Lygia Pape

In the 1950s, Pape created her Tecelares Series. The Tecelares wood prints were originally seen purely as works of Concrete art because of their precise and geometric aesthetic. The woodblock prints are minimalistic; they feature planes of black ink and thin lines that reveal the white rice paper underneath. The production of the series seems straightforward: Pape incised the entire surface of the woodblock with thin lines, adding several non-orthogonal lines to create the appearance of distinct planes and the suggestion of movement and space in a work that would be otherwise flat and static.[7] In Tecelares, Lygia Pape used "weaving" as a metaphor to evoke handiwork and a connection to Brazil's traditional and indigenous culture.[7] Pape spoke of how indigenous Brazilian cultures had used geometry to express fundamental concepts, like the concept of collective identity.[7] Thus, for Lygia Pape, geometry didn't represent industry or mechanization, but rather it expressed a transcendent idiom.[7] Instead of using a gridded and rigid composition, Pape blended natural and organic patterns with incised lines that are intertwined to "warp and weft."[7] Pape used simple materials, crafted minimally by her own hands to incorporate expression into a work that is not expressionistic. In so doing, the vitality of the materials surface, as do the "relationships of the open and closed space, the sensitive and non-discursive thing."[7]

This 1959 artwork in the Tecelares series, takes the same woodblock carving technique and is incised by thin parallel lines which are disrupted by the non-orthogonal lines that cut across the print. The two horizontally oriented lines that cut across the print break up the continuity of the parallel lines, creating the illusion of a separate plain and thus, space.

Although Pape used a ruled edge and a compass to create the lines in Sem Título [Untitled] (1959), there are slight variations in the width of the lines, revealing that a hand rather than a machine made the forms. Additionally, the rice paper's delicacy had absorbed the ink, creating imprecise edges. The black ink of the woodprint's background also reveals the natural wood grain of the block print as one can see the porous marks of the wood between the incised lines on the print. So despite the woodprint's originally Concrete identity, Sem Título [Untitled] (1959), is now understood as a transitional piece from the Concrete movement into the Neo-Concrete, as it is infused with non-mechanical and "handmade" qualities that seem more expressive than mechanistic.[7]

• Untitled at the Museum of Modern Art, 1959
• Untitled at the Museum of Modern Art, 1959

The 1960s version of Tecelares is even more organic and expressive than the earlier 1959 version. The print shows the grain of the woodblock even more overtly in the bottom portion of the print, while the top portion remains relatively muted. As in the other prints in this series, Sem Título [Untitled] (1960) is cut by diagonal lines that disrupt the continuity of the horizontal wood grain pattern, creating movement and distinct planes in the artwork, though they are considerably more subtle than the 1959 Sem Título [Untitled] print of the same series. Also similar to the 1959 print, the 1960 print has the same imprecise quality created by the feathering of the ink on the rice paper. It also has a very organic quality, which is produced through the patterns and swirls of the wood grain. Because of this organic pattern, this print seems to overtly oppose the mechanic properties associated with Concrete art.[7]

• Untitled from the series Weavings (Tecelares) at the Museum of Modern Art, 1960

The sculpture/book/poem Livro da Criacao [Book of Creation] is emblematic of the early Neo-Concrete works. The work consists of sixteen unbound cardboard "pages". The pages are 12 x 12 inches each and feature abstract images that are supposed to signify a significant moment in the creation of the world, such as the recession of water, the discovery of fire and agriculture, hunting, and navigation.[7] Each page is additionally accompanied by a title that gives sequence and meaning to the book. However, many of these titles function more as poetic lyrics, making the interpretation of each page difficult and the sequencing hard to follow.

The viewer is meant to participate with the artwork, manipulating the book and interacting with the pages up close. As the viewer handles and assembles each page, he or she is meant to interpret the lyrics and project their interpretation onto the abstract page. The participant's perception of the abstract page is meant to shift after he or she reads the accompanying lyric and projects it onto the abstract page. Thus, the idea of creation is twofold: the book itself is a narrative of the creation of the world, but it also narrates the creative process of the participant as he or she unfolds the meaning of the work.[7]

As a Neo-concrete artist, Lygia Pape's Livro da Criacao [Book of Creation] synthesizes reason and emotion. The participant is meant to have a phenomenological experience by handling the book. Each reading of the work might be different based on the individual's experiences. As Lygia Pape noted, "It's important to say that there are two plausible readings: for me it is the book of the creation of the world, but for others it can be the book of "creation." Through each person's experiences, there is a process of open structure through which each structure can generate its own reading."[7]

Of all of Pape's works, Ttéias (1979) is perhaps most emblematic of her artistic process.[2] The Ttéias was first conceived in 1979, but it was not until the 1990s that it was produced in full scale.[2] Pape invented the word "Ttéias", which is a pun based on the Portuguese word for "web" ("teia") and for "a person or thing of grace" ("teteia").[15] This series consists of an immersive staging of semi-transparent prisms, which were created using gold thread.[16] Some A square platform drilled with nails serves as the base of each prism. The gold thread is then wrapped around each protruding nail, from floor to ceiling, to create the prism. Light is shone onto the prisms at various angles, emphasising the metallic sheen of the thread. The exhibition space is otherwise dark, giving the illusion that the prisms continue infinitely upwards.

The spatial diagram created by Ttéias (1979) is very similar to the sense of space and movement created in her earlier Tecelares series woodprints. Like Tecelares, the lines of Ttéias (1979) are made with simple materials, include geometric shapes, and create movement through the intersection of lines and the creation of space. So too, there is a human element in the use of materials and the production of the work, in which each thread is pulled taut from floor to ceiling by hand.

The Ttéias (1979) were intended not only to create volume, but to draw lines that are nearly invisible.[2] True to Neo-concrete art, there is a relationship between the viewer and the art as the lighting of the prisms changes according to the viewer's position in the exhibition space, accentuating the spatial relationship between the viewer and the work itself. The spectacular shimmering lines of Ttéias(1979) and the effect they produce in the viewers has been compared in lightness and weight to cathedrals.[2]