Biography

For more than three decades, Lygia Clark (b. 1920, Belo Horizonte, Brazil; d. 1988, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) created works that proposed a radical reassessment of the role and function of art. Primarily working in painting, sculpture, performance and, later, psychoanalytical experiences, Clark intended to break down traditional ideas concerning the artist, artwork and viewer. Her pioneering practice questioned the relationship between art object and spectator, through corporeal and organic forms that encouraged physical encounters and sensorial experiences.

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Clark’s formal training began in Rio de Janeiro in the 1940s where she was taught by Roberto Burle Marx and Zélia Ferreira Salgado, key figures in Brazilian modernism. Her interest in European painting, particularly the work of Paul Klee and Piet Mondrian, led her to Paris (1950–1952) where she made her first oil paintings under the mentorship of Fernand Léger and Árpád Szenes. In 1954, following her return to Brazil, Clark joined the Grupo Frente which enabled her to associate and exhibit with other avant-garde artists, including Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Pape. By 1959, Clark had played a critical part in establishing Neo-Concretism. This movement had evolved from the prevailing trend of Concrete Art, which favoured precise, geometric forms detached from reality. The Neo-Concretists pursued a more personal form of abstraction, that allowed for sensuality, colour and expression.

During the 1950s, Clark continued to develop her intimate, geometric paintings but was already beginning to question the notion of space. Her preoccupation with creating a dynamic environment was first evident in a series of gouaches titled ‘Planes in Modulated Surface’ (1954–58). In these intimate compositions, forms are placed together at various angles, emphasising the significance of the canvas as a structural component in itself. Clark also started to make architectural models of interior settings that looked like paintings to be entered, indicating her desire to rupture the two-dimensional surface. The artist’s intricate series ‘Estruturas de Caixas de Fósforos’ (Matchbox Structures), created a few years later, resemble models for imaginary modernist buildings. Describing her goals during this period, Clark reflected: ‘What I seek is to compose a space and not compose in it.’ The artist would cease painting by the end of the decade. This important transitional moment was marked in 1959 by an imaginary letter Clark wrote to Mondrian, whose consideration of space and structure had influenced Clark’s own vision. ‘You are more alive today for me than all the people who understand me, up to a point.’

By the early 1960s, Clark’s interest to ‘find an organic space - places that open up to the viewer’ resulted in a series of small metal and wood sculptures. Her Bichos, meaning ‘critters’, revealed hinged plates that could be manipulated into various arrangements. Reminiscent of insect-like creatures, these were the artist’s first wholly participatory works, intended to be realised through physical interaction. ‘It is a living organism’, Clark wrote. ‘What happens is a body-to-body between two living entities.’

In 1963, the artist created Caminhando, a breakthrough work that led Clark from the art object to what she called a ‘proposition’ – an art work, or ‘act’, that would be conceived through action and process - in this case, cutting a twisted cylindrical strip of paper with a pair of scissors. ‘From there on I attribute an absolute importance to the immanent act carried out by the participant […] It allows choice, the unpredictable, and the transformation of a virtuality into a concrete event.’

Clark’s practice would eventually conclude with her abandoning art altogether. Questioning the purpose of conventional works of art, Clark spent the 1970s developing collective activities and ritualised interactions that relied on others, after being invited to teach a course on gestural communication at the Sorbonne, Paris, in 1972. Upon her return to Rio de Janeiro in 1976, Clark devised her own method, termed Estruturacao do self (Structuring of the Self). Informed by items such as plastic bags and balls, these therapeutic tools were used for evolving her artistic processes. This final episode in the artist’s career signals how vital the human body was to her practice overall, and underlines Clark’s belief in the value of art as social practice.

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Works

Planos em superfície modulada, 1957

Double-sided cardboard collage
Unframed: 21.6 x 20.7 cm (8 1/2 x 8 1/8 in); framed: 57.8 x 52.6 cm (22 3/4 x 20 3/4 in)
Courtesy: © O Mundo de Lygia Clark-Associação Cultural, Rio de Janeiro

Superficie Modulada, 1958

Collage of card
42.5 x 63 cm, 16 3/4 x 24 3/4 ins 82.5 x 103 cm, 32 1/2 x 40 1/2 ins, framed
© O Mundo de Lygia Clark-Associação Cultural, Rio de Janeiro

Fantastic Architecture 1, 1963–2013

Stainless steel
520 x 780 x 710 cm (204 3/4 x 307 1/8 x 279 1/2 in)
Courtesy: © O Mundo de Lygia Clark-Associação Cultural, Rio de Janeiro.

