Irene V. Small
The Organic Line: Toward a Topology of Modernism

Zone books, 2024 | pp. 448
6 x 9 in. | 237 color illus.



What would it mean to treat an interval of space as a line, thus drawing an empty void into a constellation of art and meaning-laden things? In this book, Irene Small elucidates the signal discovery of the Brazilian artist Lygia Clark in 1954: a fissure of space between material elements that Clark called “the organic line.” More than a history of a little-known artistic device, The Organic Line: Toward a Topology of Modernism is a user’s guide and manifesto for reimagining modern and contemporary art for the present.

Irene V. Small is an author, writing on topics ranging from Neoconcretism and radical pedagogy to social sculpture, restitution debates, free speech and the afterlives of slavery. She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Art & Archaeology at Princeton University. 

Thomas Lax is Curator of Media and Performance at the Museum of Modern Art.