At an exhibition of works being considered for the Prêmio Leirner de Arte Contemporânea in 1959, this essay is about one of the artists whose work is part of the Adolpho Leirner Collection. Written by Theon Spanudis—one of the artists who signed the “Manifesto Neoconcreto” in 1959—the essay explains how de Castro quit his career as a chemist and taught himself to paint; he was interested in the works of Kazmir Malevich, Piet Mondrian, and Josef Albers, among others. The exhibition at the Galería de Arte das Folhas shows how his work transitioned from a positive-negative approach to a more dynamic, organic style because, according to Spanudis, he never accepted rationalist disciplines. His work is of interest because of what Spanudis describes as a constant, ongoing process: “organization, disorganization, reorganization.” It includes a temporal aspect that should be noted: de Castro used color to develop an organic materialization of time. Due to the proposal’s complexity, in the critic’s view, it lacks the underpinnings of a solid chromatic theory. Spanudis refers to the artist’s “organic time” when he compares de Castro’s works with those by Lygia Clark.   

A group exhibition at the Galería de Arte das Folhas in November 1959 that included works by Giselda Leirner, Maria Leontina, Tomie Ohtake, Hércules Barsotti, and Willys de Castro.

Spanudis explains that, though self-taught, de Castro was mentored by Aldo Bonadei and Alfredo Volpi. He started showing his work at group exhibitions in the 1950s, but never joined any of the groups that were around in those days. The author offers a very precise analysis of de Castro’s chromatic proposal; he suggests that Post-Impressionism’s theory of complementary colors was no longer valid for avant-garde experimentation. Especially in this proposal that presents an “organic time,” a temporality in which the proposal’s formal element becomes “unstable.”

Willys de Castro (b. 1926; d. 1988) was a painter, graphic artist, and set designer. He was from the state of Minas Gerais but moved to São Paulo to study with André Fort in 1941, at a time when he was working as a technical draftsman and graduated with a degree in industrial chemistry. He produced his first works of Geometric Abstraction in the early 1950s. He and Hércules Barsotti started the Estúdio de Projetos Gráficos (1954–64). He and the teacher Diogo Pacheco cofounded the Ars Nova movement, where he produced musical scores for the recitation of concrete poems. He designed sets for the Teatro de Arena and the Teatro de Cultura Artística in the 1950s. De Castro did not wholly embrace Neo-Concrete art in Rio de Janeiro, but in 1959 he showed some of his work at Livro-Poema, an exhibition organized by the Jornal do Brasil, at a time when he was starting to work on his “Active objects.” He made his greatest contribution to Brazilian Constructive art by using the edges of his paintings. He later produced his “Pluriobjectos,” slender vertical pieces made of stainless steel. A retrospective of his Concrete work was presented in São Paulo in 1994, Willys de Castro: obras de 1954 a 1961. He took part in several international exhibitions, such as Konkrete Kunst (Zurich, 1960); the II Biennale de Paris (1961); and Brazilian Art Today (London, 1965). The 1960s were fruitful years for him; it was during that period that he cofounded the ABDI (Associação Brasileira de Desenho Industrial).