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This paper examines the preparatory studies carried out by Almada Negreiros for the 1949 mural paintings at the Rocha do Conde de Óbidos Maritime Station, focusing on the evolution of the artist’s choices in terms of composition and the use of colours. By comparing these studies with the final work, the aim was to add new information regarding Almada’s creative process, offering new insights into his methodology and artistic decisions. The work was based on collating drawings from several archives and collections. Results showcase examples of how these studies can be seen as autonomous works, in some cases as ramifications and in other cases as a process of revisitation of recurrent themes of Almada’s visual and literary practice. Results also show how drawings became progressively more geometrical as the studies progressed, moving away from the more naturalistic figuration, and how colour followed the same path, becoming more vivid and sometimes unrealistic.

This paper presents the results of observations and analysis carried out in the modern mural painting of 54m2, known as Planisphere (or Mapa-mundi), made by Almada Negreiros in 1939 in the city of Lisbon. The painting is Almada’s first monumental painted work at fresco, and it is a striking, colourful composition inspired by early world maps of navigators. The aim is to ascertain how he built up this masterpiece and what artistic sources could have inspired him. The analytical setup comprised in-situ technical photography in the visible (Vis and Vis-Rak) and near infrared radiation (NIR), Vis-handled-Optical microscopy, complemented by laboratorial analysis of microsamples collected from paint layers with OM-Vis-UV and SEM-EDS. The data obtained was compared with the painting compendiums of Paul Bedouin’s La fresque. Sa Technique-ses applications (1914) and of Costin Petresco’s L’art de la fresque (1931), retrieved from the artist studio in 2019. The study reveals the first technical and material features found, such as the painting execution by large giornate, the use of different types of techniques to transfer the drawings to the wall, and the presence of paint layers made with buon and lime fresco. The results also reveal the likely strategies used by Almada to overcome the challenges imposed by a fresco execution, inspired by both eastern and western mural painting traditions.

This paper reports the first analytical approach carried out on two working palettes by Portuguese modernist master Almada Negreiros, found in 1991 behind old wood cabinets at the DN building in Lisbon. This is the only known occasion Almada left behind the color experiments done before starting to paint in the nearby walls and as such, it is a unique opportunity to analyze the materials and painting techniques that were originally used. The analytical setup comprised in loco technical photography in Vis, UVF and NIR; p-OM, spectrophotometry in Vis and h-EDXRF, complemented by OM-Vis, µ-FT-IR and VP-SEM-EDS of painting micro-samples and pigments in powder form. Preliminary results suggested the use of fresco painting technique and revealed some technical details, such as the use of a coarse lime sand finishing mortar mixed with natural vegetable fibers, and the extensive use of cadmium-based pigments that were not commonly used (or even recommended) in an alkaline environment. The Cd pigments were used alone or in mixtures with Fe based pigments in the warm hues and with cobalt and ultramarine blue pigments in some green paint layers. No clear evidence of organic materials that could have been used as binders was detected.

In 1969, while completing what would be his final work, the panel \"Comecar\" found at the entrance to the Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian, Almada Negreiros observed that there are two types of works: those that belong to everyone and those that are commissioned to hang on the wall. No other Portuguese artist of the 20th century received as many commissions as Almada. His public art projects that include representations of quotidian experience can be found throughout the city, in the form of murals, stained glass windows, tapestries, etc. In this essay, I analyze the visual vocabulary present in some of Almada's most important public art projects executed between 1938-1969, in an attempt to determine which of these works are perhaps mere \"commissions\" and which \"belong to everyone.\" In my opinion, the latter's success lies in their ability to express a sense of vernacular culture (what social reality feels like) and to communicate a colloquial and vivid experience of the present.

Este ensaio analisa a conceção de “mito” em Almada Negreiros, focando-se em Mito-Alegoria-Símbolo para harmonizar diversas manifestações mitopoéticas ao longo da obra. O pensamento mitológico de Almada é contextualizado dentro da missão que atribui ao artista: como exemplo de individualidade radical e como reformador da coletividade; recuperando-se o poder que o mito teve na formação do indivíduo e da pátria para os poder transfigurar no século XX, atualizando-os.

Este ensaio analisa algumas teorizações de Almada Negreiros sobre géneros sexuais, focando-se no diálogo interartístico entre a conferência “Direcção Única” e a peça de teatro “Deseja-se Mulher”, contextualizando o pensamento almadiano dentro das suas teorias estéticas sobre a relação entre géneros artísticos, e pela sua tentativa geral de harmonizar a tensão entre diversos géneros e um Todo. A análise toma como exemplo estruturante os pensamentos intergénero de Jacques Derrida e Hélène Cixous.  

It is known that when Almada Negreiros wrote The Invention of the Bright Day he was introducing the formula of naivety and clearing a path to discover lost authenticity. This is also what happens with his representation of the city (in his plastic art and literature), which is reinvented in this text as an invisible city that is able to behave as an accomplice and enter into a dialogue with Italo Calvinos proposal.

Se sabe que cuando Almada Negreiros escribió La invención del día claro, estaba lanzando la fórmula de la ingenuidad y abriendo caminos hacia el descubrimiento de una autenticidad perdida. También es lo que ocurre con la representación de la ciudad (presente en su obra plástica y literaria), reinventada en este texto como una ciudad invisible, capaz de dialogar como cómplice con la propuesta de Italo Calvino.

En 1969, mientras que preparaba lo que sería su última obra, el panel “Começar”, que decora el atrio de la Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Almada Negreiros observó que hay dos clases de obras: las que pretendemos como obras de todos y las que son encargadas para que se queden en la pared. Ningún otro artista portugués del siglo XX tuvo más encargos que Almada. Sus incursiones en el arte público, sus representaciones de un cierto cotidiano portugués, se encuentran esparcidas por la ciudad en forma de murales, vitrales, tapices, etc. En el presente ensayo, analizo el vocabulario visual de algunos de los ejemplos más significativos de este arte producido por Almada con el fin de determinar cuáles pertenecen, quizá, a la categoría de simple “encargo” y cuáles se pueden entender como “obra de todos”. El éxito de estas radica, bajo mi punto de vista, en su capacidad de expresar la calidad de una cultura “vernácula” que consiste, sobretodo, en comunicar una sensación “viva” (coloquial y presente) de la experiencia.

Dans la revue Portugal futurista, Almada Negreiros avait écrit son poeme Mima Fataxa ?, hommage aux danseuses parisiennes, expression de l'utopie du corps en scene chere dans sa vie de peintre, dramaturge, scénographe et danseur. A Paris, il a connu, entre autres, Max Jacob, Picasso et Brancusi. Almada n'a probablement pas vécu le mythe parisien avec le meme enthousiasme de quelques artistes de son temps, mais il a sûrement recueilli de cette capitale futuriste des élans décisifs pour son parcours artistique. Dans cette étude, je me propose de parcourir quelques passages de son œuvre ou des inscriptions et des échos parisiens semblent etre présents.