At Home in Twentieth-Century Brazil: An Analysis of Lygia Clark’s Models of Homes and Architectural Interiors
At Home in Twentieth-Century Brazil: An Analysis of Lygia Clark’s Models of Homes and Architectural Interiors

Summary/Abstract: Connected to legacies of Russian Constructivism, Dutch Neo-Plasticism, and the School of Design in Ulm, Germany, the constructivist project in Brazil functioned as an integral outlet to experiment with materials, design, and the relationship between the viewer and the art form. In the 1950s and 1960s, Brazilian artists engaged with abstract art under two principal movements associated with constructivism: Concretism and Neoconcretism. Concrete art developed differently in varying cities. Rio-based artists of the Grupo Frente departed from their São Paulo-based colleagues, Grupo Ruptura, who employed a more rational and geometrically precise approach to their art. In 1959, art critic Ferreira Gullar revolted against concrete art’s commitment to mathematics and rationalism and its “sterile nature” and instead advocated for a more participatory interaction between the viewer and the object. Gullar’s characteristics formed the backbone of Neoconcretism. It is within the context of Brazil’s constructivist project that this present scholarship addresses in relation to new concepts of living space and discussions of housing in the work of artist Lygia Clark, who was affiliated with the Grupo Frente and Neoconcretism.

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