Lygia Clark: Retrospective

‘It’s you who now give expression to my thoughts,’ said Lygia Clark in a statement in 1965. ‘Draw from them whatever vital experience you want.’ Anyone who feels restricted by usual gallery practice – standing in front of a work and examining it from a safe distance – would do well to attend this retrospective, which celebrates the Brazilian artist’s knack for getting visitors to touch and even handle her work (23 May–12 October). There have been a number of exhibitions of Clark’s work in recent years, including a survey at the Whitechapel Gallery in London in 2024, but this show in Berlin is distinguished by its scope. It comprises 120 loans that span the 1940s to the ’80s and includes abstract paintings and wood panels as well as her most famous works: her Bichos, geometric metal ‘critters’ that can be arranged and folded into various permutations by the viewer. A series of live performances does justice to her idea of art as something that can be ‘activated’.

Find out more from the Neue Nationalgalerie’s website.
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Superfície Modulada (1955–56), Lygia Clark. Private collection

Estruturas de Caixa de Fósforos (1964), Lygia Clark. Private collection, London. Photo: Michael Brzezinski; courtesy Alison Jacques; © O Mundo de Lygia Clark–Associação Cultural, Rio de Janeiro

Bicho De Bolso (1966), Lygia Clark. Private collection