The Brazilian artist Lygia Pape (1927-2004) is now represented by Mendes Wooden DM. Pape made pioneering contributions to Brazilian artwork over the course of her five-decade profession. She was a central determine of the Concrete and Neo-Concrete artwork actions that emerged within the Nineteen Fifties and continued to radically evolve her observe all through her lifetime.
Pedro Mendes, who based Mendes Wooden DM with Felipe Dmab and Matthew Wooden, tells The Artwork Newspaper that the gallery is “very linked to the place Pape started her concepts”, and that Pape’s property was drawn to working with a Brazilian gallery with a world attain, who may “symbolize Lygia from Brazil to the world”.
Mendes Wooden DM—which operates areas in São Paulo, Brussels, Paris and New York—will maintain a career-spanning exhibition of Pape’s work in São Paulo in April 2026, coinciding with the SP-Arte honest and in anticipation of the artist’s centenary 12 months, when numerous world establishments are anticipated to mirror on Pape’s profession and affect. The gallery additionally plans to convey works to the forthcoming version of Artwork Basel in Paris in October this 12 months.
Pape studied philosophy and aesthetics on the Universidade do Brasil and conjunctly educated in visible arts by way of workshops in Rio de Janeiro, the place she grew to become concerned with the burgeoning avant-garde circles within the metropolis. She first gained recognition as a printmaker, creating summary woodcuts.
Lygia Pape, Amazoninos Vermelhos [Red Amazoninos], on the thirty fourth Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, 2021 Courtesy of Projeto Lygia Pape. Photograph by Pedro Pape
Pape’s work was featured within the second Bienal de São Paulo in 1953. All through the Nineteen Fifties, she expanded her observe by way of numerous experimental and collaborative tasks. She formally co-founded the Neo-Concrete motion with the artists Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica, Franz Weissmann, Amílcar de Castro and Reynaldo Jardim in 1959 in Rio de Janeiro with the publication of the Manifesto Concreto. The motion emphasised a sensorial and natural artwork, rising in response to the rigidity of the beforehand established Concrete motion, which was influenced by European Constructivism and geometric abstraction.
The general public debut of the Neo-Concrete motion was held on the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro within the exhibition Exposição Neoconcreta I (1959). Pape offered her Tecelares (Weavings) sequence, prints incised on skinny paper that create geometric patterns that recommend the interlacing of woven textiles and evoke Indigenous weaving traditions. In Exposição Neoconcreta II (1960), she exhibited the artist e book Livro da Criação (E-book of Creation), a piece comprised of unbound cardboard pages unfolded into three-dimensional shapes that invite viewer participation and underscored the Neo-Concrete motion’s emphasis on interactive experiences.
Over the following a long time, Pape continued to push boundaries, creating immersive environments, sculptures, prints, movies, installations, artist books, work, sculptures and extra. All through the nation’s army dictatorship (1964-85), she created delicate works utilizing subliminal language to deal with politics.
“She actually demonstrated that artwork’s position extends far past the gallery—it’s meant to have interaction with society and contribute to its transformation,” Mendes says. “Her work was political, revolutionary and aesthetically refined. It’s an honour to have fun her legacy as a result of she represents an essential lineage of Brazilian artwork that continues to encourage many artists.”
Lygia Pape, Ttéia 1,C, set up view of Icônes [Icons] at Pinault Assortment, Punta della Dogana, Venice, 2023 Courtesy of Projeto Lygia Pape. Photograph by Pedro Pape
Subsequent week the Pinault Assortment’s Bourse de Commerce in Paris will open Pape’s first retrospective in France, Tisser l’espace (Weaving Area) (10 September-23 February 2026). The present centres on Pape’s monumental set up Ttéia 1, C (2003/2025)—a part of a celebrated sequence of geometric installations that Pape conceived within the late Seventies consisting of gold or silver threads and lightweight intersecting in area. A model of Ttéia 1, C (2002) was exhibited in the primary exhibition of the Venice Biennale in 2009.
Pape has beforehand had solo exhibitions on the Artwork Institute of Chicago in 2023, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf in 2022, the Fondazione Carriero in Milan in 2019 and the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in 2017. Her work is held in collections together with the Museum of Trendy Artwork, the Tate, the Centre Pompidou, Inhotim, the Glenstone Basis and others.
White Dice can even proceed to symbolize Pape’s property, which is run by Pape’s daughter, Paula Pape.
