Almada Negreiros and the geometric canon

Abstract

This paper presents a mathematical analysis of a series of geometrical abstract artworks by the Portuguese author Almada Negreiros (1893–1970), understood in the context of the author's search for a canon. After a brief description of Almada's work in the frame of twentieth-century visual arts, we examine the mathematical elements in three of his works: illustrations for a newspaper interview, two drawings from a collection called Language of the Square and his last visual work, the mural Começar. The analysis revealed that some of the author's geometrical constructions were mathematically exact whereas others were approximations. We used computer-based drawings, along with mathematical deductions to examine the constructions presented in the aforementioned works, which we believe to be the representative of Almada's geometric statements. Our findings show that, though limited by the self-taught nature of his endeavour, the mathematical content of these artworks is surprisingly rich. The paper is meant to be an introduction to Almada's work from a mathematical point of view, showing the importance of a comprehensive study of the mathematical elements in the author's body of work.

Keywords:

• Portuguese 20th century art
• modernism
• geometry
• golden ratio

Acknowledgements

This work was made possible by the Modernismo online project (www.modernismo.pt) of the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, financed by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, that gathers and archives in digital format the material heritage of Portuguese modernism. It now includes a vast archive of Almada's work, which can be consulted online.

We would like to thank the Centro de Arte Moderna of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (CAM-FCG) and the family of Almada Negreiros for their kind permission to use these images.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The artist himself chose to use just the name ‘Almada’. His signature can be seen in some of the artworks presented in this paper.

2. Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (1887–1918): Probably the most internationally recognized Portuguese modernist painter, he left an extensive body of work that articulates Cubism, Futurism and Expressionism.

3. Santa-Rita Pintor (1889–1918): A member of the first generation of Portuguese modernist painters, he died prematurely leaving orders to have his work destroyed. Few examples of his artwork remain.

4. Sarah Afonso (1899–1983): From the second generation of Portuguese modernist painters, the wife of Almada Negreiros studied painting in Paris during the 1920s but decided to stop pursuing her career in 1940.

5. Pardal Monteiro (1897–1957): One of the most important Portuguese architects of the first half of the twentieth century. He was responsible, along with a small group of other architects, for the implementation of modernist architecture in Portugal.

6. This is a Portuguese expression, with a meaning similar to ‘Paint the town’. Almada's own interpretation was ‘to produce wonders’.