Footnotes

This work is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity issued by Galeria Raquel Arnaud, São Paulo.

Provenance
Gimpel & Hanover Galerie, Zurich
Acquired directly from the above by the previous owner in 1969
Thence by descent to the present owner

Exhibited
Zurich, Gimpel & Hanover Galerie; London, Gimpel Fils Gallery, Camargo, 1968, no. 47



Executed in 1968, during the artist's most iconic period, Untitled (Relief 205) is a quintessential example of Sergio Camargo's practice that synthesized a variety of global movements to create a singular and captivating style. Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1930, Camargo would go on to study at the Academia Altamira, Buenos Aires under the tutorship of the esteemed Post-War artist Lucio Fontana during the period in which Fontana wrote the initial manifestos that would become the basis of the Spatialism movement. Camargo would travel through Europe in 1948, before returning to Brazil in the 1950s, thrusting him into the Constructivist and Neo-Constructivist movements. In 1961 he returned to Paris and remained there for over a decade during which time he associated with a variety of European movements such as ZERO and Nouveau Réalisme, but he found the most kinship with the Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel (GRAV) which had been established in 1960 by François Morellet amongst others.

A key tenant of GRAV was to democratise the role of the viewer, freeing them from their previously defined role, where they accepted the work presented to them for what it was and viewed it in a static, passive capacity. Camargo transformed the act of viewing art by making works such as Untitled (Relief 205) which were purposefully made to change as the viewer interacted and moved about them. These reliefs, first produced in 1963, are pared down to the two most vital elements: light and space. This is experienced to great effect in the present work where Camargo's iconic cylindrical reliefs grow from the center of the jewel-like work, causing it to be jagged or delicate, soft and bulbous or sharp and linear, ever fluctuating with light and movement. The choice of monochromatic white forces the viewer to focus solely on shadow and form with little distraction or any kind or psychological influence from a choice of colour. Despite their monochromatic nature and Camargo's unwavering commitment to his relief compositions the works are not staid or repetitive, each work is not only different than his last as he experiments with the use of negative space and various scales, but the works constantly transform, making them somewhat temporal in nature, with no two viewings being alike.

The present work was exhibited in Zurich and London in 1968 and has been in the same private collection ever since, coming to market for the first time in fifty years. The 1960s would see Camargo's recognition soar with participation in the Paris Biennale in 1963, where he would win the International Sculpture Prize, the VII Bienal de São Paulo in 1965, where he would be presented with the same honour, as well as inclusion in the Venice Biennale in 1966 and Documenta 4 in 1968. Since his death in 1990, Camargo's works have been exhibited widely and internationally including at the Tate Modern, London, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and the Charlottenborg Museum, Copenhagen.