# Lourdes Castro artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/lourdes-castro/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T22:07:55.910Z
Quality: medium confidence, adequate sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1930-12-09
- Death date: 2022-01-08
- Nationality: Portuguese
- Movements: Abstract art
- Common media: Painting, Collage, Silkscreen printing, Shadow puppetry and theatre, Installation art

## Portrait

![Lourdes Castro](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Lourdes_Castro_08-07-2015_IMG_6486.JPG)
Manuelvbotelho · CC BY-SA 4.0
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lourdes_Castro_08-07-2015_IMG_6486.JPG

## About Lourdes Castro

Lourdes Castro, born Maria de Lourdes Bettencourt de Castro in Funchal, Madeira, was a Portuguese artist whose practice moved across painting, collage, silkscreen printing, installation, and theatre. After an early engagement with abstract art, she turned during the 1960s to collages and silkscreens concerned with fleeting appearances and the trace of a person or object. Shadows subsequently became central to her work. From the 1970s, Castro and her partner Manuel Zimbro developed Shadow Theatre productions that extended her visual research into staged movement and performance. Her practice also included collaborative installation: in 1998 she worked with Francisco Tropa on Portugal's contribution to the São Paulo Art Biennial. Collectors may therefore encounter her name on materially different objects, from paintings and works on paper to prints and documentation associated with installation or theatrical projects. Correctly identifying medium, date, format, and any collaborative context is essential when researching a work attributed to Castro.

## Common works and media

Works associated with Castro include paintings, collages, and silkscreen prints, alongside installations and material connected with shadow puppetry and Shadow Theatre. Her best-documented recurring concern in the collected sources is the shadow as a way of registering an ephemeral presence. Because her output crosses unique objects, editioned prints, collaborative installations, and performance-related work, cataloguing should state the medium and format precisely rather than treating every object as a conventional painting or print.

## Market and appraisal context

Lourdes Castro's varied practice makes like-for-like comparison especially important. A painting, unique collage, silkscreen, or item connected with Shadow Theatre belongs to a different production context and should be assessed against comparable works of the same kind. Date can help place an object within her abstract work, the collages and silkscreens of the 1960s, or her later shadow-based and theatrical activity. Documentation should also clarify whether a work is solely by Castro or part of a collaboration. When usable auction records exist, appraisal should consider sales with similar medium, format, dimensions, date, and edition status, while separately examining attribution, provenance, and condition. The collected evidence does not justify generalized price forecasts.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine public artist-identity research with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. Identity and market evidence are reviewed separately so that biographical context does not substitute for object-specific appraisal.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q10319937
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500058584
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/263528595/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2009151929
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lourdes_Castro
- Wikipedia: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lourdes_Castro
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/lourdes-castro/
- Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lourdes_Castro_08-07-2015_IMG_6486.JPG