Artist. Almada Negreiros is a unique figure in the Portuguese artistic scene of the 20th century. Besides literature and painting, he developed ballet choreographies, and worked on tapestry, engraving, murals, caricature, mosaic, azulejo and stained glass. Born José Sobral de Almada Negreiros, he was the son of a Portuguese military officer and a Santomean woman. His mother died when he was 3 years old. In 1900 he entered a Jesuit boarding school in Campolide, Lisbon. After the October 5, 1910 Republican Revolution, the school was closed and Almada Negreiros entered the Escola Internacional (International School), also in Lisbon. In 1913 he had his first individual exhibition, showing 90 drawings. In 1915, along with Fernando Pessoa and Mário de Sá-Carneiro, he published poems and texts in the "Orpheu" artistic magazine, which would introduce Modernist literature and art in Portugal. The same year, Almada Negreiros wrote the famous "Manifesto Anti-Dantas e por extenso", a humorous attack against a more traditionalist and bourgeois older generation. In 1915 the artist also conceived "O Sonho da Rosa" ("Rosa's Dream") ballet. In 1917, with the aim of introducing the Portuguese public to Futuristic aesthetics, Almada Negreiros published, together with Santa-Rita Pintor, the "Portugal Futurista" magazine, writing "Ultimatum Futurista, às gerações portuguezas do século XX" ("Futurist ultimatum to the Portuguese generations of the 20th century"). He also promoted a conference, the "Sessão Futurista" ("Futurist Session"), where he appeared wearing a flight suit. Between 1918 and 1920 Almada Negreiros lived in Paris. To support himself, he worked as a dancer and as a factory worker. In 1920 he returned to Lisbon. In 1925 he produced two paintings for one of the most famous cafés in Lisbon, A Brasileira. In 1927 he went to Madrid where he wrote for several Spanish publications, including "Cronica" and "La Farsa". Around this same time he wrote "El Uno, tragédia de la Unidad". Back in Portugal, in the following years his artistic productions were wide and prolific as he became a key artist in Portuguese modern art, influenced by Cubism and, mainly, by Futurism. His role during António de Oliveira Salazar's authoritarian regime was however ambiguous, acting both as an "aligned" artist (doing public mural paintings or propaganda posters) and a provocative critic of Portuguese society of the time. In 1934 he married painter Sarah Afonso. Re-settled for good in Portugal, he would continue in his role as "artistic agitator" within the oppressed society that was Portugal until the time of his death. In 1934 the couple had their first child, a son, named José Afonso de Almada Negreiros. Their second and last child, a daughter, named Ana Paula de Almada Negreiros, was born in 1942. He was also, if only occasionally, an actor and a dancer, understanding that all forms of art are intimately linked. Almada Negreiros always called himself a Futurist artist, inspired by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and other modern artists. However, his style is wider, and does not fit easily into a category. Adding to this modern approach his works also revealed a decorative and arabesque richness, and sometimes a geometrical abstraction. His public art was often politically engaged, as his mural "Gare Marítima de Alcântara" shows. Many of his paintings and drawings show common people in daily affairs or attitudes usual in socialist art. His work as a visual artist extended to tapestry, printmaking, theatre and ballet scenography. An important part of his artistic production was literary. Almada Negreiros wrote novels, poems, playwrights, essays and manifests that were, in his lifetime, published in books, magazines, newspapers or even low-cost booklets and flyers. In his novels and plays the daily affairs of people appear between a sense of the absurd and non-sense that can be related to earlier writers like Eugène Ionesco or Arthur Adamov. His literary work is highly evolved with his artistic view, often visual and "geometric" in his descriptions and backgrounds. His manifests were highly provocative, like the aforementioned "Manifesto Anti-Dantas e por extenso", a humorous and aggressive text against Júlio Dantas, a major figure of arts and culture of Salazar's regime, which stands as a banner against mediocrity and conformism. He also wrote essays on the theory of colors, the Portuguese antique painting, geometry and gave numerous conferences on cultural matters. A heavy smoker, he died of heart failure on June 15, 1970, at the age of 77, in Hospital de São Luís dos Franceses, in Lisbon. He was originally buried in Olivais Cemetery, being later moved to a family mausoleum in Alto de São João Cemetery, on November 28, 1975.