Paris/São Paulo: Passports for Modernism
Born into a refined family of landowners from the region of São Paulo, Tarsila took her first study trip to Paris in 1920 following the usual tour of Brazilian academic painters. While she was away, the Semana de Arte Moderna (Modern Art Week), held in February 1922, gave a major boost to the São Paulo art scene where young writers, musicians, and painters stimulated an avant-garde free from imported models without denying their cosmopolitanism. Upon her return to Brazil in June 1922, Tarsila participated in this modern renewal together with painter Anita Malfatti and writers Paulo Menotti del Picchia, Mário de Andrade, and Oswald de Andrade, with whom she formed Grupo dos Cinco (Group of Five).
She returned to Paris in 1923 with a completely renewed mindset. Energized by a project that claimed to be both national and modern, she sought direct confrontation with the European avant-gardes from that moment on. Frequenting the studios of André Lhote, Fernand Léger, and Albert Gleizes, Tarsila conceived Cubism as a “school of invention,” which allowed her to depart from the conventional codes of representation and develop a truly free, signature style.