Abstract
The movement of intellectuals and artists through the Brazilian national territory is not free from political and symbolic disputes. Some tensions become evident in the trajectories of Pernambuco's modernist artists as they sought recognition by their national peers. The trajectory of Lula Cardoso Ayres is emblematic. Born to a wealthy family, he was able to learn with the most renowned artists. In Paris, his course of training was similar to other exponents of Brazilian modernism. He is considered to be one of the great painters from Pernambuco. His career, however, is marked by a constant tension between his pretensions to national recognition and a resistance from the art world that often classified him as "regional" or "folkloric". This tension is made explicit when we confront his pictorial works with critical comments published in the press, texts by Gilberto Freyre and letters exchanged between Ayres and Pietro Maria Bardi.
Keywords
Modernism; Lula Cardoso Ayres; regionalism; art and power; Brazilian art
