Page 46 - Studio International - March 1965

Europe is the hotbed of art

1 London Commentary by G. S. Whittet

Art is a flower that often benefits from transplanting. is parallel or at right-angles to every other. In another.
Cross-fertilization of ideas and images are common­ the angles will be jumbled with here and there a tiny
place but more than a little influential is the finding of a vertical pillar punctuating the mass.
stimulating atmosphere. a congenial ambience where Like other contemporary sculptors using un­
talent can find its manure from appreciation and the conventional materials such as Kemeny and David
genuine interest of fellow-creators. This is how Paris Partridge, Carmargo guides light and shade to lend
had and still maintains its attraction for artists though movement to his third dimension. The tonal change
its dealers seem to have lost their flair for finding them. varies from the faintest paling of the painted white
Sergio de Camargo is a young sculptor from Brazil. a wood to the comparative black of its deepest cross­
carioca who has lived in Paris since 1961 and who won shadowing. Some reliefs use little cylinders set broadly
the international sculpture prize at the Biennale there in in facetted waves with more calm effect. others isolate
1963. He held his first one-man exhibition in Europe just one split column that creates with its shadow an
at the Signals Gallery in Wigmore Street. impressive singularity placed in its seemingly pre­
At first glance the impression of his reliefs hung on ordained proportion of the white ground.
the wall is of assemblage composed from the ruins of a Frankly erotic yet with its inordinate delicacy is the
1 miniature Doric temple. Wooden cylinders of varying relief titled Couple proving yet again that the shadow.
Giacomo Manzu thicknesses are cut on the bias and glued to a flat never the highlights. reveals the form. In his youthful
Painrer wirh Model. 1957
17¾ X 23½ in. support. In their glaring whiteness they could be sensitivity Camargo generates inventiveness; he is no
Hanover Gallery Carrera marble but their apparent disorder harbours an slave to a formula as we know from his plaster cast for
2
Camargo ordered scheme that is almost classic Cubism. Though a sombre winged sculpture and other images in the
Relief number 19/46. 1964 we shall search in vain for the suggestion of a form round. He is no Vasarely in relief; as I have said. he is a
Painted wood 33½ x 24 ,n.
Signals Gallery allusive to life. we find none the less that each relief has carioca who lives and works in Paris with a keen yet
3 its own intrinsic image. In one. for example. we see unhurried zest for life and art. He is one to watch.
Camargo
Relief ·couple' number 1. 1964 that though each truncated cylinder is set at angle to At the Commonwealth Institute gallery. with its
Painted wood 32¼ 24 in.
Signals Gallery the plane of the base. viewed from the front. each axis perfect lighting. 'Indian Painting Now· brought together
126