29/10/16
Interview with Cecilia Brunson
Willys de Castro: From Paintings to Objects, 1950-65
Cecilia Brunson Projects
8 October – 9 December 2016
Cecilia Brunson
(b1972, Santiago de Chile) set up her gallery space in Bermondsey, south
London, in September 2014, and focuses her exhibitions on Latin American
artists who have been successful at home and in the US but remain little known
in the UK and Europe. Willys de Castro (1926-88) is a perfect example, being
pivotal in the neo-concrete movement of the 1950s and 60s, but never having had
a solo show in London.
The exhibition is
entitled From Paintings to Objects, 1950-65, and the works on show demonstrate
de Castro’s transition between paintings and sketches and his so-called Objetos
Ativos, or Active Objects series, through which he sought to create a
participatory viewer, who would engage both physically and phenomenologically
with his works, moving around them and experiencing them as objects.
The exhibition is part of a series,
Perspectives of Modern and Contemporary Art from Brazil, by Cecilia Brunson
Projects in collaboration with Almeida e Dale Gallery in São Paulo, which aims
to highlight the contribution of Brazilian artists to 20th-century art. De
Castro follows in the footsteps of Claudio Tozzi and Alfredo Volpi shown
earlier this year.
Brunson spoke to Studio
International about de Castro’s legacy, the significance of hosting a show of
his works right now, and her hopes for the series and her gallery as a whole.
Watch this interview here