Waltércio Caldas

Critical text

Waltércio Caldas (b. 1946, Rio de Janeiro) has emerged since the 1960s as a figure of reference in the field of Brazilian Neo-Concretism. His work stands out for its quality of construction, original range of materials and painstaking investigation of the dynamics of perception. His two-dimensional and sculptural research reveals an architectural approach guided not so much by the search for forthright, formal geometric rigor as by the desire to create a fluid space of encounter between the work and the viewer. The contrast between the precision of the lines and volumes and the materials utilized – varying from steel to twine, granite to ice or fabric – triggers a dialectic between the dimensions of permanence and the ephemeral, destabilizing any single perception of the work and opening it to a discourse that is phenomenological in nature. Every work by Caldas contains a multiple dimension, suspended between emptiness and fullness, between the sense of the real and the possibility of interpretation. On an international level, the artist has taken part many times in the Biennials of Sao Paulo and Mercosul, as well as the 47th and 52nd Venice Biennale.

Text by Lorenzo Giusti