Sergio CAMARGO (1930-1990) - Lot 28

Sergio CAMARGO (1930-1990) Relief, 1964 Painted wood Dedicated, signed and dated below: pour Chevalier / Très amicalement / Camargo Paris 64. Inscription in felt-tip pen below: D. 1995.3.7. 28 x 19 x 13 cm The certificate of authenticity from Galerie Raquel Arnaud will be given to the purchaser. PROVENANCE: gift of the artist to Denys Chevalier (1921-1978); estate of Denys Chevalier. EXHIBITIONS: La collection Eva et Denys Chevalier, Meudon, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, 1995, n°16; on deposit at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de la Ville de Meudon, Département du Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. BIBLIOGRAPHY: La collection Eva et Denys Chevalier, exhibition catalogue, Meudon, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, 1995, no. 16, p. 22 (repr.). RELATED LITERATURE: Denys Chevalier, "Carmargo", Aujourd'hui : Art et Architecture, Paris, no. 46, July 1964, p. 71; Denys Chevalier, "Camargo's Art of Lyrical Light", Signals, London, no. 5, December 1964 - January 1965; Sculptures récentes de Sergio de Camargo à la Galerie Bellechasse, Paris, cat. exp, Paris, Galerie Bellechasse,1982; Ronaldo BRITO, Sergio Camargo, São Paulo: Cosac & Naify Edições, 2000; Sergio Camargo: percurso escultórico, cat. exp, Curitiba, Museo Oscar Niemeyer, 2012; Mathilde Desvages, Le Salon de la Jeune Sculpture (1949-1978) au temps de Denys Chevalier (1921-1978), PhD thesis under the direction of Paul-Louis Rinuy, Université Paris 8 Vincennes - Saint-Denis, defended September 2016; Mathilde Desvages, Œuvrer pour la sculpture. La collection Denys et Eva Chevalier, Paris, Éditions Mare & Martin, 2024. Born in 1930 in Rio de Janeiro, Sergio de Camargo studied at the Altamira Academy in Buenos Aires in the studios of Emilio Pettoruti and Lucio Fontana. A first trip to Paris in 1948, followed by a stay there in 1952-1953, enabled him to meet Brancusi, Arp and Laurens, attend sculptor Emmanuel Auricoste's classes at La Grande Chaumière, not far from Zadkine's, and take Gaston Bachelard's philosophy classes at the Sorbonne, before returning to Brazil and traveling to the United States. He set up his studio in Paris between 1961 and 1973. During this period, he attended Pierre Francastel's sociology of art classes at the Sorbonne. Deeply influenced by Constructivism and the teachings of Lucio Fontana, Camargo turned to abstract sculpture and, in particular, the direct carving of pure forms. After 1973, he returned to Brazil for good, devoting himself to his work, working closely with artists and art critics. From 1961 onwards, he began a new series of Reliefs, characteristic of his art, made from white-painted wood, on which small elements of white-painted cylinders are more or less partially arranged on the surface, which he cuts and assembles. The contrast between the rough surfaces of the wood and those organized and constructed by means of cylindrical reliefs is accentuated by light. This dialogue is one of his main themes, and one that he will continue to explore throughout his artistic life. In Paris, he became close to the Groupe de Recherche en Art Visuel (GRAV), whose members included François Morellet, Julio Le Parc and Vera Molnar, who explored the boundaries between sculpture and painting. He participated in numerous exhibitions, notably at Galerie Denise René, and won successive awards: in 1964 at the Paris Biennale, in 1965 at the São Paulo Biennale, in 1966 at the Venice Biennale and in 1968 at Documenta in Kassel. Our Relief is dedicated under the base "pour Chevalier / Très amicalement / Camargo Paris 64". In 1963, Camargo exhibited a Relief at the Salon de la Jeune Sculpture, presided over by art critic Denys Chevalier. In 1964, he presented a set of Reliefs for which he was awarded the Grand Prix de Sculpture at the Paris Biennale. In July 1964, Denys Chevalier published an article in Aujourd'hui: Art et Architecture: "Dematerialized, Camargo's art uses only impersonal elements. So where does his obvious presence and blatant lyricism come from? If not from light, which is ultimately much more than sand or wood, both his material and his tool. [...] A real punctuation animates the composition [...]. In his most recent works, Camargo has introduced beaches, like zones of silence. Through this reintervention of space, the sculptor envisages the destruction of the plane. To mark the publication of this article, Camargo presented Denys Chevalier with this Relief, dated 64 and dedicated to him, in gratitude for his contribution to the magazine. The article was published in English a few months later in the rev.