The Met is currently working on plans for a 2017 exhibition focused on the work of Lucio Fontana, and initial reporting by the Art Newspaper indicates that the exhibition could be held at the Breuer building, formerly the home of the Whitney Museum. “An exhibition at the Met will necessarily be all-encompassing,” an anonymous source close to the museum says. (more…)
Giuseppe Penone, Earth on Earth – Face (2014), via Marian Goodman
The New York outpost of Marian Goodman Gallery is currently presenting an exhibition of new works by Italian artist Giuseppe Penone, continuing the artist’s practice of casting living trees in order to reposition his subject’s relationship to the natural world. The exhibition, curated by Dieter Schwarz, director of the Kunstmuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, also culls a series of historically resonant works from the artist’s early career, extending a natural progression throughout the last 40 years of the artist’s practice. (more…)
Mario Schifano, Propaganda (1965), *All artwork images Courtesy of Artist Rights Society and Luxembourg & Dayan, installation shots Courtesy of Luxembourg & Dayan
Luxembourg & Dayan is presenting the New York leg of the gallery’s acclaimed London show from this past summer, Mario Schifano: 1960-67, which celebrated the seminal post-war Italian artist’s impressive career. Titled The ‘60s, the selection for thisshow delivers an ambitious look at a crucial period in the late artist’s life and career. Less known compared to his fellow counterparts, such as Pistoletto or Manzoni, Schifano had his breakthrough in the New York art scene with the infamous New Realists show at Sidney Janis Gallery in 1962. (more…)
Mario Merz, Pyramid (1997-2000), via Pace Gallery
With auctions this week in London centered around the post-war Italian landscape, Pace Gallery has culled together an exhibition of works of artist Mario Merz, featuring a series of sculptural and painted works that illustrate the artist’s broad conceptual scope and his varying interests in the nature of architecture, materiality and space.
Mario Merz (Installation), via Art Observed (more…)
Giuseppe Penone, Albero porta—cedro / Door Tree—Cedar (2012), © Giuseppe Penone. Courtesy Archivio Giuseppe Penone. Photography by Josh White/JWPictures.com
In his current show Ramificazioni del Pensiero / Branches of Thought, on view at Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills, Giuseppe Penone continues his exploration into the heart of the natural materials that compose his work. Focusing on the interplay between man and nature, Penone draws human elements out of the wood and marble he sculpts, obviating an undercurrent of commonality between the human figure and the stoic forms of tree and stone. (more…)
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Le orecchie di Jasper Johns (The Ears of Jasper Johns), (1966) via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed
At the current Michelangelo Pistoletto exhibition The Minus Objects 1965-1966, on view at Luhring Augustine’s Bushwick location, what greets visitors is their own reflection, as a single piece from the artist’s signature Mirror Paintings series, sits at the entrance. But the exhibition looks deeper into Pistoletto’s work throughout his career, focusing on the artist’s sculptural objects created between 1965 and 1966.
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Sfera sotto il letto (Sphere Under the Bed), (1965-1966) via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed
Bringing together a wide range of industrial materials such as wood, metal, newspaper and plexiglass along with glass mirror, the work carries an individualistic structure and an independent content: Pistoletto, by placing them in an uncommon harmony, orchestrates a coherent body of work composed of, in many ways, unrelated works. Structures underlining a hybrid combination of contrasting materials create a bridge between different techniques. For example Scultura Lignea (Wood Sculpture) includes a classically styled wooden sculpture, erected inside an orange-colored plexiglass case. Letto (Bed) on the other hand, is an assembly of wide ranging materials including glass mirror, velvet, wood and iron that Pistoletto culls together to render the domestic symbol.
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Scultura lignea (Wood Sculpture), (1965-1966) via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed
Another noteworthy element in the exhibition, as its title suggests, is absence. Pistoletto’s work here puts a strong emphasis on the invisibility or the disappearance of certain components of his work to create a flowing dynamic within the piece itself. Parts that were there but now gone, or parts that never existed encourage viewers to elaborate on these missing elements. Le orecchie di Jasper Johns (The Ears of Jasper Johns) for example, is a torn photograph of artist Jasper Johns, missing the whole middle section, and in turn showing only his ears, an interesting rumination on the interplay between fame and intellect in the contemporary artist. Bagno (Bath) is a fiberglass bathtub that has the scooped out silhouette of a human being inside. Giving an impression of a departed guest inside the bathtub, the silhouette carries an intangible mystery along with a sense of wicked humor. Pistoletto’s irony-inflected wit is also evident in works such as Rosa bruciata (Burnt Rose) which is a spray-painted, corrugated piece of cardboard curled to give the impression of a giant burnt rose.
