Black Art in Brazil: Expressions of Identity by Kimberly L. Cleveland (review)
In 2000, “Black in Body and Soul,” curated by scholar-artist Emanoel Araújo formed part of the series of mega-exhibitions organized by the city of São Paulo to commemorate the 500 years of contact between Brazil and Europe. The (New York) Guggenheim Museum’s “Brazil: Body and Soul” show in the following year included abundant material tracing the significance of painting, sculpture, photography and other arts by or representing the country’s black population. In 2004 the opening of the Museu Afro Brasil in São Paulo’s Ibirapuera Park, coordinated by founding director Araújo, marked a high point in the recognition of the immense contribution to the nation’s artistic patrimony made by artists of color. Kimberly L. Cleveland traces the importance of these events and adumbrates a prior history of engagement on the part of both Brazilian and U.S. scholars and artists in what she terms “black arts” (as opposed to the more common “Afro-Brazilian” arts). Her book offers a valuable analysis of the myriad sociopolitical and aesthetic phenomena that have served to shape our understanding of this factor within the history of Brazilian visual culture.