Walter Gavito He was born on January 4, 1935 in the city of La Plata, province of Buenos Aires. At the age of 9 he began to study professional drawing, then he attended the National School of Fine Arts “Manuel Belgrano” while he frequented the group “Gente de Arte” of Avellaneda. In 1959, at the age of 24, he graduated as Professor of Sculpture and Drawing at the National University of La Plata. His mentors were Antonio Sibellino, Aurelio Macchi and Antonio Pujía.
The following year he received a scholarship from the National Endowment for the Arts to improve his sculpture techniques in Italy. He there he took courses in bronze casting both earth and lost wax. He also deepened in the casting in cement.
From that early experience he was linked with Italian artists such as Enrico Manfrini, Scorselli and Messina and his works were housed in public collections on the peninsula such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Milan and the Pagani Foundation in Legnano.
In our continent, the Ralli Museum in Punta del Este permanently exhibits a large group of his bronzes. He presented individual exhibitions on numerous occasions in public and private spaces in our country, Italy, Belgium and Germany. He has won numerous national and international awards and distinctions. Mention should be made of the prize at the “Alberto Lagos” Sculpture Biennial of the National Academy of Fine Arts (1971) and the Gold Medal of the Mediator Dei association (1986).
His completely independent and personal work conforms to the founding thesis of the great English critic Herbert Read: “Sculpture potentially has its own aesthetic, which stands out in prehistory, emerges in its entirety on some occasions throughout history and only in modernity and from Rodin, is it completely and consciously updated with the work of Brancusi, Arp , Moore and others”.
Its main theme is the female nude. He has also made multiple portraits and his religious theme is extensive. Also noteworthy are the watercolor drawings of him. His style is essentially figurative but he often resorts to a constructive language reminiscent of Cubism. His preferred technique is bronze, either lost wax or earth, casting himself and chiselling each of his works.
Five years after his departure (he died in Buenos Aires, at the age of 82, on June 8, 2017) It is fair to remember him as a good man, and an artist of the first magnitude in the field of our sculpture, who is still not fully recognized the seat he deserves.
*Carlos María Pinasco is an art consultant.
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