Sergio Camargo - Latin America New York Monday, November 24, 2014 | Phillips

Create your first list.

Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

  • Provenance

    Acquired directly from the artist
    Private Collection, Europe
    Private Collection, United Kingdom

  • Catalogue Essay


    The present lot, Untitled (Relief No. 208), 1968, belongs to Sergio Camargo’s signature period, where he focused on structuring monochrome white surfaces with wooden reliefs. This seemingly simple technique transcends painting and sculpture, revealing Camargo’s concentration on geometric abstractions coupled with contrasting lines and shapes. Furthermore, the three-dimensionality of his objects challenges the viewer’s perception of form, resulting in a sensory experience that simultaneously captivates and releases the mind, much like meditation. The work creates a kinetic experience, whereby the viewer’s perception of the object changes in relation to movement around the artwork and visual angle. Lucio Fontana’s influence is also manifested in these works through a modulating dynamic between the optical and the palpable. The implied depth in the present lot combines a complex reflection on mass, volume and light that go beyond the pictorial plane. Camargo’s elegant reliefs reveal an in-depth exploration of sculptural form and painterly abstraction that was influenced by the Brazilian Constructivist movement as well as overarching international modernist trends.

  • Artist Biography

    Sergio Camargo

    Brazilian • 1930 - 1990

    Sergio Camargo was a Brazilian artist known for his sculptures, wall-based reliefs and architectural commissions. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he studied in Buenos Aires and Paris before returning to Brazil in 1950 at which point he became familiar with the Constructivist movement. During the 1960s and 1970s his work became dominated by wooden, terracotta, marble and stone forms, cylindrical or cuboid in shape, jutting out in relief with geometric precision from monochrome white surfaces. The interjecting lines created across the white surfaces by shadow and light evoke the interplay of alternating modes of rationality and chaos, fullness and emptiness. The three-dimensional constructions are meticulous in their use of color and form, simultaneously minimalist in order and expansive in their study of volume and light.

    View More Works

17

Untitled (Relief No. 208)

1968
painted wood
20 1/8 x 20 1/8 x 7 1/8 in. (51.1 x 51.1 x 18.1 cm.)
Signed, inscribed and dated "Camargo Paris 68 no 208" on the reverse. This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Galeria Raquel Arnaud, numbered 12581.

Estimate
$120,000 - 180,000 

Sold for $149,000

Contact Specialist
Laura González
Director of Latin American Art
New York
+1 212 940 1216

Latin America

New York Auction 24 November 2014 2pm