Modernity in Black and White
Art and Image, Race and Identity in Brazil, 1890–1945

In his first single-authored English-language work, Rafael Cardoso offers a re-evaluation of modern art and modernism in Brazil.

Rafael Cardoso (Author)

9781108481908, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 April 2021

282 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.2 cm, 0.58 kg

'… destined to become a classic in the historiography of Brazilian cultural modernity.' Christopher Dunn, Published in Journal: Afro-Ásia

Modernity in Black and White provides a groundbreaking account of modern art and modernism in Brazil. Departing from previous accounts, mostly restricted to the elite arenas of literature, fine art and architecture, the book situates cultural debates within the wider currents of Brazilian life. From the rise of the first favelas, in the 1890s and 1900s, to the creation of samba and modern carnival, over the 1910s and 1920s, and tracking the expansion of mass media and graphic design, into the 1930s and 1940s, it foregrounds aspects of urban popular culture that have been systematically overlooked. Against this backdrop, Cardoso provides a radical re-reading of Antropofagia and other modernist currents, locating them within a broader field of cultural modernization. Combining extensive research with close readings of a range of visual cultural production, the volume brings to light a vast archive of art and images, all but unknown outside Brazil.

Introduction. Ambiguous modernities and alternate modernisms
1. Heart of darkness in the bosom of the modern metropolis: favelas, race and barbarity
2. A pagan festival for the up to date: art, bohemianism and carnival
3. The printing of modern life: a new art for a new century
4. The cosmopolitan savage: modernism, primitivism and the anthropophagic descent
5. The face of the land: depicting 'real' Brazilians under Vargas
Epilogue. Images of a culture at war with itself.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], History of the Americas [HBJK], History of art / art & design styles [AC]