The World’s Bones: South American Meditations on Art History and Avant-garde by Flávio de Carvalho

Thiago Gil de Oliveira Virava, Ph.D.

The project investigates the travel made by Brazilian artist Flávio de Carvalho to different parts of Europe between September and December of 1934. The main focus of the research is the book that resulted from the journey, published in Brazil in 1936 under the title Os ossos do mundo [World’s Bones]. Throughout the book, Carvalho combines his memories of meetings with writers and artists in England, France, and Czechoslovakia with descriptions and meditations inspired by museums, galleries, churches, and other historical places that he visited. Inspired by readings on psychoanalysis, archaeology, and anthropology, as well as avant-garde magazines such as Revista de Antropofagia, Cahiers d’art, and Minotaure, his meditations present unusual and sometimes troubling insights both on avant-garde painting and art history. On the latter, the chapter dedicated to the cities he visited in Italy, titled Madona e bambino is especially remarkable. Placing emotions and desire at the core of an affective appreciation of images, the chapter can be under-stood as an attempt to apply the attitude towards cultural legacy advocated by the Brazilian Antropofagia movement (1928–1929) to the discussion of Italian Renaissance art. Additionally, this project also examines Carvalho's active engagement in building a transnational network of collaborators during his journey, an effort that resulted in the participation of a number of Abstract and Surrealist artists from London, Paris and Prague in the 2nd and 3rd Salão de Maio [May Salon], both held in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1938 and 1939.