Collage with geometrical studies

These studies of proportions, based on photographs of the paintings belonging to the imagined altarpiece for the Batalha Monastery, have the function of highlighting proximities between the dimensions of the various works. They belong to a set of works on this theme (see ANSA-A-1232 to ANSA-A-1259) that reflects multiple studies in the author’s notebooks.  

The collages are dynamic and rather unusual; they place the paintings sideways, upside down or in apparently random positions, depending always on the relationships between proportions that Almada intends to discover and reveal.  After obtaining the paintings’ measurements from the Museum itself, and having made countless photographic reproductions of the works, he plays with the heights, widths and diagonals of the rectangles of each of the compositions. The images are accompanied by lines illustrating this “play” and annotations -  such as axis or chanfer/bevel -  regarding the relative positioning of the works in a large altarpiece reconstitution, also authored by Almada and published in 1960.

ANSA-A-1233

c. 1958

Graphite and photographs on cardboard

50 x 65 cm

Private collection | Photography ©António Coelho