Sergio Camargo

O vento [The wind], 1954 is one of Camargo's first figurative bronze sculptures from his Série Mulheres. The sculpture beautifully demonstrates Camargo’s core concern; sculpting mass and volume with geometric sensuality. Upon moving to Paris in the 1950s, Camargo came under the influence of Gaston Bachelard, his philosophy professor at the Sorbonne, Constantin Brancusi, his close friend and mentor, and Henri Laurens the French sculptor and illustrator. Camargo believed that Brancusi’s sculpture, Bird in Space, was the most elegant figurative sculpture of the time. He is quoted saying: “The bird in flight makes a trajectory in space. This is what really attracts me, which in spite of its immateriality is as real as the bird itself” (Sergio Camargo, quoted by Guy Brett in Sergio Camargo, Liber Albus, São Paulo, 2014, p. 246.) Camargo wished to develop Brancusi’s concerns in his own practice, bypassing representation entirely to explore the dynamic potential of volume inherent in basic geometric forms. Rather than attempting to illustrate the concrete essence of these forms “in themselves,” he was striving to present each component of his artworks as—in the words of curator and friend of the artist Guy Brett—“a sign of its possibilities.”[6] These foundational ideas are beautifully illustrated in O vento [The wind] and are the core concern that stay with Camargo throughout his career.