Climber

At the end of the the nineteen-forties, Lygia Clark moved to Rio de Janeiro to study painting. At that time, the city had not become an avant-garde art hub yet. In fact, the very same Lygia Clark had a key role as an artist in such transformation. In 1953, Lygia was co-founder of Grupo Frente, with the participation of Ivan Serpa and Hélio Oiticica, among other remarkable artists who adhered to the ideas of renowned art critic Mário Pedrosa. A strong debate on figurative representation led Clark and many of them to producing abstract artworks, which gradually became less geometric and more subjective, and compelled them to ultimately abandon painting to devote to three-dimensional objects. “Trepantes” are built with soft steel sheets which Clark would let fall at random over variable sup- ports—in general, these are tree barks—as if they were living beings into full climbing action. These pieces could hardly ever be considered as traditional sculptures. As she was gradually more interested in the organic transformation of her artworks, Clark became a reference to Carioca neo-concretism along with Hélio Oiticica, a touchstone of Brazilian and Latin American contemporary art.