Na aquarela do Brasil, onde estão os negros e indígenas?: tensionando a branquitude na história do Brasil a partir de imagens
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This article investigates how national images and symbols have contributed to the consolidation of a predominantly white Brazilian national memory. The research starts from the understanding that the construction of a Brazilian identity has historically been under the dominion of whiteness, which has produced erasures and silences of Black and Indigenous populations in official representations of the nation. To investigate this proposition, the work develops a qualitative bibliographic review, articulating theoretical-interpretative analysis and analytical-comparative reading of images. The study is also based on the notion of critical fabulation and engages with reflections on memory, visuality, and the production of absences in Brazilian iconography. In this sense, the painting “A Pátria”, by Pedro Bruno, is taken as an object of analysis of this national ideal of progress and whitening. As its counterpoint, works by Abdias do Nascimento, Matheus Ribs, and Elian Almeida are analyzed, understood here as counter-images that contest the official narrative of national history. The results show that visual representations contributed to the naturalization of a white national memory, obscuring Black and Indigenous experiences. Through an analysis of the works of these three artists, we observe that they re-signify patriotic symbols, challenging and reworking this "official" narrative, while also claiming new ways of thinking about "a Brazil."
DOI: 10.23899/f4jj2b81
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7225901910