ART CITIES:Paris-Waltercio Caldas
Working in a variety of mediums, Waltercio Caldas examines the physical qualities of objects and spaces, challenging the assumptions viewers bring to the act of looking. He defines his practice as the act of sculpting the distance between objects, inverting the conventional definition of sculpture as a dense, self-contained volume. Above all, simplicity and formal precision define his art, qualities that speak to his aim to produce what he describes as “maximally” present work through minimal action.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Galerie Xippas Archive
A selection of recent works by the Brazilian artist Waltercio Caldas is on presentation at the Galerie Xippas in Paris. Born in 1946 Waltercio Caldas, a major figure on Brazil’s contemporary art scene, had his first amateur exhibition in the early ‘60s at the Student’s Council of the Philosophy Course at Rio de Janeiro State University, a period marked by the Neo-Concrete Movement. And in 1964, Caldas began studying under Ivan Serpa at the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro. For 50 years now, the process of perception and the relations between the gaze and reflection have been at the heart of his work, where extremely pure and almost minimalist forms coexist with a conceptual complexity. In 1973, Caldas had his first solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro which he was widely commended for. Ronaldo Brito wrote about the exhibition and commented that Caldas’ work encouraged the viewer to not just look at the art, but contemplate it as well as it evoked a moment of “psychic bewilderment” in the viewer. Also at this time, Caldas edited “Malasartes”, a short-lived magazine that became a landmark in the Brazilian artistic scene. Caldas moved to New York in 1985 where he experimented with non-transparent sculpture material. Caldas then returned to Brazil the following year. In 1989, Caldas installed its first public sculpture “The Instant Garden” in Carmo Park, São Paulo. In 1990, Caldas had his first solo show in Europe, drawings at the Pulitzer Gallery in Amsterdam. Caldas then completed his second public commission sculpture, “Omkring” in 1994, in Leirfjord, Norway. The sculptures by Waltercio Caldas’ that are on show, outline objects whose very essence is left undefined. In “Wings” (2008), steel circles hung on the wall, like a kind of anchoring point, and linked together with cotton strings, create geometric shapes both simple and ephemeral. Through the setting up of only lines and points, this piece alludes to emptiness and silence. In “Blue glasses” (2012) steel structures outline glasses without showing the physical objects, pushes the paradox between presence and absence and between transparency and opacity to its extreme. This paradox is reinforced through a play on mirrors, a recurrent technique in his work. The title becomes an integral part of Waltercio Caldas’s work. Language introduces a new approach, that of reading, and also confers another dimension to the word. For instance, in “Not now” (2014), words and steel rods create an inseparable ensemble and enter into a game of repetitions, reflections and transparency. This use of language, both poetic and conceptual, also allows Caldas to introduce references to art history. The titles of his sculptures often allude to names of artists, such as “Brancusi” (2014), and trigger a reflection on the work of art itself, on the distance between art and art history.
Info: Galerie Xippas, 108 rue Vieille du Temple, Paris, Duration: 2/12/17-3/2/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-13:00 & 14:00-19:00, Sat 10:00-19:00, www.xippas.com
