Metallic Vibrations c. 1915 - 1916

Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso made this painting, "Metallic Vibrations," with oil on canvas. The artist uses a bold palette and dynamic mark-making, which feels so process-oriented, like a visual record of thought itself. There's a real material presence in this piece. See how the colors aren't blended smoothly but sit next to each other, creating this vibrating energy? The texture is fairly smooth, but you can still see the directional brushstrokes, especially in the darker areas. It’s like the artist is showing us the architecture of the painting itself, the way it's constructed layer by layer. Look at the bottom of the composition, how the paint drips and congeals. It’s like he’s letting the painting be a painting, embracing the mess and the physicality of the medium. Souza-Cardoso was playing with the visual language of the avant-garde at the time, I'm thinking of artists like Picabia, or maybe even some of the Italian Futurists. It's like he’s saying, "Here’s a painting, but it’s also a construction, a process, a vibration." It's this openness to interpretation that makes art so endlessly fascinating, isn't it?