José de Almada Negreiros, ‘Futurist Poet of Orpheu and More’
Learn more about the work of the most famous Portuguese Modernist artist
José de Almada Negreiros
A writer and visual artist born in São Tomé and Príncipe in 1893 and educated in Lisbon, where he began exhibiting and publishing at the age of twenty (1913).
[Auto-Retrato num grupo] (Pintura para o café ” A Brasileira” do Chiado, Lisboa) (1925) by José de Almada NegreirosCentro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
An agent of the Portuguese modernist avant-garde,
O Beijo (c. 1913) by José de Almada NegreirosCentro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
often known simply as Almada, Almada Negreiros was active in the Portuguese modern art scene over seven decades, from his early career in the 1920s influenced by Art Deco to the geometric abstractionism of the 1950s and 1960s.
As banhistas (Pintura decorativa – Café «A Brasileira» do Chiado) (1925) by José de Almada NegreirosCentro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
His modernity, creative versatility
Untitled (Sem data) by José de Almada NegreirosCentro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
and capacity for social intervention made him the most known artist of Portuguese 20th century modernism.
Domingo lisboeta (1979) by José de Almada NegreirosCentro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
He was a multifaceted creator driven by a hand that wrote and drew with great fluency
Untitled (1933) by José de Almada NegreirosCentro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
Almada lived intensely modernist Portugal and, at the same time, was inspired by the art and literature of Ancient Greece and the Renaissance, bringing together the ancient and the modern worlds.
Sem título (1921) by José de Almada NegreirosCentro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
He produced drawings and caricatures, short stories, poems, stained glass windows, manifestos, plays, paintings, frescoes, novels and reliefs.
Os sempre fixes (1926) by José de Almada NegreirosCentro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
An accomplished gymnast, he had wanted to be a dancer,
Figurino para o bailado A Princesa dos Sapatos de Ferro (1918) by José de Almada NegreirosCentro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
played the Devil at the dance performance 'A Princesa dos Sapatos de Ferro' (1918), which he choreographed and designed the costumes,
Untitled (1928) by José de Almada NegreirosCentro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
and had a lifelong connection to the body at rest and in movement, both the performative body
Retrato de Sarah Affonso (1938) by José de Almada NegreirosCentro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
and the private body.
Retrato de Fernando Pessoa (1964) by José de Almada NegreirosCentro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
He started to write from a very young age and was connected to the publication of Orpheu in 1915, a magazine which deeply marked Portuguese modernity.
He is the author of the most emblematic painting of Fernando Pessoa, executed in two versions, in 1954 and 1964, which depicts the poet at the table of a café in Lisbon where he used to write.
Painel «Começar» (1968) by José de Almada NegreirosCentro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
Almada died in Lisbon on 15 June 1970.
