He founded and led Brazilian Integralist Action, a political party inspired by the Fascism, fascist regime of Benito Mussoli ...

, who later became a fascist political leader ( Brazilian Integralism) and was arrested by dictator

Getúlio Vargas Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; ; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 until his suicide in 1954. Due to his long and contr ...

after a failed coup. Before the events leading up to 1922, São Paulo was a prosperous but relatively culturally unimportant city. However, the Week established São Paulo as the seat of the new modernist movement, against the far more culturally conservative

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

Participants

Painters

* Anita Malfatti * Emiliano Di Cavalcanti * Zina Aita * Vicente do Rego Monteiro * Ferrignac (Ignácio da Costa Ferreira) * Yan de Almeida Prado * John Graz * Alberto Martins Ribeiro * Oswaldo Goeldi

Architects

* Georg Przyrembel

Writers

* Mário de Andrade *

* Menotti del Picchia * Sérgio Milliet *

* Ronald de Carvalho * Agenor Fernandes Barbosa * Álvaro Moreira * Renato de Almeida * Ribeiro Couto * Guilherme de Almeida * Graça Aranha

Composers

Heitor Villa-Lobos Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has globally bec ...

* Guiomar Novais * Ernani Braga * Frutuoso Viana

References

External links

Brazil Body and Soul
exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum
Semana de Arte Moderna
{{São Paulo Modern art Brazilian art 1922 in Brazil Art festivals in Brazil Arts festivals in Brazil Culture in São Paulo Festivals in São Paulo First Brazilian Republic