Brazil Slide Series: Collection Modern Brazilian Painting, Slide No. 0087.

Teaching ResourceTeaching Resource87. Brasiliana, 1971. Antonio Henrique Amaral began his series of banana paintings, entitled Brasiliana in 1968. Using a tropical icon with popular culture overtones ("Yes, we have no bananas" and Carmen Miranda), painted in the colors of the Brazilian flag--green and yellow. Amaral was able to comment on the political situation in Brazil veiled in innocuous banality (bananality?). His vegetal protagonists were shown in various "situations"; sometimes pierced with forks or bound in a web of ropes. Covert commentary in a moment of harsh repression and censorship requires this kind of ambiguity to survive