Exhibition running from May 10th until September 18th 2018

Curatorship by António Pedro Mendes

Primner Gallery premieres with the Brazilian artist Amilcar de Castro [Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1920-2002], famous for his “corte-dobra” (one cut, one fold) sculptures. De Castro develops this kind of work up until his death. He expresses the lightness of a sheet of paper on his steel sculptures, creating numerous variations of the same plane.

Amilcar de Castro was one of the most prolific artists to work with the constructive legacy within the Brazilian Art Scene. De Castro was a cosigner of the Manifesto neoconcreto [Neoconcrete manifesto] in 1959, alongside the poet Ferreira de Gullar and the visual artists Lygia Clark and Lygia Pape.

Having its main expression in Rio de Janeiro, the Neoconcretists have distanced themselves from the rigid rationalist characteristic of the Concretism developed by the group from São Paulo, being more open to the organic, to subjectivity, to experimentation and to the incorporation of feelings between the artist, the observer and the artwork.

Despite being less known in Portugal and in the rest of Europe, he participated in landmark moments of postwar Brazilian art such as the 2nd Bienal de São Paulo (1953) and the Exposição Nacional de Arte Concreta [National Exhibition of Concrete Art] (1956).

He also participated in the international Konkrete Kunst exhibition in Zurich. Also in 1968, he went to the USA on a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation scholarship. Later, he went back to Brazil, and established himself in Belo Horizonte.

Exhibition presented in partnership with Instituto Amilcar de Castro