Abaporu

Can you picture me? I sit under a bright, lemon-yellow sun in a world with a single, cheerful green cactus. The sky behind me is a perfect, peaceful blue. It’s a quiet place, my home. But I am not so quiet. I am a puzzle made of paint. I have one enormous foot planted firmly on the warm earth, and my body flows like a long, soft river. One of my arms is bent, resting near my face, while my tiny head is tilted, as if I am lost in a very deep thought. People look at my giant feet and my tiny head and wonder, “Who is this person? What are they dreaming about?”. It's a good question. I am a feeling more than a person, a daydream painted onto a canvas for the whole world to see. I wasn't made to look exactly like a person you might meet on the street. I was made to make you feel something, to make you curious about the world inside your own imagination.

Now, I can tell you my secret. My name is Abaporu. I was born from the brilliant imagination of a painter in Brazil named Tarsila do Amaral. In the year 1928, she mixed her sunny yellows, earthy browns, and sky blues and brought me to life with her paintbrush. She painted me as a secret birthday gift for her husband, a writer named Oswald de Andrade. Can you imagine keeping such a colorful secret? On January 11th, 1928, she finally showed me to him. His eyes grew wide with surprise and then with happiness. He said I was the most original and powerful painting he had ever seen. Tarsila explained her idea to him. She made my head very small to show that while thinking is important, it isn’t everything. She made my feet and body huge to show that being connected to the earth, to your home, and to your feelings is even more powerful. I was a new kind of giant, one whose strength came from the land itself.

Oswald was so inspired by my strange and wonderful shape that he gave me my name, 'Abaporu'. It’s a special name from the language of the native Tupi-Guarani people of Brazil, and it means 'man who eats'. Now, that might sound a little scary, but it was actually a very big and clever idea. Oswald wrote a famous text called the 'Anthropophagite Manifesto' in 1928, and I was the picture right on the cover. His big idea was that artists in Brazil shouldn't just copy art from other places, like Europe. Instead, he thought they should 'eat' or digest all those outside ideas, mix them up with their own unique Brazilian culture—the colors, the stories, the music—and create something brand new and strong that was all their own. I became the symbol of this idea, which was called the Anthropophagy Movement. I showed everyone that it was amazing to be different and to be proud of where you come from.

For many years, I traveled far from my home in Brazil. I visited different countries and was shown in many galleries, sharing my story and my bright colors with people all over the world. But a traveler eventually needs a place to rest. Today, I live in a beautiful museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina, called MALBA. People of all ages, from little kids to grandparents, come to visit me every day. They stand in front of me, look at my giant foot, my tiny head, and my sunny world, and they smile. I remind them that art can be anything you can imagine. It can be silly, it can be serious, it can be strange, and it can be beautiful, all at the same time. I am more than just a painting. I am an invitation to dream, to be proud of who you are, and to create something new from all the wonderful things the world has to offer.