• 1916
  • Oil on canvas
  • Inv. 77P18

Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso

Canção popular – a Russa e o Figaro / Folk Song [The Russian and the Figaro]

Throughout practically his entire career, Amadeo explored references to the traditions and popular art of Portugal. During the First World War, when he was forced to return to his native country, it was already evident that he had distanced himself from the abstract trends that had dominated Parisian art immediately beforehand. In 1916, Amadeo staged two solo exhibitions – the first in Porto and the second in Lisbon – which he called Abstractionism. Despite choosing this title, the pictures that he produced in those years are replete with legible signs.

Popular Song  –  the Russian Woman and Le Figaro (1916) is one of the works that demonstrates this tendency, offering a fragmented, brightly coloured composition in which representation is explored via a non-illusionist mode. The figurative elements that float within the painting – the colourful crockery and pots, the windows and houses, the doll – have no descriptive vocation and do not point to just one reference. On the contrary, these signs expand the work’s signifying potential in terms that destabilize and enrich our interpretation by adding new possible ways of reading the work. The colourful crockery and pots, for example, refer not only to the artisanal objects that they denote but could also be seen as a reference to Sonia Delaunay’s fascination with markets and popular Portuguese art. This hypothesis is strengthened by the doll in the centre of the composition: besides alluding to the small rag doll that the painter owned and also depicted in other paintings (such as Popular Song and Bird of Brazil, 1916; coll. Museu de Amarante), this feature is open to a multiplicity of other possible meanings. In other words, it can be read as representing the ‘Russian woman’, in this case Sonia Delaunay, who was a native of Ukraine.

The meeting staged in Popular Song  –  Russian Woman and Le Figaro between the signs of a popular regional culture and cultivated international references, such as the allusion to the French newspaper Le Figaro (the newspaper which was read every day in the Delaunay’s house in Vila do Conde, offering a window onto the world beyond their local area[1]), evokes once again the need to overcome the logical dichotomies between these two, ultimately interdependent, worlds.

 

Joana Cunha Leal

July 2013


[1] Cf. Ferreira, P., Correspondance de quatre artistes portugais: Almada-Negreiros, José Pacheco, Souza-Cardoso, Eduardo Vianna avec Robert et Sonia Delaunay, Paris: FCG / CCP / PUF: 1972, p. 45.

