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.