Emiliano Augusto Cavalcanti de Albuquerque Melo (1897 – 1976), known as Di Cavalcanti, was a Brazilian Modernist painter who is best known for his scenes of mulatas surrounded by the lush tropical imagery and his extravagantly colorful renditions of contemporary Brazilian culture. His work draws on a wide range of influences, including Cubism, Fauvism and Picasso’s Neoclassicism of the 1920s. While his Mexican contemporaries Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros idealized the struggles of the indigenous working class, Di Cavalcanti turned to the streets, bars, cafes, cabarets, nightclubs, and carnaval,  to portray the diverse makeup of a youthful metropolis where socialites, the working class, and social deviants mingled in harmony in the distinctly local flavor of Brazilian urban life. Common themes included indigenous women, doves, and carnival scenes.  Continue reading Emiliano Di Cavalcanti →