Gimpel Fils, the London gallery, was founded after the end of the Second World War, in 1946, by the brothers Charles Gimpel (1913–1973) and Peter Gimpel (1915–2005), and by Kay Gimpel, Charles’s wife (1914–2009). Charles and Peter were the sons of the Parisian art dealer René Gimpel (1881–1945) whose Journal d’un Collectionneur (Diary of a Collector) became the primary source for the study of modern art and art collecting in the years between the wars. The gallery was originally, though only briefly, located at 86 Duke Street. It then moved to 50 South Molton Street, which is where Sérgio Camargo’s exhibition took place. In 1972 the gallery moved into its permanent premises at 30 Davies Street. All these locations were in London.
Though Sérgio Camargo (1930–1990) was never officially represented by Gimpel Fils, his work was exhibited and sold at the gallery. The sculptor and relief printer was born in Rio de Janeiro to a Brazilian father and an Argentinean mother. He studied at the Academia Altamira de Buenos Aires, where his teachers were the painter Emilio Pettoruti and the multidisciplinary artist Lucio Fontana. He went on to a higher education, studying philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1950, when he returned to Brazil, Camargo met up with Brazilian Constructivist artists; he also took a long trip to China in 1954. Once he was back in Brazil, Camargo took part in the third and fourth editions of the Bienal de São Paulo in 1955 and 1957. He lived in Paris from 1961 to 1974, during which time he showed his work on the international stage, distinguishing himself at the three major events in the art world: the Bienal de São Paulo, the Venice Biennale, and Documenta in Kassel, Germany.
