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An arrangement of shapes on paper: i the foreground, darker shades of gray and black in triangles, diamonds, and rhombuses. The edges are soft. Faint wood patterns emerge in their centers. Behind them, a few rectangles with the same woodgrain create a soft backdrop. An arrangement of shapes on paper: i the foreground, darker shades of gray and black in triangles, diamonds, and rhombuses. The edges are soft. Faint wood patterns emerge in their centers. Behind them, a few rectangles with the same woodgrain create a soft backdrop.

Lygia Pape: Tecelares

Exhibition

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Lygia Pape (1927–2004) was a key figure in the development of contemporary art in Brazil, dedicated to exploring new visual languages and multiple media, including painting, performance, printmaking, and sculpture.

She produced her mature work during the 1950s and 1960s and, along with fellow Brazilian artists Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica, co-founded the Neo-Concrete movement which advocated for art whose forms were expressive, organic, and experiential. 

J9011 Press Straightened

Tecelar (Weaving), 1955


Lygia Pape. Courtesy Projeto Lygia Pape

This exhibition brings together nearly 100 rarely seen woodblock prints by Pape, some of which have not been shown publicly since the artist exhibited them in the 1950s and 1960s. Composed of overlapping geometric and linear elements, they at times suggest the clash of atomic particles, rudimentary city plans, or slides of microscopic specimens.

J9052 Press Straightened

Tecelar (Weaving), 1959


Lygia Pape. Courtesy Projeto Lygia Pape

While Pape made these prints between 1952 and 1960—overlapping with her involvement with the Neo-Concrete movement—she did not apply the title, Tecelar, to the works until the mid-1970s, once she understood their importance to her later work. The invented term, which loosely translates to “weavings,” refers to the artist’s unique, handmade approach to printmaking as well as the influence of international Modernists, such as Josef Albers, who were showing their work in Brazilian exhibitions more widely in the 1950s. This interest in layering and materiality is also demonstrated by the inclusion in the exhibition of one of Pape’s late Ttéia sculptures, arrangements of metal wire or string that create brilliant, ephemeral environments that seem to vibrate.

Large black shapes arranged on an off-white background. In the center, a zig-zag made of triangles and parallelograms; on the sides, two triangles point toward one another along the lines of the central form. Woodgrain shows through the black. The negative space creates its own suggestions of shape.

Tecelar (Weaving), 1958


Lygia Pape. Courtesy Projeto Lygia Pape

Although Pape’s woodblock prints are becoming better known, they haven’t yet received the focused attention they deserve. This exhibition and the accompanying publication explore these works in depth, situating them within Pape’s broader career, revealing new insights into her process, and examining the ways in which she used them to embody her core ideas about art: “My concern is always invention. 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: Tecelares is organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and curated by Mark Pascale, Janet and Craig Duchossois Curator, Prints and Drawings.

CATALOGUE

A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition and features essays by Adele Nelson, Pascale, and María Cristina Rivera Ramos. Learn more.

Sponsors

Major support for Lygia Pape: Tecelares is provided by The Diane & Bruce Halle Foundation.

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