Ways and embezzlements of the Brazilian Modernismo: the confrontation between Anita and Tarsila

Abstract

This text analyses a precise aspect in the history of two icons of the modernistmovement in Brazil: the “confrontation” that is supposed to have existed between the beautiful Tarsila and the “woman-girl” Anita Malfatti. To some historians, the unrest caused by Tarsila’s company was one of the reasons that took Anita away from her commitment to the vanguard movement and search for an art “without excess”. I highlight the contribution of two authors: Gilda de Mello e Souza, in her article “Vanguarda e Nacionalismo na década de Vinte” (Vanguard and Nationalism in the Twentieth Century), of 1975, and Sérgio Miceli, in his book “Nacional Estrangeiro”, published in 2003, dealing with the subject and pointing out how Tarsila’s advantages, both physical and financial, helped her impose herself as the final muse of the modernist movement in Brazil.