English
Until the 12th of September, the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid is showing the work of Brazilian artist Lygia Pape. The exhibition was organised in association with the Lygia Pape Project, and was commissioned by Manuel Borja Villel and Teresa Velásquez.
The show comprises 250 works, which include paintings, reliefs, xylographs, cinematography, poems, texts, and performance pieces as shown though photography. One of the most interesting, and exclusive parts of the collection is the series of experimental cinema that Pape made.
Lygia Pape was born in New Friburg, Brazil, in 1927. Her name figures amongst the greats of Brazilian art, standing out for her mastery with the plastic arts, and an aesthetic devotion to devising new languages with which to transform the normal order. She was a key participant in the formation in the Frente art movement, led by Iván Serpa, which went public around 1954, with an exhibition in Rio de Janeiro. The group was formed by alumni of Serpa, and various artists which included Lygia Pape and Ligia Clark, who debated the influences of abstraction and the idea of concrete art in opposition to modern, figurative and nationalistic painting.
In 1959, Pape separated from the Frente group, and joined the group which would revise concretism, and found “neo-contretism,” developing a new art manifesto which would breathe new life into contemporary Brazilian art. Neo-concretism was born as an opponent to the rationalism of concretism, and denied the validity of scientific attitudes in art, approaching instead the problem of expression and seeking to incorporate new dimensions, and languages for a non-figurative art which engaged the spectator in order to complete the artistic experience of the artist.
A few years ago, Pape explained this experience: “We separated ourselves from the Sao Paolo group, because they wanted to create a ten-year project for the future. The Rio group believed that to be too rationalist. We wanted to work with intuition.”
In the work Livros, Pape dismantles the space between the observer and the work, playing with spacial and visual languages in order to create a work permanently under construction. She also interlinks life and the body in Ballet Neoconcreto a piece based in a 2-word poem by Reynaldo Jardim. And in Tecelares Pape makes recordings of complex compositions, in which precision becomes the tension; something repeated in later works.
Lygia Pape was an exceptional artist, and her tireless search for new languages with which to involve the spectator in the work also took her to work with children in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, with the 1968 work Divisor which consisted of huge white canvasses with holes for people to stand behind.
For more information http://www.museoreinasofia.es/exposiciones/futuras.html
Nancy Guzman
On show at the Reina Sofia – so if you were thinking of spending a few days in Madrid accommodation don´t miss out on this exhibition.
Translated by: Poppy
