News One of the most celebrated masterpieces of Brazilian art has returned to Rio de Janeiro for the first time in more than 20 years, to commemorate the start of the 2016 Olympic Games on Friday (5 August) Abaporu was painted by Tarsila do Amaral in 1928 as a present to her then-husband, modernist writer Oswald de Andrade   In the surrealist, modernist style characteristic of the 1920s, the painting represents a human figure in front of a cactus, with the sun blazing in the sky The title of the painting is a coinage from the indigenous Tupi language and means 'the man who eats people '  The immediate impact of the work of the art inspired de Andrade to create the Anthropophagic artistic movement, which aimed to digest European art and culture in order to produce uniquely Brazilian works of art Abaporu is the undisputed highlight of the exhibition in the Art Museum of Rio (Photo: Rio 2016/André Naddeo) SInce 1995, Abaporu has belonged to the permanent collection of MALBA, the Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires The work is returning to Brazil as part of a special exhibition, The Colour of Brazil, which will be held in the award-winning Art Museum of Rio (MAR) until January 2017 The exhibition was opened on Tuesday (2 August) Abaporu itself will only stay in RIo until 30 August The painting is an icon of Brazilian art and inspired a new cultural movement in the country (Photo: Rio 2016/André Naddeo) One of the curators of the show, Marcelo Campos, said the Olympic Games had played a major part in helping bring the masterpiece back to Rio As well as Abaporu, the exhibition brings together works from some of most celebrated Brazilian artists of the 20th century "There will be many countries coming to Rio and they will all have the chance to see an iconic work of art," Campos said "They will see that we have our own language of art This is a special time " Other artists on show at the exhibition at MAR include Lygia Clark, Lasar Segall, Franz Weissmann, Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Pape and Emilio Di Cavalcanti As well as Abaporu, another highlight of the show is a striking figurative 1927 painting by Di Cavalcanti, Mulatos de San Cristobal, also known as Carnaval or Samba This is the first time that the painting has been displayed in Rio A carnival scene painted by Emilio Di Cavalcanti is on display in Rio de Janeiro for the first time ever MAR is located in Praça Mauá, in Rio's renovated waterfront district It is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm The museum was inaugurated in March 2013 Along with the Museu de Amanhã (Museum of Tomorrow), opened in December 2015, the museum has helped revitalise the historic portside region of Rio and transform the area into one of the centres of Rio's cultural life