Lygia Clark was a Brazilian artist famous for her abstract sculptures and her contribution to the Brazilian Constructivism movement. She worked alongside Brazilian artists Lygia Pape and Franz Weissmann to lead the Neo-Concrete movement prevalent in Latin America throughout the 1950s and 60s.
Read MoreClark was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. At the age of 27, Clark began taking formal arts instruction from Modernist architect Roberto Burle Marx. By the early 1950s, Clark moved to Paris and studied art alongside contemporaries Fernand Léger and Isaac Dobrinsky. She began to gain recognition as a visual artist and participated in her first solo exhibition in 1952 at l'Institut Endoplastique Gallery in Paris.
In 1952, Clark returned to Brazil and began creating work that followed an intuitive approach, as opposed to the formulaic representational style established at the time. In 1953, she became a founding member of Grupo Frente, a Brazilian art movement that rejected figuration and traditional approaches to art.
Clark's involvement in Grupo Frente eventually led to her position as a lead figure in the Neo-Concrete movement alongside avantgarde artists like Hélio Oiticica. Throughout the late 1950s and 60s, Clark began to make art that aimed to spark a psychological response among viewers. Her work established an interactive space that encouraged audience participation and sensory experiences.
Lygia Clark is best known for her 'Bichos' (Critters) series (1960s). For this series of work, Clark made small metal sculptures that could be physically altered by viewers. Appearing initially as three-dimensional objects, audiences were invited to modify the hinged sculptures by adjusting them into flat planes.
Clark's title 'Bichos' refers to the sculptures as if they are living forms or small creatures. The physically adjustable nature of the work demonstrates Clark's interest in audience collaboration. By making works that can be manipulated at random, Clark creates a space for interaction, where the relationship between the viewer and the art can be explored and observed.
For this series of work, Clark wanted to establish the idea that art can be made from a proposition or an act carried out by a participant. Caminhando (Walking) (1963) is made from a strip of paper twisted and glued together to form a Möbius strip. Clark asked viewers to take a pair of scissors and cut the length of the paper strip without breaking it, requiring a certain level of commitment and concentration from the participants to complete the task.
Caminhando conveys Clark's interest in creating an artwork from an experience rather than from a physical object. The interactive nature of her work actively encourages a multisensory experience among viewers and asks for a willingness to contribute and commit.
Clark is the recipient of a number of awards and scholarships.
In 1952, she received the Artist of the Year award in Rio de Janeiro. She received the Guggenheim International Award twice, in 1958 and 1960. In 1961, Clark was awarded the prize for Best National Sculpture at the 6th Bienal de São Paulo, and, in 1980, she was the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from the Accademia Italia delle arte e del lavoro in Italy.
Lygia Clark has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions.
Solo exhibitions include Lygia Clark (1920–1988) Centennial, Pinakotheke Cultural, Rio de Janeiro (2021); Lygia Clark: Painting as an Experimental Field, 1948–1958, Guggenheim Bilbao (2020); Lygia Clark: The Abandonment of Art, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (2014); Lygia Clark: Retrospective, Itaú Cultural, São Paulo (2012).
Group exhibitions include Visions of Brazil: Reimagining Modernity from Tarsila to Sonia, Blum & Poe Gallery, New York (2019); Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica, Tate Modern, London (2019); Elles: Women Artists from the Centre Pompidou, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2012); Move! Choreographing You, Hayward Gallery, London (2010).
Clark's artwork is included in the permanent collections of major galleries and museums. Selected collections include the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Coppel Collection in Mexico City, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museu de Arte Brasileira in São Paulo, and the Tate Collection in London.
Ocula | 2022
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