Tarsila de Aguiar do Amaral (Portuguese pronunciation: [taʁˈsilɐ du ɐmaˈɾaw]; 1 September 1886[1] – 17 January 1973) was a Brazilian painter, draftswoman, and translator.

She is considered one of the leading Latin American modernist artists, and is regarded as the painter who best achieved Brazilian aspirations for nationalistic expression in a modern style.

She was instrumental in the formation of the aesthetic movement, Antropofagia (1928–1929); in fact, Tarsila was the one with her celebrated painting, Abaporu, who inspired Oswald de Andrade's famous Manifesto Antropófago.

On 25 January 2022, the song was recorded at the theater of the School of Music of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte by three professors of the institution: pianist Durval Cesetti, soprano Elke Riedel and tenor Kaio Morais.

Tarsila was asked to join the movement and together they became the Grupo dos Cinco, which sought to promote Brazilian culture, the use of styles that were not specifically European, and the inclusion of things that were indigenous to Brazil.

[11] During a brief return to Paris in 1929, Tarsila was exposed to Cubism, Futurism, and Expressionism while studying with André Lhote, Fernand Léger, and Albert Gleizes.

In March 1924, they spent Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro, and in April 1924, they traveled to baroque mining towns in Minas Gerais during Holy Week as part of the "caravana modernista" (modernist caravan).

[4] She also illustrated the poetry that Andrade wrote during their travels, including his pivotal book of poems entitled Pau Brasil, published in 1924.

Building on the ideas of the earlier Pau-Brasil movement, she appropriated European styles similar to those of her former teacher, Fernand Léger, but adapted them to the local cityscapes in order to develop modes and techniques that were uniquely Brazilian.

The paintings shown at the exhibition, which marked the culmination of her Pau Brasil period, as well as her earlier stay in Paris, included São Paulo (1924), A Negra[12] (1923), Lagoa Santa (1925), and Morro de Favela (1924).

Her works were praised and called "exotic", "original", "naïve", and "cerebral", and her use of bright colors and tropical images was commented on.

The subject is a large stylized human figure with enormous feet sitting on the ground next to a cactus with a lemon-slice sun in the background.

Andrade selected the eventual title, Abaporu, which is a Tupi-Guarani for "man who eats",[4][19] in collaboration with the poet Raul Bopp.

In 1929, Tarsila had her first solo exhibition in Brazil at the Palace Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, and it was followed by another at the Salon Gloria in São Paulo.

Representative of this period is the painting Segunda Classe (1931), which has impoverished Russian men, women and children as the subject matter.

In 1938, Tarsila finally settled permanently in São Paulo, where she spent the remainder of her career painting Brazilian people and landscapes.

In 1950, she had an exhibition at Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo, where a reviewer called her "the most Brazilian of painters here, who represents the sun, birds, and youthful spirits of our developing country, as simple as the elements of our land and nature…".

"[21] Besides the 230 paintings, hundreds of drawings, illustrations, prints, murals, and five sculptures, Tarsila's legacy is her effect on the direction of Latin American art.

Following her example, other Latin American artists were influenced to begin utilizing indigenous Brazilian subject matter, and developing their own style.