LYGIA PAPE
b. 1927, Nova Friburgo, Brazil
d. 2004, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
“I always want to invent a new language that's different for me and for others, too. I want to discover new things. Because, to me, art is a way of knowing the world, to see how the world is,
of getting to know the world."
—Lygia Pape
Painted wood with automotive paint and tempering 50 x 50 x 10.5 cm 19 3/4 x 19 3/4 x 4 1/8 in
Wood, acrylic and latex on canvas 92 x 92 x 3 cm - 36 1/4 x 36 1/4 x 1 1/8 in
Wood engraving on Japanese paper 48.5 x 30.5 cm - 19 1/8 x 12 1/8 in
Painted wood with automotive paint and tempering 50 x 50 x 10.5 cm 19 3/4 x 19 3/4 x 4 1/8 in
For more information please contact the gallery
info@leontovargallery.com
Lygia Pape ranged widely across mediums, challenging formal and conceptual boundaries and becoming a pioneer of Brazilian contemporary art. Claiming, "art is my way of understanding the world", she worked in painting, printmaking, sculpture, dance, film, performance, and installation, always attempting to merge art and life. Her career began in the 1950s, with her involvement in the Concretist and Neo-Concretist movements, during which she created Op Art compositions driven by geometry and line. She later moved beyond these movements, orchestrating one of her best-known works, Divisor, in 1968, for which she invited people to poke their heads through slits cut into a capacious white sheet and move en masse in a circle. Towards the end of her life, she was crafting vivid installations, which, like all of her work, integrated the aesthetic, ethical, and political with elegance and wit.