Obra Mole (Soft Work), 1964

Green rubber
59 x 56 cm (23 1/4 x 22 in), diameter
Courtesy: © O Mundo de Lygia Clark-Associação Cultural, Rio de Janeiro

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Livro obra (Book work), 1964/1983

Paper, plastic, cardboard, string
21 x 21 x 4.5 cm (8 1/4 x 8 1/4 x 1 3/4 in), folded
Courtesy: © O Mundo de Lygia Clark-Associação Cultural, Rio de Janeiro

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Estruturas de Caixa de Fósforos (Preto e Branco) / Matchbox Structure (Black and White), 1964

Gouache paint, matchboxes
6 x 7 x 8 cm (2 3/8 x 2 3/4 x 3 1/8 in)
Courtesy: © O Mundo de Lygia Clark-Associação Cultural, Rio de Janeiro

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Estruturas de Caixa de Fósforos (Dourado) / Matchbox Structure (Gold), 2025

Gouache paint, matchboxes
8 x 6 x 4 cm (3 1/8 x 2 3/8 x 1 5/8 in)
© O Mundo de Lygia Clark-Associação Cultural, Rio de Janeiro

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Óculos (Goggles), 1968

Rubber, metal, glass, mirrors
8 x 27 x 24 cm (3 1/8 x 10 5/8 x 9 1/2 in) approx.
Courtesy: © O Mundo de Lygia Clark-Associação Cultural, Rio de Janeiro

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  • Planos em superfície modulada, 1957
  • Superficie Modulada, 1958
  • Fantastic Architecture 1, 1963–2013
  • Obra Mole (Soft Work), 1964
  • Livro obra (Book work), 1964/1983
  • Estruturas de Caixa de Fósforos (Preto e Branco) / Matchbox Structure (Black and White), 1964
  • Estruturas de Caixa de Fósforos (Dourado) / Matchbox Structure (Gold), 2025
  • Óculos (Goggles), 1968

Press

Lygia Clark at Whitechapel Gallery: Engaging Bodies and Performing Freedom

Deeksha Nath, Stirworld

October 2024

Exhibitions to See in London This Autumn

Ocula

October 2024

Lygia Clark and Sonia Boyce review – pull on a bodysuit and play!

Hettie Judah, The Guardian

October 2024

Sonia Boyce on Lygia Clark with Mark Hudson

The Brooklyn Rail

October 2024

The Art Market: London’s Alison Jacques opens a show next month of work from the collection of the British art critic and curator Guy Brett

Melanie Gerlis, Financial Times

April 2024

Lygia Clark: Project for a Planet

Luis Sandes, London Art Walks

April 2024

Lygia Clark, Neo-Concretism, Tropicália, and Brazilian Constructivism

Design Dash

March 2024

Some May Work As Symbols review – this raucous Brazilian art extravaganza can stop you in your tracks

Adrian Searle, The Guardian

March 2024

11 Women Artists Who Shaped Post-War Abstraction

Millen Brown-Ewens, Artsy

March 2024

Beyond Form review: the dogged gunk rockers who besieged the art world – and the disco

Adrian Searle, The Guardian

February 2024

Inside Other Spaces, Haus der Kunst review — female pioneers of installation art finally get their due

