Digital Commons@RISD Home > Division of Liberal Arts > Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive) > Vol. 23 (2025)
Abstract
This article examines the racial foundations of art system in Brazil, focusing on how whiteness has shaped aesthetics and art history. Drawing on anthropological analysis, it explores two key dimensions: the spatial and symbolic “place of whiteness” and the mechanisms of cultural and institutional racism. Through these categories, the paper investigates how the histories of non-Western peoples and the artistic production of racialized artists have been systematically marginalized. By revealing their near-total absence from canonical narratives, the article highlights the need for an anti-racist rethinking of Brazilian art history.