An unconventional thinker who defied contemporary conventions with his architectural designs, performances, paintings, texts, and theatre pieces.

Flávio de Carvalho grew up in São Paulo and was educated in Paris and England. He returned to São Paulo shortly after the Semana de Arte Moderna in 1922. A qualified engineer, he entered a number of competitions to design public buildings. He was something of a maverick, and his work was difficult to categorise within the broader art canon. He worked across a number of different disciplines including painting, sculpture, architecture, theatre, and dance, and created some of the first performance art pieces in Brazil. Carvalho developed his own brand of experimental theatre, which made big waves with the play Bailado do Deus Morto (Dance of the Dead God). His performances in the streets of São Paulo also caused a stir and were met with hostility. Even his painterly experiments encountered a considerable degree of incomprehension; in his expressionist portraits, he endeavoured to probe and convey the psyche of his subjects, depicting women in selfassured poses, rather than as passive objects. He also explored new horizons in the world of fashion and developed New Look (Experiência N.3), a clothing style for the tropical climate and the modern man. He strolled through the streets of São Paulo wearing a skirt, fishnet stockings, and sandals. Carvalho attempted to “de-provincialise” São Paulo’s art scene with his artistic innovations and provide the general public with some food for thought.