Brief Biography-Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso was born in Amarante, Portugal in 1887. In 1905, he studied at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts for a one year period before going to Paris with the financial support of his family. There he learned in the studios of the Académie des Beaux-Arts and spent some time in Brussels. He made many acquaintances with prominent artists, such as, Umberto Boccioni, Amedeo Modigliaini, Robert Delaunay and Juan Gris, to name but a few of his associates and friends. It is suspected that he influenced several notable artists as much as he was influenced by them.
He exhibited with the Société des Artistes Indépendants in 1911, and in 1913 he had commercial success with the Armory Show in America, which was a new International Exhibition of Modern Art. The show went from New York to Chicago and on to Boston, he was the third highest selling painter of the exhibition. Following a journey to Spain, he returned to his family home in Manhufe village, Amarante in 1914, he remained there whilst the war raged, but he died at the young age of thirty from Spanish flu in 1918. His works went into oblivion after 1914, not to generally emerge again until the 1980s, after his wife’s death.
There is a resemblance between his painting ‘Superposition vessel’ and Charles Demuth’s ‘I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold’ 1928, and some of his other works, Demuth stated his painting was inspired by the poem 'The Great Figure' which is no doubt true, however it is likely he would have at least seen Cardoso’s works. Other artist’s paintings, which are too many to mention, including a present day Irish artist, also bare an influence from his works. - David Madden