Abaporú

painting by Tarsila do Amaral

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July 17, 2026

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Abaporú is a 1928 painting by Brazilian artist Tarsila do Amaral. The title, meaning "Man Who Eats" in the Tupí-Guaraní language, inspired Oswald de Andrade's "Anthropophagite Manifesto." This manifesto proposed that Brazil should "devour" foreign cultural ideas and transform them into a unique national identity.1

The painting depicts a stylized human figure seated next to a cactus under a hot sun. Amaral, a key figure in Brazilian Modernism, blended avant-garde European aesthetics with distinctly Brazilian subject matter. Her work, including Abaporú, aimed to create a new and authentic Brazilian art form, moving away from traditional European influences.12

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Tarsila do Amaral
…is perhaps her best-known work, Abaporú (“Man Who Eats” in the Tupí-Guraraní language), a cartoonlike human figure seated next to a cactus under a burning sun. The painting inspired Andrade’s “Anthropophagite Manifesto,” which described Brazil’s digestion and transformation of European culture in terms of cannibalism. In the late 1920s and…
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…is perhaps her best-known work, Abaporú (“Man Who Eats” in the Tupí-Guraraní language), a cartoonlike human figure seated next to a cactus under a burning sun. The painting inspired Andrade’s “Anthropophagite Manifesto,” which described Brazil’s digestion and transformation of European culture in terms of cannibalism. In the late 1920s and…
Read More