Dear readers, we dedicate the second newsletter of the ALMADA project to the family of Almada Negreiros and Sarah Affonso and their artistic legacy. A sincere thank you for the interest, enthusiasm and the sharing of data and images.
|
|
|
To see
A chat with....Rita and Catarina Almada Negreiros
|
|
|
Foto: Catarina e Rita Almada Negreiros. Milene Gil 2017 © All rights reserved.
|
|
|
An informal and spontaneous conversation with Rita and Catarina Almada Negreiros that revealed the personality of Almada Negreiros as a father and as an artist from the family memories. Also the sisters’ opinion about Almada’s mural painting work and the importance of research for the preservation of his legacy.
Link: https://youtu.be/VjPIUDti3aU
Link: Interview transcription in english
|
|
|
To explore
A 3D model of the Almada Negreiros studio
|
|
|
Foto: Rita Almada Negreiros in Almada's studio in Bicesse, Estoril. Milene Gil 2017 © All rights reserved.
|
|
The studio of Almada Negreiros is located on the farm of Lameirinha in Bicesse, in Cascais. It is a construction from the beginning of the 20th century, built in wood that was initially, according to Almada Negreiros, in the lower part of the Botanical Garden in Lisbon, where there is a lake, at the entrance to Praça da Alegria. The house served as a school until its owner, Dr. Fernando de Lobo D’Ávila Lima, received an eviction order from the Municipal Chamber for its removal. Almada bought it at a low cost and transferred it completely, foundations included, to one of the edges of his farm.
This story is told by Almada himself in the film Almada Negreiros, Vivo, Hoje! 1969, having this space remain unnoticed until today. In 2017, his artistic heritage was rediscovered by researcher Milene Gil and Simão Palmeirim who, upon entering the studio for the first time, found the testimonies of the experience and artistic production of Almada Negreiros.
'It was like entering Ali Ba Ba's cave' Milene Gil tells us because 'in the huddle of books and shelves full of containers to prepare the paints, brushes, dry and twisted paint tubes, there were three wooden boxes full of tins of powdered pigments labeled as “pigments pour la fresque” from the manufacturer LeFranc-Paris. Then the cherry on top of the cake was a chromatic palette hanging on the opposite wall greeting the visitor.
Since then, the studio's assets have been inventoried, photographed and stored by the two descendants and their collaborators, including the HERCULES Laboratory. The painting materials will be studied in the framework of ALMADA’s project. In this first phase, the cans with pigments in powder will be analyzed with a series of microscopic techniques, spectroscopy, fluorescence and X-ray diffraction and the results will be the subject of a future publication.
On the following link, you can have an insight into what it was like to enter the studio in 2017 and discover its estate.
Almada Negreiros Studio in 3D: https://skfb.ly/6FZYt
|
|
|
Foto: Rusty cans with poder pigments from Lefranc found at Almada's studio. Milene Gil 2017 © All rights reserved.
|
|
|
To know
Almada Negreiros and Sarah Affonso, a digital archive
|
|
|
Estate of Almada and Sarah Affonso. Duarte Belo © All rights reserved.
|
|
At www.modernismo.pt, which began as the platform for the project Modernismo online: Orpheu's Generation Virtual Archive, we find today an important digital database of the work of the multifaceted artist José de Almada Negreiros and his wife, the painter Sarah Affonso. It is a virtual repository that provides reproductions of works of art, photographs, correspondence, literary texts, press clippings and other documents from the estate of these two artists.
This archive, which aims to gather documentary sources from the protagonists of Orpheu's generation, began in 2011 in the context of the Institute for Literature and Tradition Studies*, with FCT funding and coordination by Fernando Cabral Martins. Since 2014, it includes the digitiation of literary and artistic magazines published in Portugal, and since 2016, it features the digital edition of texts of poetic theorizing from Fernando Pessoa's estate, kept by the National Library of Portugal.
In 2020, the project Modernismo online started a partnership with the Institute of History of Art (NOVA-FCSH) and, in this context, the estate of Almada Negreiros and Sarah Affonso was placed in the custody of NOVA, where it will be kept and inventoried, digitized, organized and studied by a multidisciplinary team of researchers.
The protocol signed by the director of NOVA FCSH, Francisco Caramelo, and by the granddaughters of Almada Negreiros, Rita and Catarina, will result in the constitution of the Study and Documentation Center Almada Negreiros and Sarah Affonso, which will operate in the former chapel of the Almada Negreiros school, in the campus of Campolide.
Since the beginning of this project and as a result of it, there have been multiple exhibitions and publications, which have contributed to a better understanding and appreciation of the vast work of these two exceptional individuals of Portuguese Modernism.
Text by Cabral Martins
*Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA-FCSH )
|
|
|
Estate of Almada and Sarah Affonso. Duarte Belo © All rights reserved.
|
|
|
To reminder
Videos about Almada Negreiros in the RTP archives:
Fine arts program, integrated in the cycle "Almada Negreiros", dedicated to the mural paintings that the artist produced in the 1940s.
|
|
|
Other news published
- Veja os murais, conheça o artista: Palestra 3.
- Veja os murais, conheça o artista: Palestra 4.
- More that our eyes can reach - Almada Negreiros at different wavelengths with the XpectCAMX02.
- Rita and Catarina Almada Negreiros climb the scaffolding to see Almada's paintings up close.
- Hand’s on Workshop in Heritage Sciences at Gare Maritima de Alcântara and BE Patricio Prazeres School.
- ABOVE THE SCAFFOLDS_UÉ and the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education visit the murals by Almada Negreiros at Gare Marítima de Alcântara
|
|
|
|
