Lito Cavalcante

Lito Cavalcante was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1926 to a family of artists and musicians. He apprenticed in the art world as a young boy and grew to become a well known painter and sculptor. Educated in art and engineering in Brazil, France, Germany and Czechoslovakia, Lito took a six year break, living in the Amazon with the Xangu Indians. He emerged from the experience with a deep concern about the complexities of technology. Submitting to the simplicity of the Xangu ways, Lito felt deep changes that marked the essence of his work. Their existence demonstrated a simple way of understanding nature: feeling when it’s going to rain, when the sun is going to come, feeling the presence of prey and so on."When I returned to civilization" Lito said, "I could feel clearly the contradictions between man and himself." Ever conscious of the threat that progress can make on mankind, Lito set out to humanize technology.

In 1959 Lito was appointed professor of sculpture at the Federal University in Rio de Janeiro where he was responsible for creating the discipline of art and technology. This quickly became the basis of a new concept in teaching methods throughout South America. "I will treat my students with care and am concerned not to damage their spontaneity with any false ideas. I try to teach what the artist has been through time and his attitude through art. I don’t suggest themes or techniques. I do try to awaken in them a main interest in self realization and not to mix frustrations with creative sensitivity in art". These are some of Lito's quotes.

The author of eight books on art and technology, Lito won three gold medal awards by the National Commission of Fine Arts and was invited to participate in the opening of the Museum of Modern Art in Rio. He was commissioned to create 25 sculptures for permanent exhibition in the Bloch Museum of Contemporary Art and had over 100 worldwide art shows. He had a special relationship with the Weitzman institute in Israel and designed sacred environments for temples in Israel celebrating life in its religious aspect. He trained teachers in Brazil in specialized programs for teaching creative behavior in children. He worked at Columbia University in New York City. While there, in 1980, NBC TV made a documentary demonstrating his use of scrap metal in sculpture.
Lito’s extensive knowledge of folklore landed him an invitation to decorate Rio and San Paulo for the Carnival festivities. He built polychromatic moving sculptures to decorate the cities and his art transformed a dense urban environment into an exuberant poetic fantasy. The blending of color and abstract forms, combined with the drama and joy of Carnival, evoke a sense of celebration as the artwork comes alive in a dance of rhythmic movement and synchronicity. Three of the paintings were chosen for publication as UNICEF greeting cards. Comedia dell Arte, a constant theme in his paintings, recreates the worlds of traveling troupes of performers in ebulliently colored oils and watercolors.
Lito, the ever present rebel, believed that "art answers for the universe, for civilization and for man himself". Always operating in his imagination, Lito believed that it is fear changed into premonition of a hopeful tomorrow elaborated through colors and objects that reflect the continuity of life. We are fragments of the universe. We stop being ourselves when we no longer realize the existence of art, our neighbors and finally humanity.
Lito Cavalcante died in 2001 and is survived by his wife, Beverly (Ohbeeb) Cavalcante, his daughter KC and two granddaughters, Sebastianne and Savaya.

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