Kunsthaus Zürich presents Lygia Clark: Retrospective, an exhibition that surveys the work of Lygia Clark (1920–1988), one of the most decisive figures in Brazilian art and a key voice of the 20th-century avant-garde. The exhibition traces her trajectory from geometric abstraction to participatory and sensorial practices that were fundamental in rethinking the relationship between art, the body, and the viewer.
Born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Clark was a central artist within the Neo-Concrete movement, through which she challenged the limits of the art object and proposed an aesthetic experience grounded in perception, touch, and active participation. Throughout her career, her work progressively shifted from the pictorial plane toward proposals that integrate the body as a space for experimentation and knowledge.
Among her most emblematic works are the Bichos (1960), articulated sculptures designed to be manipulated by the public, which break with the idea of a fixed and closed form. Later, Clark developed Sensorial Objects and Propositions, experiences that activate the senses and the body, culminating in her therapeutic practices, where art is conceived as a tool for subjective and collective transformation.
The exhibition brings together paintings, sculptures, relational objects, and therapeutic propositions that reveal this radical transformation. In these works, the viewer ceases to be a passive observer and becomes an essential part of the artwork, activating sensorial, psychological, and collective processes.
This retrospective positions Lygia Clarke as a central figure in the histroy of modern and contemprorary art, whose practice continues to influence participatory, performative, and relational art on an international scale.
