José de Almada Negreiros (São Tomé, 1893 – Lisbon, 1970) was one of the most relevant personalities of the Orpheu modernist generation, and his multidisciplinary activity – as a painter, writer, essay writer, illustrator, scenographer, among others – played a fundamental role in the introduction of vanguard ideas in Portugal. As a humourist, his drawings first appeared in the Free Exhibition, in 1911, and they were also present in the 1stand 2nd Humourists Exhibitions, in 1912 and 1913. His first solo exhibition was one year later, at the Lisbon International School. In the following year, he started his writing activity, publishing his first poem and, in 1915, he was invited to collaborate in the first issue of the Orpheu magazine. Throughout the 1920’s, he collaborated with other publications and magazines, such as Contemporânea, Athena, Presença, Diário de Notícias and Sempre Fixe. In 1917, he read his Futurist Ultimatum to the Portuguese Generations of the 20th century, at the 1st Futurist Conference, and he was connected to various other activities/actions in the introduction of Futurism in Portugal. In the same year, the famous K4 Quadrado Azul was published, a book he dedicated to painter Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso. Between 1919 and 1920, he lived in Paris, a city that didn’t fascinate him and he did not become close to the vanguard artists that lived there at the time. Back in Lisbon, he wrote A Invenção do Dia Claro [The Invention of the Clear Day] (1921) and the romance O Nome da Guerra [The Name of the War] (1925); he participated in the exhibition of the 5 Independents (1923) and in the 1st Independent Salon(1930) and, in the 1940’s, he was present in some Modern Art Exhibitions. He was invited to participate in the celebrated decoration of A Brasileira café, in 1925, and the Bristol Club, in 1926. Between 1927 and 1932, he was in Madrid, where he became an active presence in the cultural milieu, meeting and working with some of the most significant figures of Spanish modernism. After his return to Lisbon, he did various decoration projects, like the frescos for the Gares Marítimas de Alcântara (1943-45), Rocha do Conde de Óbidos (1946-49) and the Começar panel (1968-69) – the last great enterprise of his career – for the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. As a painter, he received the Columbano Award (1942), the Domingos Sequeira Award (1946) and the Diário de Notícias Prize (1966). His work is represented in numerous institutional and private collections.
FMV, October 2020
