A SENSORIAL ENCOUNTER IN BERLIN: LYGIA CLARK AND HER LIVING UNIVERSE
Neue Nationalgalerie presents the first major retrospective in Germany of Brazilian pioneer Lygia Clark, with over 120 works and an interactive approach that expands the boundries of the museum experiencie.
Neue Nationalgalerie offers a compelling reason to stop by the Kulturforum: until October 12, visitors can explore Lygia Clark. Retrospective, the first exhibition in Germany dedicated to the Brazilian artist who radically transformed the concept of art in the 20th century. Through a selection of 120 works spanning from the 1940s to the 1980s, the show unveils the sensorial, participatory, and deeply innovative universe of a key figure in the Neo-Concrete movement.
Curated by Irina Hiebert Grun and Maike Steinkamp, the exhibition traces all stages of Clark’s creative journey: from her early days as a geometric-abstract painter to her movable sculptures known as Bichos, her Sensorial Objects that engaged the viewer’s entire body, and her final therapeutic explorations through the concept of the Collective Body. Each gallery invites not only observation but active engagement—many pieces have been specially recreated to be handled, worn, or walked through, just as the artist intended.
“We are delighted to present Lygia Clark, one of the most important and yet least known artists of the 20th century in Germany,” said museum director Klaus Biesenbach. And rightly so: while her name is widely recognized in Latin America, Paris, and New York, this marks the first opportunity for a German audience to engage deeply with her legacy.
The retrospective highlights one of Clark’s most significant contributions to contemporary art: breaking away from the contemplative model in favor of a bodily, sensorial, and collective experience. In her work, seeing is not enough—one must touch, smell, hear, and feel. In this sense, the luminous upper hall of the Neue Nationalgalerie becomes the perfect setting to relive the fluid relationship between artwork, space, and body.
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Lygia Clark. Retrospektive, Ausstellungsansicht, Neue Nationalgalerie, 2025, © Neue Nationalgalerie - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz / David von Becker
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Lygia Clark, Túnel, 1968, Ausstellungsansicht, Neue Nationalgalerie, 2025, © Neue Nationalgalerie - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz / David von Becker
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Lygia Clark, Estruturas Vivas, 1966, Ausstellungsansicht, Neue Nationalgalerie, 2025, © Neue Nationalgalerie - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz / David von Becker
The exhibition features loans from major institutions such as the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro, MoMA, and the Cisneros Collection in New York. In addition, an international symposium on Clark’s work and its influence on 20th-century art will be held at the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut on October 1 and 2.
After its run in Berlin, Lygia Clark. Retrospective will travel to Kunsthaus Zürich, where it will be on view from November 14, 2025, to March 8, 2026.
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