Colares

Raymundo Colares moved to Salvador de Bahia in 1964 from Grão Mogol with a scholarship for engineering, but he abandoned his studies to pursue art after being inspired by Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee’s works. 

Starting in 1965, he lived in Rio de Janeiro and pursued a career as a jewellery designer at H. Stern. The next year, he was accepted into the Escola de Belas Artes, where he crossed paths with Antonio Dias, Antonio Manuel, Wanda Pimentel, Hélio Oiticica, and other artists associated with the Brazilian new figuration.

In 1967 he abandoned his studies once again to join artist Ivan ’s independent studio at the Museo de Arte Moderna. During this period, Colares’s painting matured and he established an aesthetic that would shape his work for more than ten years. By participating in the exhibition Nova Objetividade Brasilera, he demonstrated his alignment with the Brazilian avant-garde’s objectives.

His work experienced incredible development between 1966 and 1970, the year he won the prize for a trip abroad at the Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna. During the years 1971 to 1973, he lived in New York, Milan, and Trento. Back in Brazil, suffering from financial and psychological difficulties, he withdrew from the artistic circuit. While attempting to restart his career in the early 1980s, he tragically died after being struck by a bus.

Colares’ work is significant in the history of Brazilian art for its fusion of modern painting, constructive principles, and experimental tendencies.