artnexus #22

Although the work of Waltercio Caldas (1946) first began to be noticed during the critical years of the military dictatorship in Brazil, it has always been a source of tranquility, an invitation to rational reflection.

Interested in the 1970s in the tradition forged by Marcel Duchamp with his readymades, as well as in the theoretical work of the surrealists who questioned the concepts of perception since the Renaissance, Caldas made his sculptures into a permanent exploration of the problems of the notions of space and perception. The variety of materials he uses and the unique stamp he gives to each of his works steer his art clear of metaphorical readings and focus attention on the complete process of perception in itself. This line of thought was consolidated in his work of the 1980s when he began to use increasingly subtle resources to make the spectator aware of the intricate nature of perception. The sculptures are conceived as problems to be examined and function at the frontiers separating presence and absence, materiality and immateriality, precision and ambiguity. These themes of analysis, which Caldas proposes, direct the spectator towards an appreciation of the poetics of the materials used, the qualities of form, but also towards the meaning of what is being suggested.

IVONNE PINI