Vasco Prado

He was born in 1914 in Uruguaiana, and died in Porto Alegre in 1998. Sculptor, draftsman and engraver. In the 1950s he founded the Engraving Club with Carlos Scliar, Danúbio Gonçalves, Glênio Bianchetti and Glauco Rodrigues, which was one of the milestones in the history of Arte Gaúcha, carrying out a social work, especially focusing on the regionalist theme of the gaucho in his life in the country. He taught sculpture and drawing in his atelier at the Free Atelier of the City Hall of Porto Alegre, at the University of Caxias do Sul, at MARGS. Vasco Prado is one of the most important sculptors in Brazil and certainly one of the most influential in his homeland, having formed generations of new artists and inseminated the work of many others. After the phase of the Engraving Club, with its social and politically engaged themes, his work began to present an increasingly synthetic and abstract character, with a magnificent formal balance of classicist nature, although it incorporated several elements and technical resources of contemporaneity and has never let go of its libertarian convictions, as evidenced by several works on themes and illustrious figures of Brazilian history and Gaucho tradition. Other of his recurring themes are the woman, the horse and the lovers. Besides the mastery presented in the handling of stone and bronze, he was also a great engraver, ceramist and draftsman. It has works spread both in Brazil and abroad.