Henri Matisse and Leandro de Carvalho

 Leandro Carvalho, ca. 2011 (top right) and Henri Matisse, 1933 (top left). Henri Matisse, Blue Nude, 1907/ (bottom).

Forget about Picasso or Matisse. Let me introduce you to Leandro Carvalho.

Carvalho, who is a native of Brazil and has studied women’s gluteus aesthetics for many years, has created the ultimate Brazilian Butt Lift workout routine. This workout consists of body movements to better shape female butts. 

Carvalho obviously understands the importance of nature when representing the female body. Many of his workout video shots happen amongst nature—at the beach, and by mountains. Carvalho shows that he believes nature is a vital part of the process of increasing and reshaping the female body. In many parts of the video, close shots of the gluteus area are presented. The close shots abstract the gluteus to a mountain and the mountains, which are shown as part of the scenario, become the gluteus. Carvalho transforms nature—solid, brown, sexy, sweaty and stinky. 

Carvalho not only understands the importance of nature when representing the female body, but also shows his knowledge of art history. Among Carvalho’s influences, one can find Gauguin—a painter who captured the intense relationship between the female body and nature—and Matisse—whose poses like the Blue Nude (image above) has influenced many of Carvalho’s butt lift exercises. Carvalho's affiliation to art history does not stop there. Carvalho is bringing something new to the history of representation. He is reshaping the female body by making a participatory video piece. Carvalho is shaping hundreds of thousands of female bodies—one by one. Each exercise is a brushstroke that gives a firmer shape, pleasant form and strong color to the female body.

Screenshot from Leandro de Carvalho's Brazilian Butt Life Infomercial video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxCUfFGn6AM).

Text from my thesis: Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, Butts are Butterflies: The Book of Natural Curiosities.