A Foreigner Called Picasso
Cocurator of the exhibition A Foreigner Called Picasso, at Gagosian, New York, Annie Cohen-Solal writes about the genesis of the project, her commitment to the figure of the outsider, and Picasso’s enduring relevance to matters geopolitical and sociological.
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Winter 2023
The Winter 2023 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Pablo Picasso’s Le miroir (1932) on its cover.
A Flat on Rue Victor-Considerant
Lee Miller and Tanja Ramm’s friendship took them from New York to Paris and back, in front of and behind many cameras, and into the Surrealist avant-garde. Here, Gagosian director Richard Calvocoressi speaks with Ramm’s daughter, art historian Margit Rowell, about discovering her mother’s early life, her memories of Miller, and the collaborative work of photographers and models.
Urs Fischer: Wave
In this video, Urs Fischer elaborates on the creative process behind his public installation Wave, at Place Vendôme, Paris.
Mount Fuji in Cinema: Satyajit Ray’s Woodblock Art
In the first installment of a two-part feature, novelist and critic Amit Chaudhuri arrives at a more nuanced understanding of the filmmaker Satyajit Ray by tracing the global impacts of woodblock printing, following its perspective and language as it circulated in the last three centuries.
Leaning into the Ethereal: Jennifer Higgie and Salomé Gómez-Upegui
Salomé Gómez-Upegui interviews author Jennifer Higgie about her latest book The Other Side: A Journey into Women, Art and the Spirit World (2023).
Officine Générale: Pierre Mahéo
In October 2023, Officine Générale, the Paris-based brand of elegantly crafted, understated menswear and womenswear, opened its newest store on Madison Avenue in New York. Pierre Mahéo, the brand’s founder and creative director, met with the Quarterly’s Wyatt Allgeier at this location to discuss the evolution and consistency of his process, the influence of modernists like Charlotte Perriand, and what’s next for the brand.
In Conversation
Louise Bonnet and Stefanie Hessler
Gagosian hosted a conversation between Louise Bonnet and Stefanie Hessler, director of Swiss Institute, New York, inside 30 Ghosts, the artist’s exhibition of new paintings at Gagosian, New York. The pair explores the work’s recurring themes—the cycles of life, continuity and the future, and death—and discuss how the conceptual and pictorial structures Bonnet borrows from seventeenth-century Dutch still-life painting converge to form a metaphor for hard labor, basic animal urges, and the things we often try, but fail, to hide.
A Horse, of Course
Alix Browne considers the enduring presence of horses in the contemporary imagination.
Kiss Me, Stupid
Carlos Valladares mines the history of the romantic comedy and proposes an expanded canon for the genre.
The Art of Biography: Cosmic Scholar, The Life & Times of Harry Smith
Raymond Foye sits down with John Szwed to discuss his recent biography of the experimental polymath.
Benjamin Moser: The Upside-Down World
Benjamin Moser, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of biographies of Clarice Lispector and Susan Sontag, returns with a new book, The Upside-Down World, which tracks his decades-long engagement with the Dutch masters. Here he speaks with Josh Zajdman about the genesis of the project, the importance of judging your subjects, and the danger of art.
Events & Announcements
New Release
Anselm
Wim Wenders
Anselm (2023), an immersive 3D documentary directed by Wim Wenders, will have its US theatrical release in New York at Film at Lincoln Center and IFC Center on December 8, 2023, and in Los Angeles at AMC Santa Monica 7 and Laemmle Glendale on December 15, 2023. This unique cinematic experience, which premiered at Festival de Cannes earlier this year, dives deep into Anselm Kiefer’s practice and reveals his inspiration and creative process, exploring his fascination with myth and history. For over two years, Wenders traced Kiefer’s path from his native Germany to his former studio complex in southern France—now part of his foundation, Eschaton—weaving together pivotal moments in the artist’s life and decades-long career.
Still from Anselm (2023), directed by Wim Wenders
Announcement
Exhibiting Forgiveness
2024 Sundance Film Festival
Exhibiting Forgiveness (2023), a film written, directed, and produced by Titus Kaphar, is an official selection for the US Dramatic Competition of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah. Exploring family, generational healing, and the power of forgiveness, the motion picture follows a Black artist attempting to overcome the trauma of his past through painting who is on the path to success when he is derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father.
