Lygia Pape Magnetized Space ends soon at the Serpentine Gallery

Lygia Pape Livro do Tempo (Book of Time) 1961-63 Installation view, Magnetized space Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2011 © Projeto Lygia Pape and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

Lygia Pape (1927-2004) was a leading Brazilian artist whose work brought together formal rigour and daring experimentation. In her own words, she explained her approach: ‘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 Livro do Tempo (Book of Time) 1961-63 Installation view, Magnetized Space, Serpentine Gallery, London (7 December 2011 - 19 February 2012) © 2011 Jerry Hardman-Jones

Pape was a founding member of the Neo-Concrete movement, which was dedicated to the inclusion of art into everyday life. Pape’s early work developed out of an interest in European abstraction, however she and her contemporaries went beyond simply adopting an international style, and started to draw on their own local situation.

Neo-Concretism is often seen as the beginning of contemporary art in Brazil, and Pape’s work – which focused on the coming together of aesthetic, ethical and political ideas – has formed an important part of Brazil’s artistic identity.

Lygia Pape Untitled. Tecelar (Weavings) 1958 Woodcut on Japanese paper 30 x 54 cm Installation view Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2011 © Projeto Lygia Pape

The exhibition presents work from throughout Pape’s career, including early drawings and poems from her Concrete period to her Neo-Concretist Livros (Books) and Caixas (Boxes) series, as well as ballets and performances such as Divisor (Divider) and O ovo (The Egg). Many of these works were created in response to the political repression growing in the late 1960s and reflected the artist’s strongly critical views on Brazil’s elite. Pape’s late works focused on the depiction of emotion and sensation, and have been described by Hélio Oiticica – a contemporary of Pape’s – as ‘permanently open seeds’.

Lygia Pape Ttéia 1, C (Web) 2011 Installation view, Magnetized Space Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2011 © Projeto Lygia Pape

The exhibition is organised by the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in collaboration with Projeto Lygia Pape and the Serpentine Gallery. The exhibition at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía was curated by Manuel Borja-Villel, Director, and Teresa Velázquez, Head of Exhibitions. The exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery is curated by Julia Peyton-Jones, Director, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director, and Sophie O’Brien, Exhibition Curator.

Lygia Pape Installation view, Magnetized Space, Serpentine Gallery, London (7 December 2011 - 19 February 2012) © 2011 Jerry Hardman-Jones

Exhibition ends: 19 February 2012

Serpentine Gallery

Kensington Gardens

London W2 3XA

T 020 7402 6075