Lygia Clark
Encyclopedia
Lygia Clark was a Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

 best known for her painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 and installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...

 work. She was often associated with the Brazilian Constructivist movements of the mid-20th century and the Tropicalia movement. Even with the changes in how she approached her artwork, she did not stray far from her Constructivist
Constructivism (art)
Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, which was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th...

 roots. Along with Brazilian artists Amilcar de Castro
Amílcar de Castro
Amílcar Augusto Pereira de Castro was a Brazilian artist, sculptor and graphic designer...

, Franz Weissmann, Lygia Pape
Lygia Pape
Lygia Pape was an influential Brazilian artist, active in both the Concrete and Neo-Concretist movements in Brazil.-Life and work:...

 and poet Ferreira Gullar
Ferreira Gullar
Ferreira Gullar is the pen name for José Ribamar Ferreira , Brazilian poet, playwright, essayist, art critic, and television writer...

, Clark co-founded the Neo-Concretist art movement. The Neo-Concretists believed that art ought to be subjective and organic. Throughout her career trajectory, Clark discovered ways for museum goers (who would later be referred to as "participants") to interact with her art works. She sought to redefine the relationship between art and society. Clark's works dealt with inner life and feelings.

Life

In 1920, Lygia Clark was born in Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte is the capital of and largest city in the state of Minas Gerais, located in the southeastern region of Brazil. It is the third largest metropolitan area in the country...

, Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais is one of the 26 states of Brazil, of which it is the second most populous, the third richest, and the fourth largest in area. Minas Gerais is the Brazilian state with the largest number of Presidents of Brazil, the current one, Dilma Rousseff, being one of them. The capital is the...

 Brazil. Clark became an artist in 1947. In this year, she moved to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

 to study with Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx
Roberto Burle Marx
Roberto Burle Marx was a Brazilian landscape architect whose designs of parks and gardens made him world famous. He is accredited with having introduced modernist landscape architecture to Brazil...

. Between 1950-52, she studied with Léger and Arpad Szenes in Paris. In 1953, she became one of the founding members of Rio's Frente group of artists. In 1957, Clark participated in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

's first National Concrete Art Exhibition. This would be one of Clark's frequent trips to Brazil in order to exhibit her artwork.

In the first decade of her career, Clark devoted her time to painting and sculpture. In the early 1970s, Clark taught art at the Sorbonne. During this time, Clark also explored the idea of sensory perception through her art. Her art became a multisensory experience in which the spectator became an active participant. Between 1979 and 1988, Clark moved more toward art therapy than actually creating new works. She used her art therapy to treat psychotic and mildly disturbed patients. Clark returned to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

, Brazil in 1977. In 1988, she died of a heart attack in her home.

Some critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...

s say her artwork pre-aged the modern
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...

 digital information era
Information Age
The Information Age, also commonly known as the Computer Age or Digital Age, is an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously...

. Her later works were more abstract
Abstract art
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...

 and holistic
Holism
Holism is the idea that all the properties of a given system cannot be determined or explained by its component parts alone...

 with a focus on psychotherapy
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...

 and healing
Healing
Physiological healing is the restoration of damaged living tissue, organs and biological system to normal function. It is the process by which the cells in the body regenerate and repair to reduce the size of a damaged or necrotic area....

.

Stylistic Periods

During the early part of Clark's career, she focused on creating small monochromatic paintings which were done in black, gray, and white. She would then move on to create neo-constructivist sculptures. During the 1960s, her work became more conceptual and she used soft objects that could be manipulated by the art spectator. Clark later moved on to co-found the Neo-Concretist movement, which was joined by fellow Brazilian Hélio Oiticica
Hélio Oiticica
Hélio Oiticica was a Brazilian visual artist, best known for his participation in the Neo-Concrete group, for his innovative use of color, and for what he later termed "environmental art", which included Parangolés and Penetrables, like the famous Tropicália.- Early work :Oiticica's early works,...

. Throughout her career, Clark's art would evolve as if she had unanswered questions about her art's effect on spectators. One of her goals, through her artwork, was to answer all of her questions. The purpose of her art was to appeal to the average, everyday person, not just the bourgeois crowd.

