Manacá 1927

Tarsila do Amaral painted this vibrant floral arrangement, Manacá, with oil on canvas at an unknown date. The shapes are so simplified that the plants become almost abstract. Look at that surface! It's smooth and deliberate, but notice how the colours aren't blended? Instead, Amaral allows the slightly rough edges of the paint to remain, creating this luminous kind of hum. This kind of reminds me of when you leave the underpainting visible, allowing the structure to show. The colours, like the almost neon blue and the saturated pink, feel like they are glowing from within, especially against the off-white background. I love the way the whole painting embraces ambiguity – a quality I find endlessly fascinating in art. In terms of other artists, I’m reminded of Léger, with his hard edges and the flattened planes. However, unlike Léger's mechanical coolness, Amaral brings a tropical warmth to her work.