17 Facts About Lygia Pape

Lygia Pape was a Brazilian visual artist, sculptor, engraver, and filmmaker, who was a key figure in the Concrete movement and a later co-founder of the Neo-Concrete Movement in Brazil during the 1950s and 1960s.

Lygia Pape was born on 7 April 1927 in Nova Friburgo, Brazil.

Lygia Pape studied philosophy at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.

The production of the series seems straightforward: Lygia Pape incised the entire surface of the woodblock with thin lines, adding several non-orthogonal lines to create the appearance of distinct planes and the suggestion of movement and space in a work that would be otherwise flat and static.

In Tecelares, Lygia Pape used "weaving" as a metaphor to evoke handiwork and a connection to Brazil's traditional and indigenous culture.

Lygia Pape spoke of how indigenous Brazilian cultures had used geometry to express fundamental concepts, like the concept of collective identity.

In 1952, at the age of 25, Lygia Pape met fellow Brazilian artists Helio Oiticica, Ivan Serpa, and Aluisio Carvao.

Lygia Pape sought to explore this idea of the body's relation in space by creating multi-sensorial experiences in her artwork.

Later on in the 1960s and 1970s, Lygia Pape produced more videos and installations using sarcastic and critical metaphors against the Brazilian dictatorship.

Lygia Pape's artwork worked as a vehicle for existential, sensorial, and psychological life experiences, much of it based in geometry and relying on both the intellectual and physical participation of the viewer.

From 1972 to 1985, Lygia Pape taught semiotics at the School of Architecture at the Universidade Santa Ursula in Rio de Janeiro, and was appointed professor in the School of Fine Arts of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in 1983 as well.

When reinterpreting these artworks, Lygia Pape adopted the form of photography with no surprise.

In 1978 Lygia Pape began to experiment arranging and rearranging metallic strings together with her students at the Parque Lage Gardens in Rio de Janeiro.

Lygia Pape died on 3 May 2004 in Rio de Janeiro at age of 77.

Lygia Pape's work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, and the Tate,.

Lygia Pape's work was included in the 2021 exhibition Women in Abstraction at the Centre Pompidou.

Lygia Pape did not work with a commercial gallery until later in life.