Almada Negreiros, a Portuguese Futurist

Abstract

In the beginning of the 1910’s, Jose de Almada Negreiros, together with the writers Fernando Pessoa and Mario de Sa-Carneiro and the young artists Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, Santa Rita Pintor, Eduardo Viana and Jose Pacheco, tried out daring and unusual formats of writing, drawing and public gestures that reflected Futurist predecessors and acted as a force of change in Portugal. Together, they set up the magazine Orpheu , which became the emblematic periodical of Portuguese Modernism. Almada distinguished himself with his Manifesto Anti-Dantas e por extenso , a polemical pamphlet directed against Julio Dantas and everyone who contributed to the cultural and artistic backwardness of the country, and with the poem-manifesto, A cena do ódio , written for the third issue of Orpheu , which was not published at the time. In the years 1915-17, Almada Negreiros became a propagandist-performer who adapted Marinetti’s technique of Words-in-Freedom ( parole in liberta ) and almost completely set aside his production as a fine artist. After the creation of a Lisbon Futurist Committee in 1917, Almada presented himself to the public in a first Futurist soiree. Shortly afterwards, the only issue of Portugal futurista appeared and was immediately seized by the police. In 1918, after the death of Santa Rita Pintor and Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, Almada’s enthusiasm for the avant-garde began to fade and Portuguese Futurism found an early end. In 1919, before leaving for Paris, Almada became involved in an aristocratic intellectual circle in Lisbon and devoted himself to the creation of ballets inspired by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.