Seeing the Light

In recent years, the artistic achievements of two 20th-century pioneers have been brought to a global audience.

The Picasso of Brazil

In 2018, a major new exhibition opened at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The show brought together more than a hundred works by a single Brazilian artist: Tarsila do Amaral. Although widely celebrated in her native country, the artist was relatively unknown outside Brazil. So who was Tarsila? Born in 1886 in a small town near São Paulo, Tarsila do Amaral is considered the mother of modern art in Brazil. She first developed a love for art after her parents sent her to study in Spain. She returned to Europe a few years later, and settled in Paris. Several artists there, including Picasso, were beginning to experiment with new forms—less realistic and more abstract. The new approaches continued to influence Tarsila after she returned to Brazil. Approaches to art in Brazil at that time were relatively conservative. Traditional European styles dominated, with works mainly featuring natural, religious, or historical scenes in soft colors. Tarsila decided to take a different direction: "I want to be the painter of my country," she wrote. Her images began to reflect Brazil's diverse identity—a mix of native, African, and European peoples. She used strong, vivid colors to paint real-life scenes of the nation's farmers, countryside, and wildlife. This had never been done before in Brazilian art.

One of Tarsila's most famous works is Abaporu (1928). The title combines two words from Tupi-Guarani1 languages, meaning "Man Who Eats People." The painting has a playful, surreal2 quality—but its look and feel are distinctly Brazilian. The work—and its title—later inspired a Brazilian art movement called antropofagia, or cannibalism.3 Brazilian artists began to take in—or "digest"— styles from other cultures and mix them with local influences. The result was something uniquely Brazilian. Tarsila do Amaral died in São Paulo in 1973, age 86, after a career spanning six decades. But her artwork and legacy live on in her native Brazil. "For Brazilians, her recognition is kind of off the charts," says James Rondeau, director of the Art Institute of Chicago. "She is the Picasso of Brazil." Now, with the MoMA exhibition and other international shows, Tarsila's art is being appreciated by a new audience of admirers around the world.

The Secret Photographer

At first, they seemed like ordinary photographs. A couple holding hands. A child standing by a dirty window. A man daydreaming in a park. The images were hidden in boxes for years, unseen except by the woman who took them: Vivian Maier. But when a collector bought some of the boxes at auction, he soon realized their contents were remarkable. Maier's street scenes might seem ordinary, but they were actually very special. Vivian Maier was born in New York City in 1926, the daughter of French and Austrian immigrants. For most of her early life, she moved between New York and Europe. In 1956, she moved to Chicago, where she worked as a nanny4 and caregiver. In her free time, she walked the city streets, taking pictures and developing her photography skills. It was a hobby she would continue for the rest of her life. Maier's black-and-white images mostly portray urban life: street scenes and regular people. Residents carry out everyday tasks—shopping, riding on buses, walking in a park. Often, she took her pictures in secret. People are caught acting naturally, unaware that they are being photographed. Many of the photos reveal something personal—and often deeply moving. They show us the beauty, humor, pain, and the mystery of normal life.

In total, Maier took over 100,000 photographs, but she developed very few. Instead, she kept most of the negatives5 and a few prints in boxes in a rented storage space in Chicago. Toward the end of her life, she was unable to pay rent to the storage company. So the boxes—with her work inside—were sold at auction. In 2007, John Maloof purchased the contents of one of the storage lockers. Realizing the quality of the images, he added a selection of Maier's photographs to an image-sharing website. Thousands of people worldwide viewed the photos, and many went viral. Maier's photos began to appear in books and exhibitions. In 2015, a movie about her life—Finding Vivian Maier—was nominated for an Academy Award. It is not known why Maier kept her photos secret, or how she might feel about her worldwide fame. She died in April 2009, in a nursing home in the Chicago suburbs. Much of Maier's life remains a mystery. But her talent as a visual storyteller—for so long hidden in darkness—has finally seen the light of day.