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Rosa Bruciata (Burnt Rose), (1965) via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed
The act of subtraction is always at play here, examining Pistoletto’s reductive impulses at the heigh of Arte Povera, and his ongoing interest with the potential for the artist’s hand in contemporary practice. The Minus Objects 1965-1966 is on view through May 11, 2014
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Ciak Azzurro (1962-2007) via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Bagno (Bath) (1965-1966) via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed
—O. C. Yerebakan
Related Links:
Exhibition Page [Luhring Augustine]
Francis Bacon, Portrait of George Dyer Talking (1966), via Christie’s
Another week of contemporary art auctions have come and gone, with a number of high-profile works changing hands in London this week, and a number of new records being for artists across the board. All auction houses boasted strong sales results, with Christie’s once again taking the lead.
Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild 776-1 (1992), via Phillips (more…)
Artist Giuseppe Penone will bring a trio of monumental bronze tree sculptures to Madison Square Park this fall and winter, exploring the relationships between humanity and nature through art. Meticulous reproductions of 40 foot high trees, Ideas of Stone marks Madison Square Park’s 26th exhibition of outdoor sculpture. “A tree summarizes in an exemplary way the contrast between two forces: the force of gravity and the weight of life we are part of. The need and the search for balance, which exists in every living being to counteract the force of gravity, is evident in every step and in every small action of our lives.” Penone said in a statement. (more…)
Andy Ralph, Manifold Destiny (2013), via L&M Arts
L&M Arts’ current exhibition, Neo Povera, presents a group of works in the spirit of the 1960’s Arte Povera movement, meant to exist purely in and of their own material while pushing the boundaries of acceptable art. The Arte Povera movement attempted to strip symbolic implications from an object, leaving only the true material, thus making art that is unassuming, present, undivided from reality, minimal in material cost, and devoid of signifiers. At its conception, the group of Italian artists brought together by Germano Celant intended to dissolve the boundary between elite art and a common experience.
Neo-Povera (Installation View), via L&M Arts (more…)
Giuseppe Penone, Le Corps D’Un Jardin (Installation View), via Marian Goodman
Leading up to a major installation of sculptures at the Chateau de Versailles in Paris, Giuseppe Penone and Marian Goodman Gallery are presenting a selection of past works by the artist, exhibiting a selection of works playing on themes of nature, flux, space and texture. Consisting of large sculptures and wall-mounted works, Penone explores the interplay of gesture and movement within the relatively static forms of the artistic practice, and the elegant exchange between nature and man’s depictions of it.
The Bloomberg Commission: Giuseppe Penone Whitechapel Gallery, Installation View, Photo: David Parry / PA Wire, all photos courtesy of Whitechapel Gallery
Work by Italian artist Giuseppe Penone is being highlighted at two locations in London(although not an organized collaboration), the longer of which will remain until August 2013. Spazio di Luce, created by Giuseppe Penone for the Bloomberg Commission, opened at the Whitechapel Gallery in London on September 5th and will remain installed until August of next year, while Intersecting Gaze/Sguardo Incrociato is taking place currently at Gagosian Gallery at Davies Street London and will remain until November 27th, 2012. The works continue along themes Penone has been exploring throughout his 40-year long career, this time specifically exhibiting the idea that, in Penone’s words, “The stretching of a branch through space in search of light has the same structure as a glance.”
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Exhibition view, 2012 courtesy Linnea West
Michelangelo Pistoletto invites us to complete his latest artworks in the Simon Lee Gallery with images of ourselves. This is his second exhibition in the gallery (entitled Lavoro), of his ‘mirror works’, which are constructed of reflected stainless steel so the final product is forced to change every time someone enters into close proximity of the work.
Lavoro is Italian for ‘work’ ; the mirror medium is superimposed with silk screened prints of construction materials and elements of a building site. The entire gallery floor is interspersed with thematic elements such as erratically placed ladders and stacks of crates which, in turn, interact with the mirrored images exhibited around the room, changing what can be viewed while the spectator is in motion.
