A bit more on Tropicália

Tropicália refers to an art collective that came about in Brazil in the 1960s. The movement was undeniably linked to the tenets proposed in Brazil more than thirty years earlier by Oswald de Andrade in his “Manifesto Antropófago” – the work itself and the surrounding movement which celebrated not the internationalism of other contemporaries, but rather turned back toward Brazil to create a cultural cannibalism and embrace the juxtapositions so prevalent in modern Brazilian life. Tarsila do Amaral, Anita Malfatti, Vicente do Rêgo Monteiro and other modernistas of Andrade’s time thought of themselves being of both ‘the jungle and the school.’ This was an idea that the tropicalists of the 60s embraced fully; this philosophy “fit… like a glove.”
The name ‘Tropicália’ used to describe the counter-cultural movement of late 1960s Brazil is derived directly from the work of the same name by Hélio Oiticica in 1967, an installation at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro. The work is a seminal piece in Brazilian art history, and Art History as a whole, and of its purpose Oiticica said that: “…The myth of ‘tropicality’ is much more than parrots and banana trees: it is the consciousness of not being conditioned by established structures, hence highly revolutionary in its entirety. Any conformity, be it intellectual, social, or existential, is contrary to its principal idea.”
The fascinating part of the movement as a whole, to me, is its ability to take parts of Brazilian past and apply them in a modern sense – the products seem modern and groundbreaking, never folkloric. Some parts are embraced, other parts of the culture are parodied – still the result is cohesively Brazilian. Very few artists the world over have achieved this goal with estimable success. To use elements so strongly tied to the Brazilian past – both indigenous and colonial – without it transcending into historical recreation-ism (like the Brazilian version of a Renaissance Fair) is quite impressive. The way in which Tropicália oversteps this obstacle is impressive.
Hélio Oiticica stated that, “Any conformity, be it intellectual, social, or existential, is contrary to its principal idea.” He also said we should all ignore his work prior to 1959. Perhaps it was too conformist. I'm not a huge fan of his work, but I can see its influence.