Kristina Foster, Financial Times

October 2023

Contemporary women artists who meet the moment

Christies

March 2023

London’s leading female gallerists who are changing the art world forever

Amah-Rose Abrams & Eloise Hendy, The Glossary

October 2022

The Super-Gallerist Putting Women in the Picture

Francesca Gavin, Financial Times

November 2020

Review: Lygia Clark, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

Joaquín Jesús Sánchez, Flash Art

May 2020

How Lygia Clark Prefigured the Art World’s Obsession with Interiors

Louise Benson, Elephant

April 2020

How Lygia Clark Transformed Contemporary Art in Brazil and Beyond

Luciano deMarsillac, Artsy

March 2020

A Radical Pioneer of Contemporary Art

Daisy Woodward, AnOther

March 2020

Celebrating Lygia Clark, a Radical Pioneer of Contemporary Art

Daisy Woodward, AnOther

March 2020

Review: Lygia Clark, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

Connie Butler, Artforum

January 2020

The Most Influential Latin American Artists of the 20th Century

Alex Santana, Artsy

November 2019

Ivan Serpa, Lygia Clark and the Bauhaus in Brazil

Adele Nelson, Bauhaus Imaginista

November 2019

Lygia Clark’s Art in London

Catherine Spencer, Apollo

July 2016

Review: Lygia Clark, MoMA

Maika Pollack, Gallerist NY

February 2015

Review: Lygia Clark, MoMA

Rye Holmboe, Apollo

October 2014

Review: Lygia Clark, MoMA

John Angeline, ArtNexus

October 2014

Review: Lygia Clark, MoMA

Daniel Birnbaum, Artforum

October 2014

From Painting to Therapeutic Practice

Julia McCornack and Connie Butler, X-Tra

September 2014

Review: Lygia Clark, MoMA

Clara Lopez, Mousse

August 2014

What You Won’t Find at MoMA’s Lygia Clark Show

Ben Davis, Artnet News

July 2014

Escaping Art’s Boundaries With Lygia Clark’s MoMA Retrospective

Wendy Vogel, Blouin Artinfo

June 2014

Review: Lygia Clark, MoMA

Valery Oisteanu, The Brooklyn Rail

June 2014

Review: Lygia Clark, MoMA

Adrian Searle, The Guardian

May 2014

Lygia Clark’s Many Twists and Turns

Roberta Smith, The New York Times

May 2014

Review: Lygia Clark, MoMA

Anne Doran, Time Out

May 2014

Hands-On Art at the MoMA

Jessica Dawson, The Wall Street Journal

May 2014

Review: Lygia Clark, MoMA

Courtney Fiske, Art in America

February 2014

Body Double

Felipe Scovino, Flash Art

May 2011

Review: Lygia Clark, Musee des Beaux-Arts de Nantes

Vivien Rehberg, frieze

March 2006

In Search of the Body

Guy Brett, Art in America

July 1994

Exhibitions

Lygia Clark: Studio Origins

20 September26 October 2024

Lygia Clark: Work From the 1950s

3 June30 July 2016

Lygia Clark: Fantastic Architecture

Henry Moore Foundation, 26 July – 20 December 2014

Books

Lygia Clark: Painting as an Experimental Field, 1948–1958

Museo Guggenheim Bilbao

2020

Lygia Clark: The Abandonment of Art, 1948–1988

Cornelia H. Butler and Luis Pérez-Oramas

2014

Lygia Clark

Alison Jacques Gallery

2011

Lygia Clark

Réunion des Musées Nationaux

1998

News

Lygia Clark: The I and the You

Whitechapel Gallery, London

Lygia Clark

Pinacoteca de São Paulo

Lygia Clark: Retrospective

Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers & Lygia Clark

in Check Mate(s), Casa SP Arte, São Paulo, Brazil

Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers & Lygia Clark

in ‘Patterns’, Luhring Augustine Chelsea & Luhring Augustine Tribeca, New York

Robert Diament, Russell Tovey, and Louisa Buck on ‘Angel with a Gun’

Talk Art Podcast

Lygia Clark

in ‘Ambienti 1956-2010: Environments by Women Artists II’, MAXXI - National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome

Lygia Clark

in ‘Some May Work as Symbols: Art Made in Brazil, 1950s–70s’, Raven Row, London

Maria Bartuszová, Lygia Clark, Lenore Tawney, Hannah Wilke & Sheila Hicks

in ‘Beyond Form: Lines of Abstraction, 1950-1970’, Turner Contemporary, Margate

Lygia Clark

in ‘Making New Worlds: Li Yuan-chia & Friends’, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge

Lygia Clark

in ‘Re-Inventing Piet. Mondrian and the Consequences’ at Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein

Lygia Clark

in ‘Inside Other Spaces: Environments by Women Artists 1956 – 1976’, Haus der Kunst, Munich

Ana Mendieta & Lygia Clark

in ‘Action, Gesture, Performance: Feminism, the Body and Abstraction’, Whitechapel Gallery, London

Lygia Clark

in ‘An Act of Seeing that Unfolds: The Susana and Ricardo Steinbruch Collection’, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid

Lygia Clark

Okayama Art Summit 2022

Lygia Clark

in ‘Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women Since 1945’, Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham

Lygia Clark

in ‘Modern Women and Their Inventions’, Tomie Ohtake Institute, Saõ Paulo

Lygia Clark

in ‘The Point of Sculpture’, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona

Lygia Clark, Sheila Hicks & Lenore Tawney

in ‘Women in Abstraction’, Centre Pompidou, Paris

Lygia Clark & Veronica Ryan

in ‘Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women since 1945’, Arts Council Collection Touring Exhibition, UK

Lygia Clark: Organic Planes

Henry Moore Institute, Leeds

Lygia Clark: The Abandonment of Art, 1948–1988

MoMA, New York

Lygia Clark, Sheila Hicks & Dorothea Tanning

in ‘Making & Unmaking’, Camden Arts Centre, London

Lygia Clark

in ‘Abstract Experiments: Latin American Art on Paper after 1950’, The Art Institute of Chicago

Lygia Clark & Sheila Hicks

in ‘Making Space’, MoMA, New York

Lygia Clark: Painting as an Experimental Field

Guggenheim Bilbao

Lygia Clark

in ‘Sur Moderno: Journeys of Abstraction’, MoMA, New York

Lygia Clark, Fernanda Gomes, Ana Mendieta & Michelle Stuart

in ‘The Sensation of Space’, The Warehouse, Dallas

Lygia Clark

in ‘Negative Space’, ZKM Karlsruhe

Lygia Clark

in ‘Southern Geometries, from Mexico to Patagonia’, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris

Lygia Clark & Ana Mendieta

in ‘Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985’, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles