The Art Institute in Chicago is assembling close to 100 works by Lygia Papes (1927 – 2004) beginning February 11. The Brazilian artist celebrated the flowering of her artistic career in the 1950s and -60s. The woodblock prints that the Art Institute is presenting in the show of the same name also come from her so-called »mature phase«: the Tecelares. Papes created the term herself and did not christen her works with this name until the 1970s. It translates loosely as »weaving,« and thus borrows at once from Papes' unique approach to craftsmanship and the influence of international modernists. The highlight of the exhibition: some of the exhibits are appearing before a public audience for the first time since their creation. They can be seen until June 5.
Lygia Papes is considered a key figure in the development of contemporary art in Brazil, as well as a co-founder of the Neo-Concrete movement. In the mid-20th century, she explored new visual languages and diverse media. She summed up her efforts in painting, performance, printmaking, and sculpture. Papes' style is characterized by overlapping geometric and linear elements, some of which recall the clash of atomic particles, rudimentary city maps, or slides of microscopic specimens.
