Weaving (Tecelar)

Pape produced a series of weavings (“tecelares” in Portuguese) primarily between 1955 and 1959. Building on her training as a printmaker, Pape adapted the traditional process of woodcut printing to produce the series. She abandoned the idea of the multiple in favor of unique prints that embraced the texture and shape of the paper as well as the unique characteristics of the woodblock, allowing the grain itself to become an aesthetic element of the work. Pape allowed the interaction between lines she incised in the block, the gradation in the wood, and the imprecise absorption of ink into the paper to generate a visual tension the artist described as “magnetised space.” In this series, Pape illustrated the ability of abstraction to be expressive, a central tenet of Neoconcrete art.