Lygia Clark

Lygia Clark was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. She moved to Rio de Janeiro in the 1940s to study painting. During the early 1950s she lived and studied in Paris. On return to Brazil in 1952, she first exhibited her abstract paintings at the Ministry of Education and Culture in Rio. Clark followed the Concrete Art movement and was member of the Grupo Frente. This was a group of artists, among them Lygia Pape, who first exhibited together in 1954. However, unlike the ideas of the Concrete Art movement, Clark thought of the divisions of one geometric form to another as organic and in 1959 she signed the Neo-Concrete Manifesto. She was one of a number of artists who also founded this movement. Clark’s close professional relationship with Hélio Oiticica is mentioned by a number of scholars as it influenced Brazilian art significantly. During her career, Clark increasingly incorporated the spectator in her art through sensory experiences and participation. She eventually dedicated her professional life to this practice, blurring the lines between art and therapy.