Fairs & Collecting
Public Installation
Urs Fischer
Wave
October 14–November 30, 2023
Place Vendôme, Paris
Gagosian is pleased to present Urs Fischer’s public sculpture Wave (2018). The work will be installed at Place Vendôme in Paris from October 14 as part of Paris+ par Art Basel.
Wave is the sixth sculpture in Fischer’s series Big Clays. Despite their imposing scale, these works always begin with a small piece or pieces of clay shaped in the artist’s hand. Fischer describes this process as “a sensual and repetitive gesture, like a bodily motion,” which he ends prior to conscious intervention. After making hundreds of such forms, he selects only one to be digitally scanned and carved at an enlarged scale. Unlike a cast form or a digital replica, the resulting work preserves the nuanced tactility of the original maquette, magnifying its details—down to the artist’s fingerprints—into a monument.
Urs Fischer, Wave, 2018, installation view, Place Vendôme, Paris © Urs Fischer. Photo: Stefan Altenburger
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.
Brice Marden
Larry Gagosian celebrates the unmatched life and legacy of Brice Marden.
In Conversation
Georg Baselitz and Richard Calvocoressi
In conjunction with the exhibition The Painter in His Bed, at Gagosian, New York, Georg Baselitz and Richard Calvocoressi discuss the motif of the stag in the artist’s newest paintings.
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.
Lee Miller and Friends
The American Surrealist photographer Lee Miller is the subject of the exhibition Seeing Is Believing at Gagosian, New York. Here we present a conversation on the stewardship of Miller’s legacy, her photography and writing from the frontlines of war to the pages of Vogue, and the intertwined lives of her friends, lovers, and the many artists she knew.
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.
This Is Hardcore: Pulp, and the Making of an Image
This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of This Is Hardcore, the sixth album by the band Pulp. A new book by Paul Burgess and Louise Colbourne celebrates the occasion by bringing together behind-the-scenes imagery and anecdotes from the creation of the album and its music videos. Author Young Kim reflects on the album’s impact, both musical and visual, on the late ’90s and speaks with the primary collaborators—Pulp lead singer Jarvis Cocker, art director Peter Saville, and artist John Currin—behind the iconic imagery.
Reanimating History: Ewa Juszkiewicz and Jennifer Higgie in Conversation
Writer and art historian Jennifer Higgie met with Ewa Juszkiewicz to learn more about the painter’s process, her varied inspirations, and her views on the social and emotional roles of art.
The Road Opens: In Conversation with Okwui Okpokwasili
Multidisciplinary artist Okwui Okpokwasili’s new work adaku, part 1: the road opens is a continuation of her efforts to bring West African forms of dance, poetry, song, and theater into a contemporary framework. Catching up with Okpokwasili after the work’s premiere in Los Angeles this past spring, Rennie McDougall traces adaku’s artistic lineages ahead of its New York debut in the fall.
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.
Events & Announcements
Screening
Walton Ford Selects
November 17–22, 2023
Metrograph, New York
metrograph.com
Walton Ford has curated a selection of films as part of a series copresented by Gagosian and Metrograph. The program features five films that explore extreme psychological states in their storylines and use pioneering and sometimes unconventional acting and cinematographic techniques to achieve the result. Ford explains, “These films dive deep into characters in ways that are sometimes harrowing and always completely surprising. None of these films are cliché or pat, and all share an unorthodox style or method. As a narrative painter, I seek to explore subjects and tell stories in this way.”
Featured films include
At Land (1944, directed by Maya Deren)
Heat Lightning (1934, directed by Mervyn LeRoy)
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, directed by Maya Deren and Alexandr Hackenschmied)
Naked (1993, directed by Mike Leigh)
The Sword of Doom (1966, directed by Kihachi Okamoto)
Still from The Sword of Doom (1966), directed by Kihachi Okamoto
Screening
Anselm
Tuesday, November 28, 2023, 7pm
IFC Center, New York
www.ifccenter.com
Join Gagosian and White Cube for a special screening of Anselm (2023), an immersive 3D documentary directed by Wim Wenders, which premiered at Festival de Cannes 2023. For over two years, Wenders traced Anselm 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. This unique cinematic experience dives deep into Kiefer’s practice and reveals his inspiration and creative process, exploring his fascination with myth and history.
Still from Anselm (2023), directed by Wim Wenders
In Conversation
Body Sculpture
Jordan Wolfson and Russell Storer
Saturday, December 9, 2023, 2pm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
nga.gov.au
Jordan Wolfson will be in conversation with National Gallery of Australia’s head curator, Russell Storer, to celebrate the world premiere of Wolfson’s new robotic work, Body Sculpture (2017–23), a recent major acquisition by the gallery. Together they will trace the development of the work over the past six years, from the artist’s original vision to the various collaborations and cutting-edge technologies required to realize it. The event will also be livestreamed and is free to attend online with registration.
Jordan Wolfson at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2023. Photo: National Gallery of Australia
Museum Exhibitions
Opening this Week
Fairy Tales
December 2, 2023–April 28, 2024
Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au
Fairy Tales explores centuries of beloved folk stories through contemporary art, costumes, immersive installations, and cinema from visual storytellers around the world. The exhibition aims to untangle themes of bravery and justice, loyalty and humility, cunning and aspiration. Work by Rachel Feinstein, Urs Fischer, and Carsten Höller is included.
Rachel Feinstein, Mr. Time, 2015 © Rachel Feinstein
Opening this Week
Ellen Gallagher
All of No Man’s Land Is Ours
December 2, 2023–March 10, 2024
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
www.stedelijk.nl
All of No Man’s Land Is Ours is Ellen Gallagher’s first solo exhibition in Amsterdam. The installation reflects the diversity of the artist’s practice in which painting, cut and carved rubber, crumpled notebook papers, and metal beaten to an airy thinness intertwine in a dynamic relationship.
Ellen Gallagher, Ecstatic Draught of Fishes, 2022 © Ellen Gallagher. Photo: Tony Nathan.
On View
Sterling Ruby in
Un patrimoine méconnu. Tableaux du diocèse de Paris du XVe au XXe siècle
Through December 16, 2023
Collège des Bernardins, Paris
www.collegedesbernardins.fr
This exhibition, whose title translates to A Little-Known Heritage: Paintings from the Diocese of Paris from the Fifteenth to the Twentieth Centuries, places fourteen rarely seen paintings from the collection of the diocese in dialogue with a work by Sterling Ruby. Ruby’s ceramic sculpture Basin Theology/BRAVAMAX (2014) alludes to the rich Christian symbolism of the basin as a purifying vessel. Made by fusing discarded clay shards into a new form, the work engages the paintings’ sacred themes.
Sterling Ruby, Basin Theology/BRAVAMAX, 2014 © Sterling Ruby
On View
X
A Decade of Collecting, 2012–2022
Through December 21, 2023
Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
sheldonartmuseum.org
X: A Decade of Collecting, 2012–2022 is a survey of artworks acquired for the Sheldon Museum of Art’s collection over the past decade. The chosen works demonstrate the breadth of collecting efforts and are a modest representation of the approximately 1,875 pieces that have entered the museum’s holdings since 2012. The exhibition seeks to present a snapshot of how the collection continues to evolve. Work by Richard Avedon, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Andy Warhol, and Stanley Whitney is included.
Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Big Bertha, 2015 © Nathaniel Mary Quinn