- Chromatics syntonies, he can build,

FLÁVIO COHN
GALLERY OWNER

as he said, that he seeks...

FABIO MAGALHÃES 
TEACHER

- This is common in the relation 
between the artist and his work...

MANFREDO SOUZANETTO
ARTIST

- It's actually the color that...

LUIS DOLINO
ARTIST

- Rodrigo once had the opportunity 
to tell me in a conversation...

(All talking at the same time)

CHROMATICS CHORDS

THE WORK OF RODRIGO DE CASTRO

- I'll take the mask off a little bit, 
it's just us here.

I felt calls of interest for art,

I felt when I was younger,

my father came home, sometimes,
with gouache, brush, paper

and encouraged me and my sister 
to create something

spread it all over the living room floor.

What I liked to see was the mix,

the basic thing, 
we mixed one color

with another and had another color.

And I got this interest for 
colors until adolescence.

RIO, 1960's

What happened was like this,

my father got married 
and went to live in Rio de Janeiro,

and we had lived there until 
I was about fifteen,

when he won the Guggenheim award

and then we moved 
the whole family to New York.

I had lived there for four years, 
I went to high school there,

And my father found out that 
I could go to the Vietnam War

and with this risk, my father said 
that I was going back to Brazil.

That's why I came back to Brazil,

I went to live in my grandfather's house, 
in Belo Horizonte.

But I asked for a transfer 
to a college in São Paulo,

and I stayed here, 
I got married, I made my life here.

With daughters Marcela and Manuela.

With grandson Gael.

When I started to paint

I already started thinking 
about the colors

within a geometric structure.

I didn't start painting landscape 
or something like that,

I've already started 
the construction with the color.

Sometime back in the 80s,

I got close to some artists in São Paulo,

and other friendships emerged,

I got very close to Manfredo,

that ended up bringing me 
closer to Dolino.

- Rodrigo de Castro is an artist 
who uses the geometric language,

therefore, a first cousin, 
we are in the same boat,

we enjoy the same language, 
the same creative purpose,

from the elements of 
a very simplified grammar

trying to explain something 
with our artwork.

Rodrigo, in addition of being a master 
of the composition, the finishing,

the finesse in the painting 
that he has been doing,

he's also a noteworthy colorist.

- I believe that my work 
and the Rodrigo's work,

we followed this strand that was triggered

by the teachings of Weissmann, Guignard

and Edith Behring at Escola Guignard 
in Belo Horizonte.

We may be the fourth generation

of a school that lasts, 
that influenced and that formed

the art in Minas Gerais.

- When you make 
the first gesture on the canvas,

the canvas responds to you

this dialogue already begins 
to change its initial purpose,

because the creature already exists.

I would say it's a process, 
not a conversion,

then what is called regret, etc.

it's a very tense dialogue 
between the artist and his canvas.

- He has a clarity, a syntony, 
a very fine clarity.

and very defined of which is 
the universe he explores,

what are these colors, 
how he relates these colors,

how he matures these colors 
so that they become its own,

because the blue colors 
are a universal blue,

but what makes the blue that he works

with the relation 
he establishes in the painting,

with the white, with the gray 
and the black.

What chromatics syntonies
he can build, as he said,

that he looks when he's painting,

as if it were a chromatic chord, 
as if he were playing piano,

strumming the chords and 
suddenly he finds a harmony,

a chromatic harmony 
that has a sound, a vibration

that makes him identify, 
make this composition,

and that people feel this harmony.

- But this dialogue exists every day

until in the end 
we have a finished work

that it must vibrate a chord 
that I believe can come out

of the canvas into the world.

I go home at the end of the day,

the canvas sleeps, I sleep,

when we meet again, 
it has things to tell me

and I have things to observe 
and pay attention

if what I did the day before,

what the canvas is telling me 
is in accordance with what

I imagined would be 
the result of my work.

And what the canvas tells me 
change my original purpose

because I see that it had 
more reason than I was before,

it got better than I imagined.

I see the line as, it can 
split a space in parts,

but most of the time, 
when I think in the line,

it will not share a space, 
it will create new ones

and the creation of these spaces 
with the line happens with the color.

- It's that the line tensions the space,

apparently it's having 
a rupture in the space,

but, actually, it's like being in a room, 
let's do a metaphor like this,

and suddenly a light starts 
to illuminate this space,

so, the line enhances 
the space where it is.

For me, it's a very important 
element in your language.

- Rodrigo has the privilege of color, 
he is a great colorist.

He is a person who leaves 
unique and fantastic tracks.

He can discover the color 
of where I don't know.

- And the colors,

as they are the raw material of my work,

they translate, 
at least that's what I try,

so that they can translate my thoughts

in the most sensitive way possible.

- What we do as geometric art,

therefore, based 
on principles of mathematics,

it has a proximity, 
an intense kinship with the music.

And when he talks about a chord,

he's talking about 
an element of the music

and expressing very well 
the path that he traverses to color.

- And, normally, the painting 
has always a history

of you building 
the work from the drawing.

And, in fact, in Rodrigo's work 
is the color that builds the geometry,

and this is what gives, certainly, 
a specificity to his work

and that I consider a beautiful 
contribution to Brazilian art.

- It was Manfredo who 
introduced me to this possibility

of editing engravings, 
images, that are multiple

and which would allow better access 
or greater access to our work,

and I felt so pleased 
with this possibility

that I wanted, almost unconsciously,

to thank Manfredo for 
this possibility given to me,

And I approached of Papel Assinado, 
Rodrigo de Castro.

He is editing engravings, albums, books 
through this great publishing house.

- My first experience with engraving

it happened the first time in 90, 92.

And it was a completely 
different experience

because the process of making 
the engraving on the stone

it was an experience 
that I enjoyed, it was cool.

Now appeared this opportunity, 
something new,

to make these screen printing series

which is an experience 
that made me very happy.

- I'm making these prints for Rodrigo, 
with great pleasure, a wonderful artist

and we're making more 
than ten images for him,

and we're going to make more, God willing.

- The result of my printed work
on that quality of paper,

I was able to achieve 
the color the way I wanted.

I loved it, I found it spectacular, 
much better than I imagined.

I got a spectacular result there.

And this gives the artist 
the joy of seeing

his work ready

and the willingness to take 
my work outside of the atelier.

When painting, art, whatever it is,

comes in contact with people, 
that's when the art is accomplished,

it's when the art fulfills 
its role with the society.

- As we talk about 
artistic identity and brand,

I think the artist can 
create this identity

when he makes his work stay
in our memory and in the history.

- I'm happy because I realize

that we are together 
in the same creative boat,

with this man who has the refinement,

the fineness of composing,

of illustrating with a unique, 
exclusive color.

Owner of a language, 
Rodrigo de Castro is a master.

what we may want more?

DIRECTOR AND SCRIPT

EDITING AND PHOTOGRAPHY

SOUNDTRACK

PRODUCTION

EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION

CURATORSHIP

RESEARCH

COURTESY IMAGES

POST-PRODUCTION

SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 
TO SCREEN PRINTERS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

TESTMONIALS

SOUNDS EFECTS

TRANSLATION

EXECUTION