Sergio Camargo

A successful and influential artist in Latin America, Camargo spent a number of years studying and exhibiting in Paris. His practice concentrated on sculpture after seeing works by Brancusi, Arp and 50 Laurens among others. Although he was born and lived in Rio de Janeiro, Camargo was not part of the Concrete or Neo-Concrete Art movements that were prominent there from the 1950s onwards. He nevertheless exhibited at the Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna in Rio between 1953 and 1960. His tendencies gravitated towards kinetic art and he exhibited with Carlos Cruz-Diez and other kinetic artists at the Galerie Denise René in Paris in 1963. Nevertheless, Camargo never formally joined the kinetic art movement. He won the international prize for sculpture at the Paris Biennale in 1963 and the sculptor prize at the São Paulo Biennial in 1965. Camargo also represented Brazil at the Venice Biennale in 1966. In 1970 he was awarded the prize for best sculpture of the year by the Association of Art Critics of São Paulo.