Alex Alvis Art

The Artist is a Lonely Person

At lease, according to Brazilian artist, Lygia Clark.  She is next on the list of artists featured in the WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution show in 2007.  I like her work because it (at least her later works) encouraged those viewing her work to also interact with it and I believe she a very important artist because of that.

From the DAN Galeria exhibition: ©Lygia Clark, 1960

This is nothing new to art these days, but back in the 60's and 70's interactive art, especially anyone coming to an art show being encouraged to manipulate a work on display (thereby being, in a sense, a collaborator to the work) was new concept.

©Lygia Clark-bisos

I have drawings of sculptures I will make that have participatory elements to them and I'm excited about the future creation of those.  I encourage people to touch my sculpture at shows.  This is one of the most amazing aspects of sculpture - I believe - sculpture allows us to not only have a visual experience but  a tactile experience of a work of art.

Lygia Clark took the idea of touching artwork to a whole new level and even believed that her art could improve the human condition.

©Lygia Clark - Canibalismo

She may have understated the simple and complex fact that art - most any art - improves the human condition (if only for the artist who creates it) and overstated what her art accomplished - but I haven't experienced her work first hand, either.  If I had gone to Moma's major retrospective of Clark's work earlier this year, I might have felt differently.

©Lygia Clark-The I and The You

This article written on Artnet News is a wonderful perspective about Lygia Clark herself and her work written by Ben Davis.  And also in BBC Culture written by Jason Farago.  So if you want to know more about the contributions of Clark and her work, these are a good read with more written references cited.

©Lygia Clark-Sensorial Mask

Tomorrow I will talk about the next artist on the list.  She once referred to herself as "one of the most obscure famous artists," Tee Corinne.

'Til tomorrow!

~Alex