Historical Reinterpretations

In the Historical series, Arthur Arnold draws on Brazilian works from the nineteenth century to create new interpretations of some of the period’s major crowd scenes. His initial interest is pictorial: understanding how Pedro Américo, Victor Meirelles, and other artists approached the presence of numerous bodies within the picture plane. By revisiting these works, Arthur transforms the crowd into mass, rhythm, and composition, bringing the images into the present. In doing so, he seeks new solutions to a recurring question in painting: how to represent a large number of people within a limited space.

The exercise also allows him to take a critical look at works that helped shape Brazil’s historical imagination. Returning to these scenes, Arthur questions the visual construction of a past inscribed in the Brazilian collective unconscious. The reinterpretations thus engage with Brazil’s present moment and with the need to reconsider the images through which we have learned to see our identity.