Announcing Representation of the Estate of Mira Schendel

Lisson is delighted to announce representation of the Estate of Mira Schendel, collaborating globally with Gomide & Co, São Paulo.

In 2027, Lisson New York will present an extensive survey of the artist’s works on paper, including a never-before-seen series of drawings. Paper, after all, was one of the defining media of Schendel’s oeuvre: not only was it featured in many of her most important works but it helped distinguish her from her contemporaries. To shed further light on Schendel’s practice ahead of this forthcoming solo show, Lisson will spotlight the artist’s work in a group exhibition in November this year. Also this Autumn, Luxembourg + Co., London, will present Mira Schendel: In Transit (opening 12 October), featuring paintings and works on paper from the 1950s through the 1980s, alongside a complementary display of Schendel’s work in a solo presentation at Frieze Masters. The presentation marks Schendel’s first exhibition in London in over a decade, following her landmark 2013 retrospective at Tate Modern. Coinciding with the exhibition is the publication of a new book by Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, in partnership with Luxembourg + Co., Gomide & Co and Lisson, which explores the relationship between colour and language in Schendel’s work and contributes to ongoing scholarship around her practice.

Lisson is particularly honoured to be representing the Estate given Schendel’s historic relationship with the gallery. The Swiss-born, Brazil-based artist first exhibited at Lisson in 1968, in two subsequent shows, after meeting Founder Nicholas Logsdail in the 1960s. Following Alex Logsdail’s visits to São Paulo over the past decade, and given Schendel’s ties to Lisson’s programme and roster – Hélio Oiticica, for example, was one of the key influences on the development of her experimental artistic style –, it is a privilege to share her oeuvre with audiences worldwide.

Alex Logsdail, CEO of Lisson, says: “Having been an admirer of Mira Schendel’s work for many years, and given her long history with Lisson, we are thrilled to announce representation of the Estate of Schendel. She was an absolute visionary; her practice informed ideas around abstraction, language and concrete poetry, and speaks to inherent beauty. What’s particularly exciting about working with the Estate is the chance to exhibit large bodies of work that have rarely, if ever, been shown publicly. We are also delighted to establish this new relationship with the major acquisition of Still Waves of Probability (1969), a particularly significant site-specific installation by Schendel, to Dia Art Foundation, New York, with the generous support of Ken Griffin.”

Mira Schendel (1919–1988) was indeed one of the most prolific artists and visionaries of the twentieth century. Cultivating an expansive practice throughout more than four decades, Schendel experimented across form and media. She incorporated paper, paint, fabric and acrylic to establish a unique visual language in which letters, numbers, geometric forms and textual fragments oscillate between image and sign. Rather than aligning with any style or artistic movement, her oeuvre occupies a singular position in the history of art, foregrounding the possibility of writing becoming an aesthetic medium, form merging with language, and the boundaries between object and environment continually dissolving.