A encomenda no contexto da obra de Almada Negreiros

Since the establishment of the Estado Novo dictatorship (1933), modernist artists were summoned by the State to work on various artistic commissions; however, commissions did not arise only at that time. In this brief presentation, I will comment on Almada Negreiros' commissions, comparing work before and after the Estado Novo, as well as public and private commissions, analyzing, in this context, both the constraints of artistic production and the possibilities of pursuing the artist's modernist project.

Since the establishment of the Estado Novo dictatorship (1933), modernist artists were summoned by the State to work on various artistic commissions; however, commissions did not arise only at that time. In this brief presentation, I will comment on Almada Negreiros’ commissions, comparing work before and after the Estado Novo, as well as public and private commissions, analyzing, in this context, both the constraints of artistic production and the possibilities of pursuing the artist’s modernist project.

Mariana Pinto dos Santos, an art historian and independent curator, holds a PhD in History and Theory from the Facultat de Belles Arts – Universitat de Barcelona. She is an integrated researcher at the Institute of Art History, NOVA FCSH, where she coordinates the Theory of Art, Historiography and Criticism Group. She is co-editor of the Literary Work of Almada Negreiros. She curated, among others, the exhibition José de Almada Negreiros: uma maneira de ser moderno, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa (2017). She is co-responsable by the research project Iberian Modernisms and the Primitivist Imaginary ((2018-22) (PTDC/ART-HIS/29837/2017). She is an editor at Edições do Saguão.