Sergio de CASTRO The workshop - 1961 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower left "Castro, 61", dated and annotated on the back "61, 17". 100 x 50 cm Oil on canvas; signed and dated lower left, dated and inscribed on the reverse 39.37 x 19.68 in. Provenance: Collection Philippe Dennery To the present owner by inheritance Sergio de Castro is an artist at the crossroads of worlds and arts. Born in Buenos Aires in 1922, he grew up in French-speaking Switzerland and Italy, before spending his youth in Uruguay, where he studied architecture and music. There he met Joaquín Torres García, who taught him. After receiving a grant from the French government to further his musical studies, he moved to Paris, where he joined the artistic circles of Jean Dewasne and Fernand Léger's studio. Sergio de Castro was hospitalised in 1950 because of severe asthma attacks, and produced a large number of drawings. That year, he abandoned musical composition to devote himself fully to painting. From 1952, he exhibited at the Galerie Jeanne Castel, then showed his paintings at the Galerie Pierre. He frequented Picasso and exhibited alongside major artists such as Jean Bazaine, André Lanskoy and Nicolas de Staël. His early works reveal a style that is still strongly geometric, as can be seen in the large gouache triptych from 1954 on sale. During the 1960s, his work retained a somewhat structured composition, as can be seen in Vue de l'atelier (1961) - a theme dear to the artist - and Terre grecque (1966). It was only later that he entered a new stylistic phase with his large, linear compositions, illustrated by Grèce (1972) and Plages (1974). He detached himself from direct influences to create a personal and demanding body of work. Light became his raw material. In his oil paintings, gouaches, stained-glass windows and frescoes, he composed like an architect of silence. He moves from painting in planes to painting in strokes. His colours are dense. Everything is balance and contained tension. In 1960 he was awarded the Hallmark Prize in New York, and in 1972 he exhibited his work at the Wildenstein Gallery. In 1980, he took part in the 39th Venice Biennale, showing his large formats from the 1970s in the Argentine Pavilion. He became a naturalised French citizen in 1979, and in 2006 his entire donation of 220 works to the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Saint-Lô (Normandy) was presented in the museum as part of a major exhibition covering his entire career. Sergio de Castro died in 2012. He leaves behind a luminous body of work, imbued with depth, discreet yet powerful, which reveals itself to those who take the time to contemplate it... Sergio de CASTRO