TypeValueUnitSection
Width60cm
Height80cm
Typesigned
Text«amadeo / de souza / c ardoso»
Positionbottom left-hand corner
TypeDonation
Date11-11-1977
Exposição de Pintura (Abstracionismo): amadeo de souza- cardoso/ Painting Exhibition (Abstractionism): amadeo de souza-cardoso
Porto, [s.n.], 1916
Catalogue
Exposição de Pintura: amadeo de souza-cardoso/ Painting Exhibition: amadeo de souza-cardoso
Lisbon, [s.n.], 1916
Catalogue
amadeo de souza-cardoso
Paris, Casa de Portugal, 1958
Catalogue
amadeo de souza-cardoso
Lisbon, SNI, 1959
Catalogue
20 pintores portugueses del Centro de Arte Moderno, Fundación Calouste Gulbenkian/ 20 portuguese painters of the Modern Art Centre, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Lisbon, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Centro de Arte Moderna, 1984
Catalogue
Roteiro do Centro de Arte Moderna/ Guide of the Modern Art Centren
Lisbon, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Centro de Arte Moderna, 1985
Guide
Il Portogallo a Milano
Milan, Electa, 1985
Catalogue
Arte Contemporáneo Portugués/ Contemporary Portuguese Art
Lisbon, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Centro de Arte Moderna, 1987
Exhibition Catalogue
Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, 1887-1918
Brussels, Europália, 1991
Catalogue
Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, 1887-1918
Porto, Fundação de Serralves, 1992
Catalogue
Oito décadas de pintura portuguesa: colecção da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian/ Eight decades of portuguese painting: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Collection
Lisbon, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Centro de Arte Moderna, 1993
Catalogue
O que há de português na arte moderna portuguesa/ What is portuguese about portuguese modern art
Lisbon, Instituto da Comunicação Social, 1998
Catalogue
1887-1987 centenário do nascimento de amadeo de souza- cardoso/ 1887-1987 birth centenary of amadeo de souza-cardoso
Lisbon, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1987
Catalogue
Antevisão do Centro de Arte Moderna/ Antivision of the Modern Art Centre
Lisbon, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1981
Catalogue
Un Art sans frontières: L'internacionalisation des Arts en Europe, 1900-1950/ An Art without frontiers: The internationalisation of the Arts in Europe, 1900-1950
Paris, Sorbonne, 1994
Monograph
História da arte em Portugal: Pioneiros da modernidade. Vol. 12/ The History of Art in Portugal: Pioneers of modernity. Vol. 12
Lisbon, Alfa, 1988
Monograph
História da Arte Portuguesa: Do Barroco à Contemporaneidade. Vol. III/ The History of Portuguese Art: From Baroque to Contemporary. Vol. III
Lisbon, Círculo de Leitores, 1995
Monograph
Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso: o português à força & Almada Negreiros: o português sem mestre/ Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso: the forceful portuguese & Almada Negreiros: the portuguese without a master
Venda Nova, Bertrand, 1986
Monograph
Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso: diálogo de vanguardas/Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso: avant-garde dialogues
Lisbon, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão, Assírio & Alvim, 2006
Catalogue
Robert y Sonia Delaunay/ Robert and Sonia Delaunay
Barcelona : Carroggio, Institut de Cultura : Museu Picasso, 2000
Monograph
Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (1887-1918): Ein pionier aus Portugal/ Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (1887-1918): A pioneer from Portugal
Hamburg, Ernst Barlach Haus, 2007
Catalogue
Antevisão do Centro de Arte Moderna/ Antivision of the Modern Art Centre
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Curator: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
July 1981 to September 1981
Arte Contemporáneo Portugués/ Contemporary Portuguese Art
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Curator: CAM/FCG
February 1987 to March 1987
Madrid, Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art
Exhibition organized by CAM and by the ministries of "Foreign Affairs" and of Spanish Culture.
20 pintores portugueses del Centro de Arte Moderno, Fundación Calouste Gulbenkian/ 20 portuguese painters of the Modern Art Centre, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
4 to 23 June 1984
Cultural Centre Caja de Ahorros de Vigo
amadeo de souza-cardoso
Paulo Ferreira
23 January to 18 March 1958
Casa de Portugal
19 May to 31 May 1956
Dominguez Alvarez Gallery
Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, 1887-1918
27 September to 8 December 1991
Museum of Modern Art
5 March to 19 April 1992
Serralves Foundation
Event integrated in Europália 91.
Il Portugallo a Milano
7 March to 21 April 1985
Palazzo Reale, Royal Palace
amadeo de souza-cardoso
Paulo Ferreira
May 1959                                                                 National Information Secretariat - Foz Palace, Lisbon
June 1959
National Museum Soares dos Reis, Porto
Exposição de Pintura: amadeo de souza-cardoso/ Painting Exhibition: amadeo de souza-cardoso
4 December to 12 December 1916
Lisbon Naval League, Calhariz Palace
Exposição de Pintura (Abstracionismo): amadeo de souza- cardoso/ Painting Exhibition (Abstractionism): amadeo de souza-cardoso
1 November to 12 November 1916
Ballroom of the Passos Manoel Garden
Oito décadas de pintura portuguesa: colecção da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian/ Eight decades of portuguese painting: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Collection
2 to 25 June 1993
Guiness Hop Store
July 1993
Museum of Art of Bahia
O que há de português na arte moderna portuguesa/ What is portuguese about portuguese modern art
June to September 1998
Institute of Social Communication, Foz Palace
1887-1987 centenário do nascimento de amadeo de souza- cardoso/ 1887-1987 birth centenary of amadeo de souza-cardoso
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Curator: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
20 July 1987 to 31 October 1987
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (1887-1918): Ein pionier aus Portugal/ Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (1887-1918): A pioneer from Portugal
2 December 2007 to 30 March 2008
Ernst Barlach Haus
Updated on 04 april 2024

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