Lygia Clark. Breaking the Frame. Composition no. 5. 1954

Lygia Clark Breaking the Frame. Composition no. 5 1954

  • Not on view

In this work, lines and planes of color extend beyond the canvas, absorbing the thick wooden frame into the painting’s abstract composition. The frame’s function as a delimiting entity is thus challenged. Consequently, the work “falls to the level of common things, and becomes somehow equivalent with this door or that wall,” Clark explained. Yet space infiltrates the work through four “organic lines,” or gaps, between the canvas and frame. As a hinge between the realm of art and the world beyond, the organic line became symbolically central to Clark’s view of her art.

Gallery label from Sur moderno: Journeys of Abstraction—The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Gift, October 21, 2019–March 14, 2020
Medium
Oil and oleoresin on canvas and wood
Dimensions
41 15/16 x 35 13/16 x 13/16" (106.5 x 91 x 2 cm)
Credit
Gift of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros through the Latin American and Caribbean Fund
Object number
796.2016
Department
Painting and Sculpture

Installation views

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Provenance

The artist.
[Eduardo Clark, inherited from the artist]
? - 1997, Galeria César Aché, Río de Janeiro.
1997 - 2016, Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York, and Caracas, purchased from Galeria César Aché.
2016, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired as promised gift from Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.

Exhibition history

Barcelona, Fundació Antoni Tápies, "Lygia Clark" , October 21 - December 21, 1997 and tour:
Marseille, Musée d’Art Contemporain, January 16 - April 12, 1998
Porto, Fundação de Serralves, April 30 - June 28, 1998
Brussels, Sociéte des Expositions du Palais des Beaux-Arts, July 24 - September 27, 1998

Cambridge, Fogg Art Museum, " Geometric Abstraction, Latin American Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection / Abstracción Geométrica Arte Latinoamericano en la Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros", March 3 - November 4, 2001

São Paulo, Museo de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, "Paralelos: Arte brasileira da segunda metade do século XX em contexto. Colección Cisneros ", March 21 - June 16, 2002 and tour:
Rio de Janeiro, Museo de Arte Moderna de Rio de Janeiro, July 11 - September 22, 2002

Buenos Aires, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, "Geo-metrías. Abstracción geométrica latinoamericana en la Colección Cisneros", March 14 - May 19, 2003 and tour:
Montevideo, Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales de Montevideo, July 3 - October 25, 2003

Lima, Museo de Arte de Lima, "Diálogos. Arte Latinoamericano desde la Colección Cisneros", July 22 - September 26, 2004 and tour:
Santiago, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, November 25 - February 28, 2005
Bogotá, Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, May 5 - June 29, 2005

Austin, Blanton Museum of Art, "The Geometry of Hope. Latin american abstract art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros", February 20 - April 22, 2007 and tour:
New York, Grey Art Gallery, September 12 - December 8, 2007.

MoMA Exh. #2286: "Lygia Clark: The Abandonment of Art, 1948–1988", May 10 - August 24, 2014

Los Angeles, Getty Center, "Making Art Concrete: Works from Argentina and Brazil in the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros", September 16, 2017 - February 11, 2018

Stockholm, Moderna Museet, "Concrete Matters", February 24 - May 13, 2018

MoMA Exh. #2424: "Sur moderno: Journeys of Abstraction—The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Gift", 3rd Floor, 3 East, October 21, 2019 - September 12, 2020

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