Tarsila do Amaral. The Moon. 1928

Tarsila do Amaral The Moon 1928

  • MoMA, Floor 5, 513 The David Geffen Wing

In the 1920s, do Amaral frequently traveled between São Paulo, her native city, and Paris. There, she became acquainted with artists such as Constantin Brancusi and Fernand Léger, and witnessed a variety of avant-garde artistic strategies. In this painting of a moonlit scene, a lonesome cactus resembling a human figure stands in the foreground, contemplatively facing the crescent moon while rooted in an elliptical stream of water—a recurring motif in do Amaral’s compositions from this period. The painting reflects what the artist called her “clean, sharply outlined” technique, while offering an undulating spectacle of a dreamlike quality.

Gallery label from 2019
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
43 5/16 × 43 5/16" (110 × 110 cm)
Credit
Gift of Joan H. Tisch (by exchange)
Object number
1.2019
Copyright
© Tarsila do Amaral
Department
Painting and Sculpture

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