Cinema itself marvelled at how cartoons could carry it up to the threshold of poetry. In the end, it was just cinema longingly reminiscing about its own beginnings. Because the origins of cinema are there, in early antiquity: in a time when discovering photography wasn’t even a dream yet, man already knew how to achieve movement through a succession of images. And so, weary of reality, cinema decided to reclaim its magic lantern.
José de Almada Negreiros, in his conference Desenhos Animados Realidade Imaginada [Cartoons, an Imagined Reality], 1938
But who wrote the plot
that I play as the character of myself?
[…]
Who made me the protagonist of a life I did not dream of?
Who filmed my being while I was dreaming me up?
José de Almada Negreiros, from the poem As Quatro Manhãs [The Four Mornings], 1935
[Self-portrait], 1948
[Self-portrait], 1948. Published in the book Mito-Alegoria-Símbolo by José de Almada Negreiros, Sá da Costa, 1948Graphite on paperCalouste Gulbenkian Museum – Modern Collection
[Self-portrait], 1950
[Self-portrait], 1950. Inscription: “To my dear Xico Amaral a friend to whom I've made the greatest evil or the greatest good / Lisbon Oct. 30-10-50”Graphite on paperCalouste Gulbenkian Museum – Modern CollectionInv. DP195
Untitled, 1931
Untitled, 1931. Indian ink on paperPrivate collection on deposit at Calouste Gulbenkian Museum – Modern Collection
Taking photographs with his imagination
Unsure as to the whereabouts of reality, the protagonist starts taking photographs with his imagination.
José de Almada Negreiros, in Nome de Guerra [War Name], 1938 (1925)
Untitled, 1930
Untitled, 1930. Inscription: «Mad 30»Graphite on paperCalouste Gulbenkian Museum – Modern CollectionInv. DP150
[Bathers] (Painting for the café A Brasileira in Chiado, Lisbon), 1925
[Bathers] (Painting for the café A Brasileira in Chiado, Lisbon), 1925. Oil on canvasCalouste Gulbenkian Museum – Modern Collection
Portrait of Sarah Affonso (painter, artist's wife), 1938
Portrait of Sarah Affonso (painter, artist's wife), 1938. Graphite on paperCalouste Gulbenkian Museum – Modern Collection
Movie stars
Art is always a transposition of reality, and it starts when reality is not imitated but rather imagined.
José de Almada Negreiros, in his conference Desenhos Animados Realidade Imaginada [Cartoons, an Imagined Reality], 1938
Untitled (Paintings for Alfaiataria Cunha - tailor shop), 1913
Untitled (Paintings for Alfaiataria Cunha - tailor shop), 1913.
Oil on canvas
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum – Modern Collection
Inv. 83P55
Greta Garbo in The Kiss, 1930
Greta Garbo in The Kiss, 1930
Indian ink on paper
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum – Modern Collection
Untitled, 1920
Untitled, 1920.
Indian ink on paper
Inscription: “ To / Maria Thereza / di Camponetti / Excellent / comrade / to whom I have the honour / of having given my / unconditional friendship / Lisbon 26.XI.1920 / José de Almada Negreiros”
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum – Modern Collection
Blue square
All at once, on a sidewalk, the rainbow was a square down to the bottom of the X-rays beyond the transparent horse in a cinematographic continuity that outlined the sacredly epileptic feminine apology in sinuous heat all made of emphasis and seized reflexes. Whenever I stopped to contemplate the square from the perpendicular line of desire, light fell on the artificially slight stage of the naked triangle in a bluish feminine record. My eyes withdrew into a gasp brightened by flustered scandal and mad with reddish artifice. When I went back again there was a registered letter addressed to me.
A blue square was all it contained.
José de Almada Negreiros, from the short-story K4 O Quadrado Azul [K4 The Blue Square], 1917
Quadrant I, 1957
Quadrant I, 1957.
Oil on canvas
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum – Modern Collection
Inv. 83P63
Untitled, 1957
Untitled, 1957.
Inscription: «Les persones sont tres etrangement diferentes»
Indian ink and gouache on paper
Private collection on deposit at Calouste Gulbenkian Museum – Modern Collection
José de Almada Negreiros, K4 O Quadrado Azul, 1917
José de Almada Negreiros, K4 O Quadrado Azul, 1917.
author's cover
Original author's edition with Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso
Cartoon
THE FEMALE PUPPET – After a long time of hearing nothing around me, after the drum beat had become very faint and distant… I would open my eyes ever so slightly, without being seen by anyone… and I would understand everything… Then I would try very slowly to move one of my fingers, no matter which, and it would move! […]
THE MALE PUPPET – Why are you speaking so low?
THE FEMALE PUPPET – (Whispering.) Shush!… It’s because of the Man… Poor fellow, if he knew we can move!… Have you ever given a serious thought to that? One day, by mistake, you may be thinking that the Man is not around, and it turns out that he’s watching you! How awful!!! I can’t even think of it!
THE MALE PUPPET – Bah! If the Man would see me move, he would think he was dreaming… he wouldn’t believe it…
José de Almada Negreiros, from the play Antes de Começar [Before the Beginning], 1921
Untitled, c. 1920
Untitled, c. 1920. Aniline dye on paperCalouste Gulbenkian Museum – Modern CollectionInv. DP168
Untitled, undated
Untitled, undated. Graphite and gouache on cardboardPrivate collection
Untitled, undated.
Untitled, undated. Graphite and Indian ink on paperPrivate collection on deposit at Calouste Gulbenkian Museum – Modern Collection
Imagined reality
I draw, I write, I sculpt, I do stained glass, I dance, I do theatre, I do cinema, and, if my art doesn’t speak through any of these voices, what can we do then? Just pretend that I’m already dead – and that I left behind these posthumous works…
José de Almada Negreiros interviewed by Luís de Oliveira Guimarães, 1942
Untitled, 1940
Untitled, 1940.
Gouache on paper
Private collection
12
Magic lantern
The Shipwreck of Ínsua, 1934
The Shipwreck of Ínsua, 1934.
Indian ink on parchment paper
First of 64 original drawings
Private collection
Charlot, 1929
Charlot, 1929.
Photograph of one of the bas-relief painted stucco for the Cine San Carlos, Madrid, architect Eduardo Lozano Lardet
Isabel Alves and Ernesto de Sousa collection
Photograph from the set of the silent film The Convicted, directed by Mário Huguin, with José de Almada Negreiros on the left (lost film), 1921
Photograph from the set of the silent film The Convicted, directed by Mário Huguin, with José de Almada Negreiros on the left (lost film), 1921.
Private collection
Backcover of José de Almada Negreiros, Desenhos Animados Realidade Imaginada, Ed. Ática, 1938
Backcover of José de Almada Negreiros, Desenhos Animados Realidade Imaginada, Ed. Ática, 1938.
Cover by the author
Collection and André Ferreira
