Using the painter's queer identity as a framework to understand his visceral approach to figurationFrancis Bacon is considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century, best known for his distinctive way of portraying human figures. Especially in his male portraits and nudes, the physicality of the body--skin, flesh, muscles--is translated by the artist into thick, oily textures, giving the figures almost abstract shapes. Flashes of teeth, torsos and rib cages underscore Bacon's visceral philosophy regarding the human form. As the artist famously said: "We are meat, we are potential carcasses. If I go into a butcher's shop I always think it is surprising that I wasn't there instead of the animal." Beyond their carnal overtones, these paintings unite a wide variety of influences, revisiting canonical themes and combining references to the great masters of painting with Bacon's own perceptions of the male body. Both his biography and oeuvre were permeated by the presence of his lovers, with whom he established intense and turbulent relationships. Francis Bacon: The Beauty of Meat accompanies the 2024 exhibition at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, exploring the queer aspects of the artist's work and highlighting how Bacon, with his innovative and impactful painting, paved the way for queer presence in visual culture. Born in Ireland, British painter Francis Bacon (1909-92) worked in furniture design and interior decoration until 1945, when his career as a painter took off. He enjoyed colossal success in his lifetime, especially as part of a London cohort that included such contemporaries as Lucian Freud and John Deakin.

Francis Bacon: The Beauty of Meat

Arts & Photography

JAMES, DOMINIC

Loures, Isabela Ferreira

Individual Artists

Museu de Arte de São Paulo

Ominous and angular, the acclaimed steel sculptures of Melvin Edwards convey racial violence with edgy ingenuityThis volume brings together a significant selection of works from the titular series by the New York-based sculptor Melvin Edwards (born 1937), created between 1963 and 2016, comprising more than 50 years of what is considered the artist's central body of work. Edwards started to produce the Fragments series when he lived in Los Angeles, at a crucial time of the civil rights movement in the United States. The works directly reference the practice of lynching after the abolition of slavery. Denouncing violence against African Americans, Edwards created these steel sculptures as forms between bodies and machines that can also be interpreted as weapons, given the sense of violence and danger suggested by their blunt, angular and protruding shapes. The selection of works in this book reflects the multiplicity of thematic interests and the formal variations across the series.

Melvin Edwards: Lynch Fragments

History & Criticism

A handsome monograph on beloved self-taught Brazilian artist Djanira da Motta e Silva, whose paintings depict religious themes and everyday life in BrazilLargely self-taught and coming from a working-class background, Djanira da Motta e Silva (1914-79) emerged on the Brazilian art scene in the 1940s, working in paint, woodcut and engraving to depict everyday life in Brazil, often with religious overtones. Although she developed a prolific career during her lifetime, in recent decades her work has been left aside of the official narratives of Brazilian art history. This book examines Djanira's fundamental role in the formation of Brazilian visual culture and seeks to reposition her as a key figure in 20th-century art history. Its title speaks to the extraordinary visual and symbolic repertoire the artist created from the everyday life, landscape and popular culture of her country, championing themes often marginalized by the elites. Reproducing 90 works by the artist, plus photographs and documents from her archive, it includes both newly commissioned essays and historical texts.

Djanira: Picturing Brazil

The luminous, revelatory landscapes of the pioneering Latin American modernist, in a deluxe production
Featuring a tip-on cover images and paper changes throughout, Cannibalizing Modernism is the first comprehensive English-language catalog on the Brazilian painter Tarsila do Amaral (1886–1973), a key figure in Latin American modernism. After studying with Fernand Léger and André Lhote in Paris, Tarsila―as she is widely known in Brazil―cannibalized modern European references to create a unique style, with the use of caipira (rural Brazilian) colors and representations of local characters and scenes. Much of her work was made in dialogue with two leading modernist thinkers of her time, Mário de Andrade and Oswald de Andrade. Her work also parallels the development of Oswald de Andrade's antropofagia, a key concept in 20th-century Latin American thought, through which intellectuals of the tropics would cannibalize European cultural references, while also bringing indigenous, Afro-Atlantic and local elements into their work. Cannibalizing Modernism reproduces 233 paintings alongside documents and photographs.

Tarsila do Amaral: Cannibalizing Modernism

A comprehensive tribute to one of the central figures of postmodern dance in America A founding member of the legendary Judson Dance Theater, American choreographer and dancer Trisha Brown (1936-2017) helped build the tenets of postmodern dance and is now considered one of the most influential figures in American choreography. Trisha Brown: Choreographing Life presents a sizable archive of Brown's career, with photographs, drawings and video stills that illustrate her lifelong contributions to the world of contemporary dance. Brown established her own dance company in 1970 and continued to dance until 2008, during which time she created over 100 dances and six operas. One of her most famous pieces was the product of a creative partnership with artists Laurie Anderson and Robert Rauschenberg; after the 1983 premiere of Set and Reset at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival, Brown was launched into international acclaim. Brown's choreography demonstrates an unparalleled cognizance of space and visuality, as indicated by the artistic process apparent in the drawings and diagrams included in this publication. Her work conveys the extent to which movement is an artistic language reflective of the complex relationship between body and mind.

Trisha Brown: Choreographing Life

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

How Hélio Oiticica led Brazilian art's transition from abstract art to performable sculpture One of the most radical and joyful artists of the 20th century, Hélio Oiticica (1937-80) helped lead the charge in Brazilian art's unique transition from abstract concrete art to performative objects and collective performance. As MoMA's 2019 exhibition Sur Moderno demonstrated, one of Oiticica's most revolutionary projects was the Parangolé, wearable sculptures made from fabric, plastic or paper. The Parangolé is meant to be worn, inhabited and danced by a participant, lending a physical spontaneity to the piece that entirely blurs the boundaries between the art object and those who experience it. Dance in My Experience traces the genealogy of this theme within the artist's oeuvre, identifying rhythmic, choreographic and dance elements throughout his trajectory, from his first Metaesquemas through the Spatial Reliefs, Nuclei and Bólides, culminating in the Parangolés. It includes texts by Oiticica and contributions by numerous scholars.

Hélio Oiticica: Dance in My Experience

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