Anita Malfatti's 'Tropical' (c. 1917–1918) is a founding work of Brazilian modernism. Painted after Malfatti's return from studies in Berlin and New York, it depicts a Black woman standing in fierce sunlight with a basket of pineapples and bananas balanced on her head, rendered in the high-keyed colour and simplified distortion she had absorbed from German Expressionism and Parisian Fauvism. Attacked by the conservative critic Monteiro Lobato at Malfatti's 1917 São Paulo solo show, the picture became a rallying point for the 1922 Semana de Arte Moderna — the revolution that defined Brazilian modernism. It is a permanent highlight of the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo.

Exhibition Venue

Pinacoteca de São Paulo

Luz, Brazil