the bohemian enclaves and carefree seaside atmosphere of rio de janeiro have long inspired artists from all over the world, but the city has also nurtured and produced some of the foremost home-grown talent in brazil - even a small sampling gives an idea of the formidable creators that have sprung from rio.

in the early twentieth century, when brazilian expression was coming into its own, one of the vanguard members of the budding modernist artistic and intellectual movement was painter emiliano augusto cavalcanti de albuquerque e melo, better known as di cavalcanti (1897-1976).

his style and subject matter were typically brazilian in a time when copying the latest european fashions was en vogue, and he was one of the organizers of the week of modern art in 1922, a seminal exposition that changed the face of brazilian art forever.