Tarsila do Amaral

Known for: Abaporu (1928); Brazilian Modernism and Antropofagia

Tarsila do Amaral studied in Paris with Fernand Léger and Gleizes before returning to Brazil and, with the poet Oswald de Andrade, developing Antropofagia — a Brazilian cultural movement that proposed the "cannibalistic" consumption and transformation of European modernism into something distinctly Brazilian. Her painting Abaporu (1928), a giant-footed figure in a tropical landscape, became the emblem of this movement and sold for $1.4 million in 1995, then the highest price paid at auction for a Latin American work. The Museu de Arte Contemporânea in São Paulo holds her largest collection.