Works Exhibited
About
Gagosian is pleased to present its second major exhibition in Moscow, for what you are about to receive. Following the first presentation of Gagosian artists in the capital last year, the exhibition continues to build upon Gagosian’s presence in Russia, with its previous support of the Cy Twombly and Willem de Kooning exhibitions at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg in 2003 and 2006.
The upcoming exhibition contrasts ways in which contemporary artists continue to investigate the twin pillars of twentieth-century art: the readymade and pure abstraction, reflecting on the sublime through a self-conscious engagement with material and process. To underscore these concerns, the site for the exhibition is a nineteenth-century former chocolate factory called Red October, a powerfully suggestive and highly atmospheric architectural landmark named in the spirit of the Bolshevik Revolution. Red October has been inaccessible to the public for many years; the Gagosian exhibition will open its doors once again and inaugurate an ambitious new arts program for the city of Moscow. For many of the artists involved, this will be their first exposure in Moscow.
Guests at the opening on September 17, 2008, will witness the performance of Arc Light by New York–based artist Aaron Young, who has choreographed a team of motorcycle riders to weave dangerously on a specially prepared platform or support. The resulting tire-burns and skid marks create an amplified expansion of Jackson Pollock’s famous “action paintings.”
The title and invitations for the exhibition have been conceived as an artwork by renowned Scottish artist Douglas Gordon, a Turner Prize winner known for his work in a variety of media, including film and video as well as text.
The exhibition is presented in collaboration with Prime Concept, Guta Group, Red October, and the National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow. Gagosian would like to thank our contributors for helping to bring this exhibition to Moscow.
Friends and Relations: Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews
Join Jake Auerbach, Richard Calvocoressi, Bella Freud, Martin Gayford, and Florence Hallett as they discuss the work and legacy of four era-defining artists. Friends and Relations: Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews, on view at Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London, elucidates the connections between their respective practices, and also features some of the artists’ portraits of each other.
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Winter 2022
The Winter 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Anna Weyant’s Two Eileens (2022) on its cover.
Bruce Bernard: Portraits of Friends
Virginia Verran details the photographer’s friendships with the London painters.
Frank Auerbach: Artist Friends
In this candid interview with Richard Calvocoressi, the painter Frank Auerbach reminisces on his friendships with Michael Andrews, Francis Bacon, and Lucian Freud. The two spoke during the planning of the exhibition Friends and Relations, a show that examines the interconnected lives and art practices of this group of London painters.
Richard Serra: Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Alina Ibragimova
Violinist Alina Ibragimova performs Bach’s Sonata for Solo Violin No. 1 in G Major: Adagio (BWV 1001, c. 1720) from within Richard Serra’s sculpture Transmitter (2020) at Gagosian, Le Bourget. Organized by Bold Tendencies, a nonprofit organization that commissions artists to produce site-specific projects and present performances, in collaboration with Gagosian, this recorded performance took place on May 8, 2022 before a live concert of Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time, 1941).
Richard Serra: Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Mario Brunello
Cellist Mario Brunello performs Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major: Prelude (BWV 1007, c. 1717–23) within Richard Serra’s sculpture Transmitter (2020) at Gagosian, Le Bourget. Organized by Bold Tendencies—a nonprofit that commissions artists to produce site-specific projects and present performances—in collaboration with Gagosian, this recorded performance took place on May 8, 2022, before a live concert of Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time, 1941).