Fifty-two pieces by 19 outstanding 20th century Brazilian sculptors have gone on display in the IDB Cultural Center Art Gallery and the IDB building's atrium.Including large-scale works, such as Maria Martins' 300-kilogram bronze Impossível, the exhibit "Brazilian sculpture from 1920 to 1990: a profile," is the most ambitious undertaking of the IDB Cultural Center to date, according to its director, Ana María Coronel de Rodríguez. The showing was produced with the collaboration of the office of the IDB's executive director for Brazil and Brazil's Washington embassy.
The pieces reflect the cultural diversity of Brazil's art community, which blends influences from Europe (mainly Portuguese, Italian, and German), Africa (nearly one million Africans were taken to Brazil during the 19th century alone), Asia (São Paulo is the home of the largest Japanese settlement outside Japan), and indigenous peoples such as the Guaraní and the Bororo. Even today, with the arrival of nearly 50,000 immigrants each year, Brazil's cultural landscape continues to evolve. Sculpture in Brazil has developed in close connection with architecture, a field in which Brazilian practitioners such as Lúcio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer, and Roberto Burle-Marx enjoy international recognition. Brasilia, the national captial whose design and planning began in 1949, illustrates the relationship between these two disciplines that has been replicated elsewhere. In the United States, for example, principles developed for Brasilia were used in the redevelopment and planning of cities such as Albany, New York, and Portland, Oregon.