After attending the Academy of Fine Arts of Lisbon in 1905, Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (Manhufe, 1887 - Espinho, 1918) traveled to Paris, penetrating the avant-garde culture through painting and drawing. If during these first years in Paris his atelier was a place of conviviality for emigrated Portuguese artists, from 1909 onwards his network of contacts would expand. The approximation to the great artists of his time is demonstrated by his friendship with Modigliani, with whom he held an exhibition in 1911. This exhibition was attended by Picasso, Max Jacob and Apollinaire. Amadeo’s circle would also include Constantin Brancusi, Alexander Archipenko, Sonia and Robert Delaunay, Walter Patch, among others. In the same year he was represented at the first important cubist exhibition, at the Salon des Indépendants, a salon where he would exhibit again in 1912 and 1914. He also showed his work at the Salon d'Automne between 1912 and 1914. In 1912 large productions stand out: the album XX Dessins and an illustrated manuscript from the Légende de Saint Julien l'Hospitalier of Flaubert. It is at this stage that he becomes familiar with African art and the aesthetics of the Ballets Russes. His commitment to being present outside the Parisian nucleus earned him the participation in the International Exhibition of Modern Art Armory Show of 1913 (New York, Boston and Chicago), the year in which he also exhibits at the Der Sturm Gallery in Berlin, to which will follow other exhibitions in Germany, as well as London, Barcelona, Stockholm and Oslo. In 1914, due to the outbreak of war, he returned to Manhufe and, prevented from returning to Paris due to the outbreak of the War, resumed contact with Sonia and Robert Delaunay, and Eduardo Viana. He also met Almada Negreiros who introduced him to the futuristic generation of Orpheu. In 1916 he held in Porto and Lisbon, an exhibition of 114 paintings which he designated as Abstraccionismo. This last period in Portugal was a phase of maturation and bold works, in which he began to explore with pochoir and collages. The Spanish Flu that he contracted in 1918 (of which he would die in the same year) prevented him from painting, taking refuge in Espinho. His latest works, syntheses of multiple references - Cubism, Futurism, German Expressionism, Impressionism, Abstractionism, etc. - invite us to conjecture where his work would go, remaining in history as an icon of Portuguese modernism. He is represented in the most relevant national collections and in several international collections.
Francisca Morais Vaz
Artworks
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