Amílcar Augusto Pereira de Castro (6 June 1920 – 21 November 2002) was a Brazilian artist, sculptor and

graphic designer A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming ...

Early life and education

Born in

Paraisópolis Paraisópolis is a city in Minas Gerais, Brazil, with a population (2020) of 21,221. The municipality contains part of the Fernão Dias Environmental Protection Area, created in 1997. See also * List of municipalities in Minas Gerais Th ...

, Minas Gerais,

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Amilcar de Castro was the child of a judge and the oldest of seven children. Having moved to Belo Horizonte in 1934 he graduated in law from the

Federal University of Minas Gerais The Federal University of Minas Gerais (, UFMG) is a federalIn the Brazilian Higher Education context, ''Federal'' does not mean ''collegiate'' (even though most Federal Universities in Brazil enjoy a similarly collegiate system), but it means ...

(UFMG) in 1945. He frequented the Escola Guignard from 1944 to 1950 where he studied design with Alberto Guignard and figurative sculpture with Franz Weissman.

Career

Moving to Rio de Janeiro in 1953 de Castro began his career as a graphic designer with the magazines "Manchete" and "A Cigarra." He carried out the graphic redesign of the ''

Jornal do Brasil ''Jornal do Brasil'', widely known as ''JB'', is a daily newspaper published by Editora JB in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The paper was founded in 1891 and is the third oldest extant Brazilian paper, after the ''Diário de Pernambuco'' and ''O Esta ...

'' newspaper in 1957–1959. In the sixties, though he was increasingly artistically more focused on sculpture, he undertook graphic design for several other Brazilian newspapers as well as working as a book designer for the publisher Editora Vozes. From the late 1950s he focused on sculpture and was one of the leading figures of the Brazilian

Neo-Concrete Movement The Neo-Concrete Movement (1959–1961) was a Brazilian art movement, a group that splintered off from the larger Concrete Art movement prevalent in Latin America and in other parts of the world. The Neo-Concretes emerged from Rio de Janeiro’s ...

. He participated in exhibitions with this group in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, in 1956. In 1959 he was one the signatories of the Neo-Concrete Manifesto alongside

Ferreira Gullar José Ribamar Ferreira (September 10, 1930 – December 4, 2016), known by his pen name Ferreira Gullar, was a Brazilian poet, playwright, essayist, art critic, and television writer. In 1959, he was instrumental in the formation of the Neo-Conc ...

Franz Weissmann Franz Josef Weissmann (September 15, 1911 – July 18, 2005) was a Brazilian sculptor born in Austria, emigrating to Brazil while he was eleven years old. Geometric shapes, like cubes and squares, are strongly featured in his works. He was on ...

Lygia Clark Lygia Pimentel Lins (23 October 1920 – 25 April 1988), better known as Lygia Clark, was a Brazilian artist best known for her painting and Installation art, installation work. She was often associated with the Brazilian Constructivist moveme ...

Lygia Pape Lygia Pape (7 April 1927 – 3 May 2004) was a Brazilian visual artist, sculptor, engraver, and filmmaker, who was a key figure in the Concrete movement and a later co-founder of the Neo-Concrete Movement in Brazil during the 1950s and 1960 ...

, Reynaldo Jardim, and Theon Spanudis which was published on 22 of March 1959 in ''Jornal do Brazil.'' After receiving a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation and the "Foreign Travel" prize at the 15th National Salon for Modern Art in 1957 he travelled to the United States, basing himself in New Jersey. In 1971 he returned to Belo Horizonte dedicating himself to artistic and educational activities. He directed the Escola Guignard Foundation from 1974 to 1977 where he taught "bidimensional and tridimensional expression." He was Professor of Sculpture at the UFMG School of Fine Arts from 1979 to 1990 and of Sculpture at the Art Foundation of Ouro Preto-FAOP in 1979. One of his students was Shirley Paes Leme.

Output

De Castro is particularly famous for large, bold simple iron forms nearly always characterized by a design based on "one cut, one fold." His method can be linked both to his earlier work with graphic design and paper, and to the mining heritage of his home state of Minas Gerais. De Castro did not just produce steel sculptures, he also used wood, marble and glass. Reflecting his training under Alberto Guignard and his work as a graphic designer, he also produced thousands of graphic works, drawings prints and large scale paintings, as well as objects and jewelry.

Personal life

De Castro was married to Dorcilia Caldeira Castro. They had three children. He died in

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte is the List of largest cities in Brazil, sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population of around 2.3 million, and the third largest metropolitan area, containing a population of 6 million. It is the List of cities in Sout ...

on 21 November 2002.

Selected works

* , 1960

References

External links

Amilcar de Castro
at Arevalo Gallery
Amilcar de Castro
at Frieze {{DEFAULTSORT:Castro, Amilcar 1920 births 2002 deaths People from Minas Gerais Brazilian contemporary artists 20th-century Brazilian sculptors 20th-century Brazilian male artists