Alison Jacques Gallery presents Lygia Clark: works from the 1950s

Alison Jacques Gallery is pleased to announce a historical survey exhibition of works from the 1950s by Lygia Clark. This will be the artist's first solo presentation since the critically acclaimed retrospective Lygia Clark: The Abandonment of Art 1948-1988 curated by Connie Butler and Luis Pérez-Oramas, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014). It also follows the installation of Fantastic Architecture, at The Henry Moore Foundation (2014) and Lygia Clark: Organic Planes curated by Lisa Le Feuvre, at The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2014-2015).

Born in Brazil, Lygia Clark (1920-1988) is one of the most pioneering artists of the twentieth century. Clark's groundbreaking work radically innovated the relationship between the art object and audience and has become a reference point for generations of artists pushing the limits of sculpture today. Her work has been acquired for major museum collections including Tate, London; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago; Centre Pompidou, Paris and The Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid.

Lygia Clark was part of the neo-concrete movement, a splinter group of the 1950s Brazilian concrete art movement, calling for a greater sensuality, colour and poetic feeling in concrete art. In focusing on her work from the 1950s, we see the influence of her first visit to Paris in 1950 where she studied with key artists including Fernand Léger. The drawing Escadas (Stairs),1951 is a clear indication of Léger's influence on Clark but also of her interest in movement and a desire to break out from the restrictions of a static plane and strive for work that was more organic. It is this trajectory that we see in the graphite works from the early 1950s that continues into the group of 1957 monochrome gouaches Planos em Superfície Modulada (Planes in Modulated Surface). Throughout the decade, we see Clark's interest in colour via vibrant gouache works and a large turquoise painting Superficie Modulada (Modulated Surface) 1955-57 made with industrial paint on board.

Forthcoming museum shows include: Making and Unmaking, curated by Duron Olowu, Camden Arts Centre, London (June – September 2016) and a major presentation of work as part of The Shadow of Color curated by Rita Kersting (December 2016 – April 2017), The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

LYGIA CLARK: WORK FROM THE 1950s

3 JUNE - 30 JULY

Alison Jacques Gallery

16-18 Berners Street

London W1T 3LN