The friendship, influences, common and divergent concerns and aesthetics between the works of Amadeo Souza-Cardoso and the Delaunay couple are the theme of the exhibition “Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, Sonia and Robert Delaunay. Correspondences”.
The result of a partnership between the Center Pompidou and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the exhibition integrates Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso into the Parisian avant-garde before the First War, and can be seen on the fourth floor of the Center Pompidou, until September 9th. The selection brings together 15 works by Amadeo, five by Sonia and six by Robert Delaunay and is curated by Helena de Freitas, from CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, and Angela Lampe and Sophie Goetzmann from Center Pompidou.
Born in Manhufe, in November 1887, Amadeu Souza-Cardoso arrived in Paris in 1906, after having studied in Amarante, Coimbra, and in Lisbon, at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
Son of a powerful, rich and religious family from the rural bourgeoisie, Souza-Cardoso absorbed the modernity that was experienced in the French capital at the time and reflected it in his works. In 1911, the young painter introduced himself to the couple Sonia and Robert Delaunay, with whom he developed a long friendship. This dynamic between the three, not without its surprises, became closer in Portugal, when the Delaunay couple, to escape the war, found refuge in the north of Porto, from 1915 onwards. The Portuguese painter became a frequent visitor from the Delaunay family home and from there some common projects were born.
In the Center Pompidou’s text about the exhibition, in which works by the three artists are brought together side by side, the closeness between the Portuguese painter, who disappeared prematurely in 1918, victim of the Spanish flu, and the couple of artists is defended: “At first , its colorful and decorative style, influenced by Fauvism, was similar to the portraits made at the same time by Sonia Delaunay. At the same time, Souza-Cardoso and Robert Delaunay shared an interest in architecture, angular and geometric shapes, painted with monochromatic palettes. On the eve of war, their investigation moves in a very similar direction, centered on the abstract study of light and color.”
Over the years, spent in Portugal, “the three moved away from abstraction, gradually re-introducing figurative elements into their compositions, drawing more inspiration from popular art and culture, in the case of Souza-Cardoso, and in the case of Sonia in local crafts.”
One of the 15 works by Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso that can be seen, Knights (Cavaliers), from 1913, belongs to the Center Pompidou itself, and was donated by Sonia and her son.
The exhibition also includes the correspondence exchanged, from 1913 to 1917, between Sonia Delaunay, Robert Delaunay and Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso and contextualizes its importance for understanding the works on display.
Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso had already been presented in Paris, in 2016, at the Grand Palais.
