Artist Information
Artist
Robert (Bob) C. De Castro (1923-1986)Role
SculptorDate made
1945 - 1986Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
SCULPTOR STATEMENT
"I occasionally think of my work as having kinship with that of the local Indian sailors who worked the early ships on this coast and carved scrimshaw in their off-hours, catching up any tribal or family myth, or telling a little story about their daily lives." De Castro (1967)
SCULPTOR BIOGRAPHY
Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Robert (Bob) C. De Castro was an accomplished Canadian sculptor known for his Abstract carved wood sculpture. He lived and was active in the arts community in Victoria, B.C. for most of his life. He served with the Canadian Army during World War II, and then studied sculpture under Modernist artist Jan Zach (1914-1986) in Victoria in the mid-1950s, as well as under Expressionist artist Herbert Siebner (1925-2003) in the late 1950s.
In 1960 he was a founding member of The Point Group of artists, and in 1971, a founding member of The Limners, a prominent Modernist group of about 18 Victoria-based artists. De Castro exhibited with the Limners in private and public galleries including the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Confederation Art Gallery and Museum, Charlottetown, P.E.I. and the New Brunswick Museum in St. John. He was also included in the National Gallery of Canada “Centennial Exhibition of Sculpture” in 1967 which included works by the most important sculptors in Canada. De Castro exhibited from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s.
A very private person, De Castro has been described as Canada's Vincent Van Gogh of sculpture. In 1996, ten years after his death, the University of Victoria Legacy Art Galleries had a major exhibition of his works “Robert de Castro: A Retrospective”. His works are held in many private collections, as well as in the University of Victoria and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
