de Castro, Amilcar (1920–2002)
de Castro, Amilcar (1920–2002)
A product of the modernist movement in the arts in Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the 1940s, the sculptor and designer Amilcar de Castro was one of several artists to sign the manifesto of Neoconcretismo (the Neoconcrete Movement) in 1959. He was part of a group of prominent young artists and writers, such as Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape, and Sergio de Camargo, who advocated for a freer, nondogmatic, less rational vision of art and language. During the 1950s De Castro began to reform the field of graphic design through his work for the popular photojournal Manchete and the magazine A Cigarra. During the 1960s he was a designer for several newspapers.
As a sculptor, De Castro earned national and international recognition for his innovative and eclectic use of nonconventional materials, including iron, in his colossal works. From the 1970s on, he was a professor at the Escola Guinard in Belo Horizonte and the School of Art in the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. His works were shown at many international exhibitions in Brazil as well as at the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo and the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro.
See alsoArt: The Twentieth Century; Camargo, Sergio de; Clark, Lygia; Modernism, Brazil; Pape, Lygia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Amaral, Aracy, ed. Arte construtiva no Brasil. São Paulo: DBA, 1998.
Mirzoeff, Nicholas, ed. The Visual Culture Reader. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.
Paula Halperin