One of the biggest names in sculpture, an icon of the Brazilian neo-concrete movement next to Lygia Clark and Helio Oiticica, Amilcar de Castro (1920-2002) was the selected artist by the gallery for our Spotlight project at Frieze NY 2017. The cut-out of this Project would be Amilcar’s production in the 60s and 70s, having the starting point the period when he moves to the USA, right after being awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Award/bursary. It was during this time (1968-1970) that he began exploring new materials such as copper, wood and iron, as it was hard to find corten steel in America, a material that he was used to.

This experience was of great importance for upon his return to Brazil it enabled him to have a more smooth control of the steel, no welding, making use of only the cutting and folding of the material.

Besides the sculptures, his drawings and paintings were deeply affected during the 70s. Using only black and white until then, he starts for the first time to use color in his works. All these changes had a meaningful effect in Amilcar de Castro’s works and were present on his research until the end.