Aracy Amaral

Aracy Abreu Amaral (born 22 February 1930) is a Brazilian art historian and curator. Born in São Paulo and raised in Buenos Aires, she worked as an art history professor at the University of São Paulo and director of the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (1975–1979) and Museum of Contemporary Art, University of São Paulo (1982–1986). A 1977 Guggenheim Fellow, she is an academic who specializes in modernism in Brazil, particularly Tarsila do Amaral. Biography Early life and career Aracy Abreu Amaral was born on 22 February 1930 in São Paulo, Her mother Nadya worked as a diseuse, and her father Aguinaldo Amaral was a civil servant for the . She has three siblings, including artist Antônio Henrique Amaral, She spent her early childhood in Buenos Aires, moving there due to her father Aguinaldo Amaral's employment with the . Her doctoral dissertation was Tarsila – sua obra e seu tempo (1976). By 2021, she had retired from USP. In 2006, she was awarded the Moinho Santista Award (now the Fundação Bunge Award) in Museology. Writing for ARTMargins, the art historian Sofia Gotti called Amaral's works "a vital reference for the study of art history in Brazil", lamenting the lack of English-language translations for her work.

In 2005, Amaral was the general coordinator of Itaú Cultural's Rumos project. She also curated the 2009 Trienal de Chile and 2011 Bienal do Mercosul. In 2021, the São Paulo Research Foundation called her "a pioneer in the field of curatorship in Brazil". She has a son with her ex-husband Mario Toral, historian and comic artist .