Abaporu

Abaporu (from Tupi language "abapor’u", abá (man) + poro (people) + ’u (to eat), lit. 'the man that eats people') is an oil painting on canvas by Brazilian painter Tarsila do Amaral. It is one of the main works of the anthropophagic phase of the modernist movement in Brazil. It was painted as a birthday gift to writer Oswald de Andrade, who was her husband at the time. It is considered the most valuable painting by a Brazilian artist, having reached the value of $1.4 million, paid by Argentine collector Eduardo Costantini in an auction in 1995. It is currently displayed at the Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires (Spanish: Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, MALBA) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The subject matter – one man, the sun and a cactus – inspired Oswald de Andrade to write the Manifesto Antropófago and consequently create the Anthropophagic Movement, intended to "swallow" foreign culture and turn it into something culturally Brazilian.