Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism
David Atkinson Lighting Design (DALD) recently completed the lighting design for the Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
This major exhibition features more than 130 works by 10 important Brazilian artists from the 20th century, capturing the diversity of Brazilian art at the time.
In the early 20th century, a new modern art was emerging in Brazil. Starting in the 1910s and continuing into the 1970s, Brazilian artists were adapting contemporary trends, international influences and artistic traditions to create a new type of modern art; art informed by the vibrant cultures, identities and landscapes of Brazil.
Everyday life in Brazil was the subject of this new modernism, and the Indigenous identity and Afro-Brazilian experience were among the many influences these artists drew upon in their work. This was a group of people looking inward at their rich cultural resource to set a new course for modernism that was borne out across South America.
The exhibition brings an expanded view of Brazilian Modernism to UK audiences, showing work by artists who have historically received less exposure in this country, including Anita Malfatti, who spearheaded the movement, and Tarsila do Amaral, now internationally celebrated as a leading female figure of Brazilian Modernism. The exhibition includes the self-taught artists Alfredo Volpi and Djanira da Motta e Silva, an artist of indigenous descent, Afro-Brazilian artist Rubem Valentim and performance artist, Flávio de Carvalho.
The majority of works come from rarely seen Brazilian private collections, as well as Brazilian public collections, most of which have never been exhibited in the UK.
The brief from the Royal Academy and exhibition designer Carla Jucaba to DALD was for the lighting to create tonal contrast between the galleries, without detracting from the artwork, as well as adhering to conservation constraints.
The lighting design approach was simplistic but immersive, with each gallery being painted in a different shade, subtle hues of colour washed the walls from high level track fixtures fitted with colour correction filters and carefully controlled by the addition of Barndoors.
Central to the majority of gallery spaces the exhibition designer included different shaped seating benches that incorporated LED strips in a warm colour temperature to the underside to create a floating quality from the floors.
Within each gallery, important work was displayed on stepped “Focus Panels”, which incorporated LED strips creating a halo offset with each LED strip being tuned to the appropriate gallery colour. The focus panel artworks were lit by softly focused zoom profile fixtures mounted off the existing high-level tracks.
The majority of artwork was lit by a combination of medium and narrow fixtures at 2700K, while the sculpture was lit from softly focused profile fixtures.
DALD utilised The Royal Academy’s stock of iGuzzini Palco fixtures with various accessories along with a supplement of LED zoom profiles, which were all controlled via Casambi.
