Celebrating José de Almada Negreiros

 01.06.2022-Wednesday-Celebrating José de Almada Negreiros-PNG.

 

• Today’s Doodle, illustrated by guest artist Melissa Crowton, celebrates the life, works and creative legacy of José de Almada Negreiros. He was a multi-faceted artist, writer and choreographer of Futurism, and widely considered one of the most influential Portuguese and European artists of the 20th century. On this day in 1911, Almada Negreiros made his artistic debut at the age of 18 by publishing a cartoon titled “A Weighty Reason” in the 4th issue of A Sátira, a Lisbon magazine.

  He was born on the island of São Tomé and Príncipe in 1893, and began his creative journey as a caricaturist. What started off with satirical sketches turned into a self-taught love for all things art. At just 20 years old, Almada Negreiros hosted his first exhibition in Lisbon. A year later, in 1914, he published his first poem and, in 1915, started a progressive literary magazine called Orpheu, which promoted Portuguese Modernism.

  In the 1920’s, Almada Negreiros lived in Paris and Madrid, honing his craft and skills through collaboration and sometimes even isolation. When he returned to Portugal in 1932, he expanded his artistic repertoire to include stained-glass pieces, mosaic panels, theater plays, ballets, graphic designs and more.

  Almada Negreiros was awarded the Columbano Prize by the National Secretariat of Propaganda in 1942 and the Domingos Sequeira Award in 1946, as well as numerous other honors and decorations throughout his lifetime. His works are displayed far and wide around Europe, most notably in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, the port terminals of Alcântara and Rocha do Conde de Óbidos, and in the lounge bar of the Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon.