Unity No. 1 (Unidade No. 1)

1958

Lygia Clark
Brazilian, 1920-1988

Lygia Clark was a founding member of the Brazilian Neo-Concrete movement, which pioneered modes of geometric abstract art that upset the usual relationship between artwork and observer and challenged traditional dualities between surface and edge or composition and support. These paintings, from a series of seven, demonstrate Clark’s move away from abstraction that relied on a stable relationship between figure and ground (seen in the work of Piet Mondrian and Kazimir Malevich, on view upstairs). She later wrote that her works were neither . .. a ‘machine’ nor an ‘object’ but rather an almost-body, which is to say, a being whose reality is not exhausted in the … relationships between its elements.

Status: On View, Gallery 291
Department: Contemporary Art

Artist: Lygia Clark
Title: Unity No. 1 (Unidade No. 1)
Place: Brazil (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1958
Medium: Industrial paint on wood
Dimensions: 30 × 30 cm (11 13/16 × 11 13/16 in.)
Credit Line: Through prior bequest of Joseph Winterbotham; through prior gift of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel M. Nickerson
Reference Number: 2021.254

Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, 1a. exposição neoconcreta, exh. cat. (Rio de Janeiro: Museu de Arte Moderna, 1959), n.p., cat. 20 (as Unidade no.1, 2nd versão).
Ferreria Gullar, Experiência neoconcreta: momento–limite da arte, facsimile reprint of the catalogue 1a. exposição neoconcreta (São Paulo, SP: Cosac Naify, 2007), n.p. (as Unidade no.1, 2nd versão).

Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, 1a. exposição neoconcreta, Mar. 19–Apr. 19, 1959, cat. 20 (as Unidade no.1, 2nd versão).
Salvador, Galeria Belvedere da Sé, Exposição Neoconcreta, Nov. 13–27, 1959 or Nov. 15–30, CAT INFO? Museu de Arte Moderna, Belo Horizonte, Jan. 1960?
London, Signals, Lygia Clark, May 27–July 3, 1965, no cat.
Salvador, Brazil, Convento do Carmo, La Bienal nacional de artes plásticas da Bahia, Dec. 28, 1966–Feb. 28, 1967, CAT. INFO?

The artist; given to Yve-Alain Bois, Paris, by 1976 [this and the following according to email from Yve-Alain Bois, July 30, 2021; copy in curatorial object file]; given to his sons, Alexandre Bois, Philadelphia, and Benjamin Bois, Ringoes, NJ, Oct. 2006; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, Nov. 9, 2021.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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