Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
In 1941 Amílcar de Castra became a student of the Law School of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, from which he received his Bachelor's degree in 1945.
Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
In the year 1944, Amílcar de Castra enrolled in the School of Architecture and Fine Arts (now the Guignard University of Art of Minas Gerais).
Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
In 1941 Amílcar de Castra became a student of the Law School of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, from which he received his Bachelor's degree in 1945.
Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
In the year 1944, Amílcar de Castra enrolled in the School of Architecture and Fine Arts (now the Guignard University of Art of Minas Gerais).
Amilcar de Castro.
Amilcar de Castro with his sculpture.
artist sculptor graphic designer
De Castro was born in Paraisópolis, Minas Gerais, Brazil, on June 6, 1920. He was the son of Amilcar Augusto de Castro and Maria Nazareth Pereira de Castro. His father was a judge. Amílcar de Castro was the oldest of seven children. His father’s job required a lot of moving around, which caused the family to live in several cities, until they finally settled in Belo Horizonte in 1935.
Amílcar de Castra was expected to choose a legal profession. In 1941 he became a student of the Law School of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, from which he received his Bachelor's degree in 1945.
However, he abandoned legal studies to pursue a career as a sculptor and a graphic artist. In the year 1944, he enrolled in the School of Architecture and Fine Arts, attending the course of drawing and painting. He was educated by the Brazilian modernist painter Alberto da Veiga Guignard.
De Castro was selected for the 51st National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1945. In two years came the first official recognition of his artistic career after he had participated at the V Hall of Modern Art of the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC), in Rio de Janeiro.
In the early 1950s, Amílcar de Castro moved to Rio de Janeiro, a fussy cultural centre that was then the country's capital, where he embraced the profession of a graphic designer for magazines and newspapers. He became well-known for his redesign of the newspaper Jornal do Brasil.
In 1950, he was part of the 55th National Exhibition of Fine Arts, with works Nu (Nude) and Mascara de Ceschiatti (Mask of Ceschiatti). The following year he presented some of his artworks at the III Salão Baiano de Belas Artes, in Salvador. The same year he became a part of the modern division of the 56th National Exhibition of Fine Arts with a sculpture and two drawings. Besides, during that time he also had a show at the National Exhibition of Concrete Art, organized by Grupo Ruptura in 1956. On March 23, 1959, Amílcar de Castro signed the Neoconcrete Manifesto, which was published in the Sunday Supplement of Jornal do Brasil. The Manifesto was written by Ferreira Gullar. Among people who also signed it were the following: Lygia Pape, Franz Weissmann, Reynaldo Jardim, and Theon Spanudis.
The neoconcrete group organized three exhibitions between 1959 and 1961: in 1959 Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro (MAM-RJ) and Belvedere da Sé (Salvador); in 1960 MEC (Rio de Janeiro); in 1961 the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM-SP). In addition, in 1960 he participated in the international exhibition of concrete art "Konkrete Kunst", organized by Max Bill in Zurich. In 1963 he produced the stage set for the Samba School Estação Primeira de Mangueira, in collaboration with his fellow artists Jackson Ribeiro and Hélio Oiticica.
Mr. de Castro moved to the United States in the late 1960s. In 1969 the artist made a solo exhibit at the Kornblee Gallery, New York. He had other exhibitions at Convent of the Sacred Heart and New York University, both in New York.
At the beginning of the 1970s, he returned to Belo Horizonte, shifting his studio from a cramped office above a stationery store to a larger industrial space, where he had more freedom of movement. Belo Horizonte, then an industrialized city near large steel manufacturing plants and the third largest city in Brazil, was an ideal place for him to create his artworks. He ordered the steel directly from two nearby companies, Acominas and Usiminas.
De Castro resumed drawing works that were initially sculpture projects in 1973. These works were publicly unknown until 1976, when they were presented at the IV Global Winter Show in 1976 in Belo Horizonte. Concurrently, he started to develop acrylic paintings with the use of brushes and brooms. The artist held his first solo exhibit in the country in 1978, showing drawings in the Raquel Arnaud Art Office (São Paulo). The same year he also executed his biggest sculpture of 32m for the city of Ouro Branco, Minas Gerais.
In 1979 Amílcar de Castro took part in the special room of the XV International Biennial of São Paulo. In the year 1984, he was among the participates of the School of Arts and Crafts of Count project - EAOC, Minas Gerais. Project aimed at underprivileged students. However, it was not taken forward by the government authorities.
With the help of Paulo Sergio Duarte, his first retrospective was organized, in the Imperial Palace of Rio de Janeiro in 1989. In 1992, in São Paulo, MASP holds a new retrospective. He made several other exhibits in the 1990s and participated in group exhibitions in Brazil and abroad.
In 2001, he opened his new studio in Nova Lima, Minas Gerais, with the project of the architect Allen Roscoe. His last show was held the same year at the Armazem gallery in the docks of Rio de Janeiro. It included slabs of steel about a foot thick.
Amilcar de Castro established an eminent reputation due to his large-scale sculptures made from thick sheets of iron. Besides, he produced a number of well-known drawings and paintings, which were extensively exhibited not only in his native country but abroad as well.
De Castro was a recipient of a great number of awards. In 1947 he received a Bronze Medal at the V Hall of Modern Art of the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC), in Rio de Janeiro. His another Bronze Medal (Sculpture category) he received at the III Salão Baiano de Belas Artes, Salvador, in 1951.
The artist won the first place in the Sculpture Prize at the National Exhibition of Modern Art of Bahia in 1955. In 1965 de Castro won the Guggenheim Foundation Prize. It was the first time that a Brazilian artist was awarded the grant from the Guggenheim Foundation.
In 1967 he received the Foreign Travel Prize of the XVII National Exhibition of Modern Art (MEC, Rio de Janeiro). In 1971 he won the Guggenheim Foundation scholarship once again. Amilcar de Castro received in the category Drawing, the prize of the Panorama of Brazilian Art, organized by the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM-SP) in 1977. The following year he was awarded in the Sculpture category.
De Castro received the National Award from Funarte - National Art Foundation - and the Ministry of Culture in 1995. In two years, the artist was awarded the first edition of the Johnnie Walker Plastic Arts Prize.
Quotations: "I tried to make sculpture simpler and simpler. I reduced geometric figures to their simplest form - circles and squares. I would cut a piece and bend another. Then I wouldn’t cut, just bend. Then not bend, just injure the surface."
Amílcar de Castro was married to Dorcilia Caldeira Castro. The marriage produced three children.
