Robert Therrien
No title, 1998
Steel, enamel and telephones, 57 × 105 × 43 inches (144.8 × 266.7 × 109.2 cm)
Robert Therrien
No title, 2004
Plastic, Assembled sculpture: 94 × 54 × 54 inches (238.8 × 137.2 × 137.2 cm)
Gagosian Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of two sculptures by Robert Therrien, one of the foremost contemporary American sculptors.
Based in Los Angeles, Therrien employs Duchampian wit while re-depicting the mundane. No title (black telephone cloud), 1998 is a twisted frenzy of wire and telephones. This elegant black form cleverly evokes today's constant acerbic rain of media noise and images that is our post-modern life.
In the second sculpture, No title (stacked plates), 2004, Therrien makes private moments public such as eating breakfast or washing dishes. The sheer size of the plastic plates forces the viewer to focus on banal elements of daily life and the domestic – dramatizing what we often overlook.
Robert Therrien has received widespread international acclaim and has exhibited throughout the world since the 1970s. His works are in collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane, Australia; Tate Modern, London; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
In honor of the extraordinary life of Robert Therrien (1947–2019), Aimee Gabbard writes about her time with the artist and explores his lifelong interest in photography.
The Fall 2019 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring a detail from Sinking (2019) by Nathaniel Mary Quinn on its cover.
Robert Therrien’s investigations of form, perception, and subjectivity often isolate recognizable elements and objects from everyday life. Blake Gopnik challenges the traditional readings of transformation and the purpose of scale in Therrien’s No title (folding table and chairs, green).
Alexander Wolf discusses the recurring themes and symbols that have emerged throughout Robert Therrien’s artistic career.