As previously mentioned, Clark and Oiticica co-founded the Neo-Concretist movement. The Neo-Concretists believed that art was subjective and organic. They believed that an artwork should be manipulated by the spectator. The Neo-Concretists believed that the object and person should become a single entity. They utilized 3-dimensional moveable figures so that the spectator, in essence, becomes the artist. Neo-Concretists looked to push the limits of what art represented. The art is the actual process of doing. It is during this interaction that the spectator truly experiences what the art work means.

In the late 1950s, Clark and Oiticica fused modern European geometric abstraction art with a Brazilian cultural flavor. The Brazilian Neo-Concretist movement borrowed their artistic ideas from Max Bill
Max Bill
Max Bill was a Swiss architect, artist, painter, typeface designer, industrial designer and graphic designer.Bill was born in Winterthur...

 who was the director of the Ulm Superior School of Form in Germany during the early 1950s. One of the goals of this newest artistic group was to create worldly, modern art as opposed to the provincial style currently popular in Brazil. The Neo-Concretists wanted art to be intuitive, yet expressive and subjective.

During 1960s-1970s Brazil, there was a counter-cultural movement that persisted even after the country was ruled under a military dictatorship. At this point in time, Institutional Act Number 5 (aka AI5) was enacted and artists were forced into exile. Many artists fled Brazil simply because they were unable to deal with the current political situation. Clark spent these years in Paris where she taught at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...

. She developed her more famous interactive works with her students.

During the 1970s, Clark explored the role of sensory perception and psychic interaction that the participants would have with her artwork. She referred to this as "ritual without myth". For Clark, art work would have no representative meaning outside of its manipulation by the participants. Participants would take the art objects and fashion them in any way that they pleased. At this point, the line between the participant and art work would become blurred. The participants would become one with the art piece. In a sense, the participant and art work would become fused. In the final years of her career, Clark focused solely on psychotherapy and the use of art in healing patients. Clark's objective through her art was to surpass each phase since ideas that were originally considered groundbreaking were outdated with regard to her latter works.

Clark's later, more famous works were viewed as "living experiences." Clark's interactive art period lasted three decades . She did not separate the mind from the body and believed that art should be experienced through all five senses. After 1963, Clark's work could no longer exist outside of a participant's experience. Her art became an interactive experience. She believed that a viewer (also known as a "participant") served an active and important function in the art world. This is one reason Clark's work cannot be adequately enjoyed at a museum. In most museums, works are affixed to a stand or on the wall. Clark's works were meant to be manipulated by the viewer/participant. Her belief was that art should be a multi-sensory experience, not just one enjoyed through the eyes.

One of her most recognized interactive art pieces is Baba Antropofágica. This piece was inspired by a dream that Clark had about an anonymous substance that streamed out from her mouth. This experience was not a pleasurable one for Clark. She viewed it as the vomiting of a lived experience that, in turn, was swallowed by others. In a sense, Clark seemed to view this atrocity as a way of displaying its freedom. One of Clark's (and for that matter, Oiticica) aims was to create art directed toward a larger world audience, drawing attention toward its social issues thus achieving as sense of cultural freedom. For her interactive art pieces, Clark always used inexpensive everyday objects. These objects would then only have significance if they came into direct contact with a participant's body.

In the latter part of her career, Clark focused more on art therapy and less on the actual creation of a work. When she returned to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

 in 1976, Clark's therapeutic focus rest upon the memory of trauma. She wanted to uncover why the power of certain objects brought about a vivid memory in her psychotherapy patients so that she could treat their psychosis. Depending upon the individual, the sessions could be short-term or longterm. Treatment came about through the relationship between the relationship object and how the participant interpreted its meaning.

Art Works/Experiments

1958: Unidade series- These were paintings on a dense matte surface produced with a nitro-cellulose paint on board. There was no frame, but the black surface was raised from the wall and bordered by slightly recessed, narrow lines that suggest a fullness or even an emptiness.

Cocoons- These were unpainted metal sheets that were folded over so that there was an interior space. These sheets were hung on the wall.

