Lygia Clark : The Abandonment of Art, 1948-1988

Having trained with modern masters from the late 1940s to mid-1950s, Lygia Clark was at the forefront of Constructivist and Neo-Concretist movements in Brazil. This title examines Clarks output from her early abstract compositions to the biological architectures and relational objects she created late in her career.

Published in conjunction with a major monographic retrospective of the work of Brazilian painter, sculptor and performance artist Lygia Clark, this publication presents a linear and progressive survey of the artist’s groundbreaking practice. Having trained with modern masters from the late 1940s to mid-1950s, Clark was at the forefront of Constructivist and Neo-Concretist movements in Brazil and fostered the active participation of the spectator through her works. Examining Clark’s output from her early abstract compositions to the ‘biological architectures’ and ‘relational objects’ she created late in her career, this is the most comprehensive volume on the artist available in English. Three sections based on key phases throughout her career – Abstraction, Neo-Concretism and The Abandonment of Art – examine these critical moments in Clark’s production, anchor significant concepts or constellations of works that mark a definitive step in her work, and shed light on groundbreaking sets of circumstances in her life as an artist. Each section is accompanied by a selection of works by other artists that provide context for understanding the circumstances that shaped her artistic investigations, as well works by a younger generation of Brazilian artists that reflect Clark’s own landmark influence. Featuring a significant selection of previously unpublished archival texts of Clark’s personal writings, it is a vital source of primary documentation for twentieth-century art history scholarship.