Lygia Pape

An insightful and sensitive exploration of Brazilian neo-concretist Lygia Pape's acclaimed work and her deeply human understanding and unique reframining of geometry and abstraction.

Working across sculpture, drawing, engraving, filmmaking, and installation, Brazilian neo-concretist Lygia Pape geometric abstractions play with their viewers senses in order to explore rich territory. This publication, which accompanied the 2016 exhibition held at Hauser & Wirth London, brings together a group of works spanning from 1955 to 2001. The precise, incised lines of Papes Tecelares woodcut prints and drawings of the 1950s and 1960s marry pure geometry with organic patterns. Her subsequent Ttéia installations (begun in the late 1970s and continued throughout her career) present captivating explorations of geometry, space, and materiality. Particularly notable among the installations is Ttéia no. 7 (1991): consisting of two small blue pyramids illuminated by a blue light from above, the work explores the boundaries between color, light, and material, as well as the nuanced experience of looking. The books deep blue cover, as well as the translucent blue pages bound-in throughout, pays homage to this work. Immersive installation views and focused detail shots complement the perceptive and thoughtful texts by Briony Fer and Daniel Birnbaum, two ardent followers of Papes work. Birnbaum, who featured Papes Ttéia 1, C (2001/2016) as the opening piece in the 53rd Venice Biennale, speaks to the artworks heritage and legacy. Fer unpacks Papes vision of abstraction, mining her profound sensitivity to the full physical and material experience of printmaking, ultimately elucidating Papes deeply human understanding and unique reframing of geometry and abstraction. See more