Still from Exhibiting Forgiveness (2023), directed by Titus Kaphar
Installation
Derrick Adams
Dewdrop Inn
December 3, 2023–Fall 2026
Baltimore Museum of Art
artbma.org
Derrick Adams’s Dewdrop Inn (2023) has been installed at the Baltimore Museum of Art as part of the reopening of the Patricia and Mark Joseph Education Center, which offers new opportunities for hands-on art making and engagement for families, students, and art lovers of all ages. The installation, which features a match-up card game designed by the artist, invites young museumgoers to interact with one another and learn about the museum’s rich collection of African American art.
Derrick Adams, Dewdrop Inn, 2023 © Derrick Adams Studio. Photo: Maximilian Franz
Visit
Rachel Whiteread
The Connaught Christmas Tree
November 16, 2023–January 7, 2024
The Connaught, London
www.the-connaught.co.uk
Encouraging passersby to celebrate a feeling of togetherness, Rachel Whiteread has used 102 white neon hoops to decorate the Connaught hotel’s 31-foot (9.4-meter) Nordmann’s fir. Whiteread regularly uses circular motifs within her practice and here they illuminate the streets of Mayfair, acting as a symbol of hope and unity this festive season.
Rachel Whiteread’s 2023 Connaught Christmas tree, London. Artwork © Rachel Whiteread
Museum Exhibitions
Closing this Week
Georg Baselitz
Sculptures 2011–2015
Through January 7, 2024
Serpentine Galleries, London
www.serpentinegalleries.org
Featuring works selected with Georg Baselitz and taken directly from his studio, this exhibition presents never-before-seen towering wood sculptures alongside loose, inky drawings. The sculptures were not originally intended for public view; they were made as maquettes in preparation for bronze works. Each sculpture originated as a single tree trunk, which Baselitz carved down using power saws, axes, and chisels. The exhibition provides new insights into the artist’s process, and how his works inform one another across different mediums.
Installation view, Georg Baselitz: Sculptures 2011–2015, October 5, 2023–January 7, 2024, Serpentine Galleries, London. Artwork © Georg Baselitz 2023. Photo: Hugo Glendinning
Closing this Week
Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno
Zidane, un portrait du XXIe siècle
Through January 7, 2024
Philharmonie de Paris
philharmoniedeparis.fr
Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (2006), a film collaboration by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno, is screening at the Philharmonie de Paris. Shot on seventeen synchronized cameras, Zidane frames the movements of footballer Zinédine Zidane in real time over the course of a single match between Real Madrid and Villarreal at Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on April 23, 2005. The seventeen large screens suspended around key parts of the exhibition play specific sounds and create a spatial effect, inviting visitors to stroll through both image and audio.
Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno, Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, 2006 (still) © Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany 2023 and © Philippe Parreno
Closing this Week
Andreas Gursky
Visual Spaces of Today
Through January 7, 2024
Fondazione MAST, Bologna, Italy
www.mast.org
Andreas Gursky: Visual Spaces of Today features forty works by Gursky selected by the artist and Fondazione MAST curator Urs Stahel and spanning his career. Drawing inspiration from the foundation’s name—the acronym stands for “Manifattura di Arti, Sperimentazione, e Tecnologia”—and its focus on art, innovation, and technology, the works aim to reflect these themes.
Installation view, Andreas Gursky: Visual Spaces of Today, Fondazione MAST, Bologna, Italy. Artwork © Andreas Gursky, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany. Photo: courtesy Fondazione MAST, Bologna, Italy
Closing this Week
Sally Mann in
Real Families: Stories of Change
Through January 7, 2024
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, England
fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk
Real Families: Stories of Change brings together more than 120 artworks spanning painting, photography, sculpture, and film. The exhibition asks viewers to question what makes a family today and to consider the impact our families have on us, through the eyes of contemporary artists. Work by Sally Mann is included.
Sally Mann, Three Generations, 1991 © Sally Mann