Sérgio Camargo's profound concern with the relationship of opposites finds full expression in these delicate wood constructions: plane and volume, stasis and movement, light and shadow are all brilliantly articulated. Camargo is one of Brazil's most important abstractionists, known for exuberant reliefs of cylindrical modules in painted wood that blur the boundary between systematic abstraction and organic form. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Camargo moved to Buenos Aires at sixteen; there he studied with the highly influential artist Lucio Fontana (1899–1968) and was exposed to the Argentine constructivist movements of the 1940s. At eighteen he moved to Paris, where he frequented the studio of Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957). He returned to Brazil in 1953; this was the heyday of geometric art: artists' groups were formed, styles invented, and manifestos issued. Although Camargo did not belong to any group, the resurgence of abstraction in Europe and in his homeland had a decisive impact on his formal experimentation of the 1960s. Ilona Katzew, 2008
