Caldas, Waltercio

Caldas, Waltercio

1946

Waltercio Caldas studied painting with the Neoconcretist artist Ivan Serpa in 1965, at the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro (MAM-RJ). During the seventies he taught Art and Visual Perception at the Instituto Villa-Lobos, was co-editor of the historically important contemporary art review Malasartes and joined the Committee of Cultural Planning at MAM-RJ. With Carlos Zilio, Ronaldo Brito and José Resende he published the key article 'O Boom, o Pós-Boom, o Dis-Boom' ('The Boom, the post-Boom, the un-Boom') in the journal Opinião (1976). Caldas' first solo exhibition took place at MAM-RJ in 1973. His third solo show (Aparelhos, Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo, 1979) was accompanied by a major catalogue, and since then critical interest in Caldas' work has been consistently strong. He has had successive solo exhibitions throughout his career and has participated in several editions of the Bienal Internacional de São Paulo; his work has also been included within several important historical exhibitions in Brazil. In 1993 he received the Prêmio Mário Pedroso for the exhibition of the year (Waltercio Caldas: esculturas at the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro) awarded by the Associação Brasileira de Críticos de Arte. Caldas has often incorporated film into his practice; the 1986 film featuring his objects and sculpture, Apaga-te Sësamo (Open Sesame) was directed by Miguel Rio Branco and was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Jornada de Cinema, Bahia and both Best Video and Best Director at the Festival de Cinema e Vìdeo, Maranhâo. His first solo exhibition outside of Brazil took place in 1991 at the Stedelijk museum (Netherlands) and his work has been included in many significant collective exhibitions in Europe and the United States, including Transcontinental (Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and Cornerhouse Gallery, Manchester, 1990); Documenta IX (Kassel, 1992); Mapping (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1994) and Brazil in New York (Galerie Lelong, New York, 1999). In 1996 he produced the book work O Livro Velázquez and directed the film Um Rio: on the occasion of the retrospective Anotações 1969/1996 (Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro). He has produced work for public spaces in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, as well as in Punta del Este, Uruguay; Kassel, Germany and Leirfjord, Norway.