- 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