Biography and works of Lourdes Castro
The history of Portuguese contemporary art cannot be told without reference to Lourdes Castro (Funchal, 1930 – Funchal, 2022). Over seven decades of creation, the artist developed a singular, profoundly poetic oeuvre that made her one of the most relevant voices of the second half of the 20th century. Her career spans artistic movements, geographies, and techniques, but always remains faithful to a central concern: the search for presence in the ephemeral, translated into the exploration of shadow as an artistic language. This article aims to revisit her life and work, contextualizing her pioneering role and the importance she assumed in the national and international art scene.
Early years and training
Lourdes Castro was born on December 9, 1930, in Funchal, Madeira Island. Her childhood spent surrounded by nature left a profound mark on her: her connection with the landscape, vegetation, and island light became an indelible feature of her artistic sensibility. Her visceral connection to Madeira was a constant, leading her to return to the island permanently in 1983. He began his studies at the German College, but at the age of 20, he left for Lisbon to enroll at the Escola Superior de Belas-Artes (ESBAL), where he completed a special painting course in 1956. Two years earlier, he had already participated in a group exhibition at the National Cultural Center in Lisbon, alongside José Escada and Carvalho e Rêgo, signaling his early involvement in the artistic world.
Paris and the founding of KWY magazine
In 1957, she married artist René Bertholo. After a brief stay in Munich, the couple settled in Paris in 1958. That same year, Lourdes Castro received a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which gave her greater stability to develop her work. In Paris, Lourdes was at the genesis of a fundamental project: the KWY magazine, published in artisanal silkscreen printing, with a total of twelve issues. Around her, the KWY group emerged, composed of artists such as Jan Voss, Christo Javacheff, Costa Pinheiro, Gonçalo Duarte, José Escada, and João Vieira. The magazine's name, composed of three letters that do not exist in the Portuguese alphabet, symbolized the search for new creative territories, beyond established artistic boundaries. The group exhibited collectively on several occasions, presenting its work for the first time in Lisbon, at the Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes, in 1960. KWY's activity reflected the need for dialogue with the European avant-garde and contributed to the international recognition of the new Portuguese generation.
From abstraction to Nouveau Réalisme
In her early years in Paris, Lourdes Castro worked primarily in abstraction, the dominant language among the members of the KWY group. However, in the early 1960s, her practice moved closer to Nouveau Réalisme, a movement that explored the appropriation of everyday objects. She produced collages and assemblages of obsolete utensils, often painted with aluminum paint, thus reviving banal elements for the artistic sphere. This turning point represented the beginning of a search for the materialization of memory and the valorization of the invisible, concerns that would become central to his career.
The discovery of the shadow
In the mid-1960s, Lourdes Castro discovered her chosen subject: the shadow. Her interest grew out of silkscreen printing and quickly became an unmistakable poetic domain. In 1965, she began compiling literary and visual references in dozens of notebooks, which she titled Álbum de Família (Family Album). Shadows began to be worked on multiple supports: Plexiglas (since 1964), where he fixed human outlines; and translucent linen sheets embroidered with silhouettes of reclining shadows (from 1968 onward). These embroideries, which combine the lightness of the fabric with the absence-presence of the body, are today some of his most iconic works. By exploring the shadow, Lourdes Castro embodied a reflection on identity, memory, and ephemerality. What is seen is not the body, but the trace of its existence, the trace that attests to the passage of time.
Shadow theater and collaboration with Manuel Zimbro
The performative dimension of shadows led the artist to develop Shadow Theater. Her first experience took place in 1966, in a Graziela Martinez show in Paris. Beginning in 1972, she began an artistic and personal collaboration with Manuel Zimbro that would last for more than three decades. Together they created shows such as The Five Seasons (1976) and Horizon Line (1981), presented in several cities in Europe and Latin America. Shadow theater allowed Lourdes to explore movement, light, and narrative, expanding her work into the realm of performance. This partnership was celebrated in the exhibition Lourdes de Castro and Manuel Zimbro: A Luz da Sombra, held in 2010 at the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, evoking the depth of a shared journey.
1980s and 1990s: new supports and consolidation
In the 1980s, Lourdes returned to Madeira, where her connection with the region inspired new works. Between 1980 and 1987, she developed the series "Shadows Around a Center," presented in 2003 at Serralves. Drawing, tapestry, and tile also emerged as experimental media, revealing the artist's versatility. In 1992, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation organized the retrospective "Beyond the Shadow," solidifying the recognition of his work in Portugal. While until then his work had circulated primarily internationally, this exhibition became indisputable in the national context. In 1998 he represented Portugal at the São Paulo Biennial, in collaboration with Francisco Tropa, with the installation Peça, which reinforced its capacity for dialogue between artistic generations.
Recognition and awards
Throughout her career, Lourdes Castro has received numerous awards and honors. In 2004, she received the CELPA Award / Vieira da Silva – Visual Arts Consecration, a distinction celebrating a lifetime of artistic dedication. In 2010, she was awarded the prize by the Portuguese Section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), shared with Francisco Castro Rodrigues. His work has also been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions in Portugal and abroad, continuing to inspire artists, researchers and curators. The return to Madeira and the last years In 1983, Lourdes Castro returned to Madeira permanently. Reconnecting with the island landscape strengthened the connection between her life and work, as nature was a central element of her poetry. Silence, light, and proximity to the sea became the backdrop for her final works. His death in 2022, in Funchal, marked the end of a life dedicated to art, but also the consecration of a legacy that transcends borders.
Lourdes Castro's work is a meditation on presence and absence, on the visible and the invisible, on life and memory. By transforming shadow into artistic material, she offered one of Portuguese art's most original contributions to the international scene. Between Paris and Madeira, between abstraction and performance, between experimentation and tradition, Lourdes Castro constructed a coherent body of work, marked by delicacy and poetic depth. Her work remains a discreet yet essential light, continuing to inspire contemporary art and reaffirm the role of shadow as a space of revelation and encounter.