Willys de Castro (February 16, 1926 – June 5, 1988) was a Brazilian visual artist, poet, graphic designer, industrial designer, stage designer and magazine editor.[1][2][3] De Castro is best known for his "Active object" series and is considered to be a pioneer and founding contributor of the
Neo-Concrete Movement.[4][5]
Early life and education
De Castro was born in
Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil. He was the second of six children born to Henrique de Castro and Cacilda de Souza Castro.[1]: 198 [3] His father was a businessman who owned a gas station, a used car dealership, and a perfumery in
Uberlândia.[6]
De Castro began to show an interest in the arts at a very early age and began to study the piano at the age of four. In the mid 1930s de Castro's family relocated from Uberlândia to
Campinas, São Paulo after a fire destroyed the family perfumery. In Campinas de Castro studied music with Salvador Bove. During this time he also studied drawing under André Fort.[3][6]
In 1941, when he was fifteen years old, de Castro moved to
São Paulo to study Chemistry and Industrial design. From 1944 to 1945, he worked as a technical draftsman.[7] In 1948, de Castro received a degree in
Industrial Chemistry.[1] For a brief period upon graduation de Castro worked as an industrial chemist for
Esso but left his position to pursue his artistic interests.[3]
Career
After leaving
Esso to focus on music and graphic arts de Castro began to study
dodecaphonic music with
Hans-Joachim Koellreutter. De Castro created his first
geometric abstract drawings in 1950 and for the rest of the first half of the 1950s continued to create paintings and textiles inspired by abstract art.[8]: 246 [9] During this time de Castro signed his music compositions and graphic artworks using the pseudonym "Souza Castro."[3]
In 1952 de Castro began to work at the Alfredo Mesquita School of Dramatic Arts where he served as composer, singer, poet, and graphic designer. That same year some of de Castro's original musical compositions were performed at the Institute Caetano de Campos. The following year he composed the musical score for "The Clerk," a mimodrama produced by the students of the Alfredo Mesquita School of Dramatic Arts.[3] That same year de Castro created his first
concrete art works.[8]: 246
In 1954 together with his life partner and fellow artist
Hércules Barsotti, de Castro founded Estúdio de Projectos Gráficos, an advertising design consultancy.[9][10][11] While working at Estúdio de Projectos Gráficos, which operated until 1964, de Castro focused on graphic design as well as object design.[12]
In 1954 de Castro was a founding member of the Brazilian musical group "Ars Nova." Under the direction of
Diogo Pacheco Ars Nova focused on circulating obscure medieval and contemporary musical compositions. De Castro sang
baritone and acted as the graphic designer for the group.[7][3] During this time de Castro began creating concrete poetry and in 1955 published a book of his concrete poems.[3]
De Castro was designer and director of the Brazilian theater magazine "Teatro brasileiro."[8][12]
From 1959 to 1962, de Castro developed his "Active object" series.[1]
In 1963 together with
Hércules Barsotti,
Lothar Charoux,
Waldemar Cordeiro,
Luiz Sacilotto among others, De Castro became one of the founders of the São Paulo based art gallery Associação de Artes Visuais Novas Tendências which operated until 1965. Associação de Artes Visuais Novas Tendências was founded and managed by artists working within the Concrete and Neo-Concrete movements but did not solely feature Concrete and Neo-Concrete art. The galleries goal was to provide a space and platform for contemporary art to be presented outside the confines of any particular artistic movement.[4][13]
De Castro is also noted for his series of works titled "Pluriobjetos" which he began in 1970. De Castro's "Pluriobjetos" were first exhibited in 1983 at Gabinete de Artes Gráficas Raquel Arnaud Babenco in São Paulo.[12][14]
Selected exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
1983: Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud Babenco (São Paulo, Brazil)
1988: "Aventuras da ordem: Hércules Barsotti e Willys de Castro," Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud Babenco (São Paulo, Brazil)
1994: Obras de 1954 – 1961, Galeria Silvio Nery (São Paulo, Brazil)
2006: "Rhythm of Color. Alejandro Otero and Willys de Castro. Two Modern Masters in the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros,"
Aspen Institute (Aspen, Colorado)
2009: "Desenho e Design: Amilcar de Castro e Willys de Castro," Instituto de Arte Contemporânea (São Paulo, Brazil)
2016: "Willys de Castro: From paintings to objects 1950–1965," Cecilia Brunson Projects (London, England) – October 8 – December 9, 2016
Group exhibitions
1957:
São Paulo Art Biennial / IV Bienal Internacional de Arte de São Paulo (São Paulo, Brazil)
1960: "Konkrete Kunst: 50 Jahre Entwicklung" (Zurich, Austria) – traveling exhibition, June 8 – August 14, 1960
1961:
São Paulo Art Biennial / VI Bienal Internacional de Arte de São Paulo (São Paulo, Brazil)
1973:
São Paulo Art Biennial / XII Bienal Internacional de Arte de São Paulo (São Paulo, Brazil)
^
abcPérez-Barreiro, Gabriel (exhibition curator); Locke, Adrian (exhibition curator); Lea, Sarah (exhibition curator); García, María Amalia; Whitelegg, Isobel (2014). Radical Geometry: Modern Art of South America from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection. London: Royal Academy of Arts.
ISBN978-1-907-53369-3.
OCLC889949567.
^
abcBois, Yve-Alain (2001). Geometric Abstraction: Latin American Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection = Abstracción Geométrica: Arte Latinoamericano en la Coloección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (Exhibition catalog) (in English and Spanish). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
ISBN978-0-300-08990-5.
OCLC298342818.
^
abcJiménez, Ariel (2003). GEO-METRÍAS. Abstracción Geométrica Latinoamericana en la Colección Cisneros (MALBA) (Exhibition catalog) (in Spanish and English). Caracas: Fundación Cisneros.
ISBN978-9-879-76774-0.
OCLC52823665.
^Conduru, Roberto (2005). Willys de Castro. São Paulo, SP: Cosac & Naify.
ISBN9788575034033.
^Arnaud, Raquel; Naves, Rodrigo (2005). Raquel Arnaud e o olhar contemporâneo. São Paulo, SP: Cosac & Naify.
ISBN978-8575034408.
Further reading
Bois, Yve-Alain (2001). Geometric Abstraction: Latin American Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection = Abstracción Geométrica: Arte Latinoamericano en la Coloección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (Exhibition catalog) (in English and Spanish). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
ISBN978-0-300-08990-5.
OCLC298342818.
Pérez-Barreiro, Gabriel; Locke, Adrian; García, María Amalia; Whitelegg, Isobel (2014). Radical Geometry: Modern Art of South America from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection. New York, NY/Caracas, Venezuela: Fundación Cisneros/Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.
ISBN9781907533709.