1960s: Bichos (aka Animals, Beasts, Critters) - This was the first series of movable art pieces created by Clark. This was where Clark took the Cocoons structures down from the wall and thus they became hinged art pieces, which could then be manipulated by participants. Clark viewed the Bichos as living organisms whose parts were all functionally related to each other. The participants interaction with these organisms is what defines the new relationship.

1964: Borrachas,- These flexible sculptures were not on pedestals nor were they affixed to the walls: complete interaction between the art piece and the participant.

Caminhando- The participants are each invited to take a pair of scissors, twist a strip of paper and form a Mobius loop out of it and continuously cut alone the plane. This is the art experiment in which Clark commented that the meaning of this particular experience lies in actually engaging in the activity.

1966: Air & Stone- A small plastic bag was filled with air. A stone is then placed on the bag and the participant squeezes the bag to experience the heft of the space and the weightlessness of the air inside the bag. The rock begins to show qualities of a living organism. In this experiment, Clark played with the concept of opposites such as emptiness and fullness and air versus solid.

1967: Sensorial Hoods- This experiment involved eye pieces, ear covers, and a small bag that would be affixed over the participant's nose. The participants would also have helmets with small mirrors affixed to them. The purpose of this experiment was to utilize all of the senses at one time. The outcome of this experiment might be that a participant would use his senses in a way he would never have thought possible.

Abyss-Masks- The participant's eyes were blindfolded and large bags of air weighed down with stones could be touched giving off the sensation of empty space from within the body.

The I and the You: Clothing/Body/Clothing- A man and a woman wear hoods over their eyes and a full body suit and during this experiment, each would come to understand their own gender by feeling through their pockets

1973: Collective Bodies- Listed below.

Antropofagia- One participant lies down while the rest sit around him with blindfolds over their eyes and communicating with one another solely by touch. These participants are eating fruit found inside the pockets of the reposed participant's suit (which forms a stomach).

Baba Antropofágica (aka "Anthropophagical Dribble") - One participant lies down and the standing participants hold small spools of thread in their mouths and release the string until the reposed participant would be completely immersed in the thread.

1976: Structuring the Self

1976-1982: Clark focused primarily on art therapy

Exhibitions

1959 - Bienal, São Paulo

1960 - Venice Biennale, Venice

1960 - Konkrete Kunst, Zürich

1961 - Bienal, São Paulo

1962 - Venice Biennale, Venice

1963 - Bienal, São Paulo

1964 - Signals Gallery, London

1964 - Mouvement II, Paris

1965 - Signals Gallery, London

1965 - Paco Imperial, Rio de Janeiro

1967 - Bienal, São Paulo

1968 - Retrospective, Venice Biennale, Venice

1986 - Retrospective (with Hélio Oiticica), Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro

1987 - Retrospective, Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo

1997 - Documenta, Kassel

2000 - Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA

2001 - Brazil: Body and Soul, New York, Guggenheim Museum

2001 - 7th International Istanbul Biennial – Sala especial, Istanbul

2002 - Brazil: Body and Soul, Guggenheim Museum, New York

2003 - Pulse: Art, Healing and Transformation, ICA, Boston,

2004 - Pensamento Mudo, Dan Galeria

2004 - Artists' Favourites, ICA - London

2005 - 50 Jahre/Years DOCUMENTA: 1955-2005, Kunsthalle Fridericiaum Kassel

2005 - Lygia Clark, da obra ao acontecimento: somos o molde, a você cabe o sopro..., Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes

2005 - Tropicália: a revolution in Brazilian Culture, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

2006 - Barbican, London

2006 - Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo
The Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo is one of the most important art museums in Brazil. It is housed in a 1900 building in Jardim da Luz, Downtown São Paulo, projected by Ramos de Azevedo and Domiziano Rossi to be the headquarters of the Lyceum of Arts and Crafts...

, SP, Brasil

2006-07 - Bronx Museum of the Art, New York

2007 - WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, MOCA, Los Angeles

2010 - elles@centrepompidou, the Pompidou Centre, Paris

Note: Clark's later works were interactive pieces which made it difficult for museum curators to properly display them in their institutions. Consequently, her works from the late 1960s onward have not been seen in art exhibitions.

Websites

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