Extended through September 17, 2016
Works Exhibited
About
Words have these abstract shapes, they live in a world of no size.
—Ed Ruscha
Gagosian is pleased to present LEXICON, an exhibition of artworks that employ the written word.
A lexicon is a stock or inventory of systematized language, whether personal or belonging to a larger cultural context, which can be shared and deployed. Since the beginning of recorded history, language and art have collided and intersected. And from the modern era onward, artists have employed words and language to diverse effect, using writing as both act and subject—in print, light, sculpture, and paint on canvas. Works in the exhibition include Marcel Broodthaers’s Académie I (1968); Alighiero Boetti’s embroidered magic word squares (Arazzi) (1977–92); Ed Ruscha’s large-scale three-part painting A, B, C (1985–87); Jenny Holzer’s stone agit, Selections from the Living Series (Bench #9) (1989); Douglas Gordon’s text work for a television monitor, A moment’s silence (for someone close to you) (1998); Jean-Michel Basquiat’s cultural cryptograms; and Cy Twombly’s abstruse and airy scratchings. Lawrence Weiner has created a new site-responsive version of AT THE SAME MOMENT (2000) for the rue de Ponthieu gallery, and Piero Golia has designed a printed wallpaper especially for the exhibition.
Language and art have never lived too far away from one another: concrete poetry, propaganda, graffiti, and Pop art, among other genres, testify to their dynamic interplay over time. LEXICON presents works by artists who have made language and letters into what poet William Carlos Williams would have referred to as “the thing itself”: language becoming physical object.
The exhibition will include works by Carl Andre, Giovanni Anselmo, Julien Audebert, Robert Barry, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alighiero Boetti, Joe Bradley, Marcel Broodthaers, Robert Filliou, John Giorno, Robert Gober, Piero Golia, Douglas Gordon, Loris Gréaud, Damien Hirst, Jenny Holzer, Emilio Isgrò, Neil Jenney, Jasper Johns, Joseph Kosuth, Barbara Kruger, Claude Lévêque, Glenn Ligon, Adam McEwen, Sarah Morris, Albert Oehlen, Nam June Paik, Steven Parrino, Richard Prince, Sterling Ruby, Ed Ruscha, Cy Twombly, and Lawrence Weiner.
Gagosian est heureuse de présenter LEXICON, une exposition d’œuvres qui font usage des mots.
Un lexicon est un stock ou un inventaire de langage systématisé, qu’il soit personnel ou qu’il fasse partie d’un contexte culturel plus large, qui peut être partagé et développé. Depuis le début de l’histoire connue, le langage et l’art se sont heurtés et croisés. À partir de l’ère moderne, les artistes ont employé les mots et le langage à des fins diverses et variées, utilisant l’écriture à la fois comme action et comme sujet, que ce soit dans les domaines de l’édition, de la lumière, de la sculpture et de la peinture sur toile. Les œuvres de l’exposition comprennent notamment Académie I de Marcel Broodthaers (1968); des œuvres brodées et sur papier d’Alighiero Boetti allant de 1977–92; la peinture monumentale en trois parties d’Ed Ruscha A, B, C (1985–87); Selections from the Living Series (Bench #9), déclaration sur pierre de Jenny Holzer (1989); A moment’s silence (for someone close to you), œuvre textuelle de Douglas Gordon créée pour un écran de télévision (1998); les denses cryptogrammes culturels de Jean-Michel Basquiat; et les traits complexes et aériens de Cy Twombly. Lawrence Weiner a créé une nouvelle version de AT THE SAME MOMENT (2000) pour la galerie rue de Ponthieu, et Piero Golia a dessiné un papier peint spécialement pour l’exposition.
Le langage et l’art n’ont jamais été très loin l’un de l’autre: la poise concrète, la propagande, le graffiti et le Pop Art, parmi d’autres genres, attestent de leur interaction dynamique au fil du temps. LEXICON rassemble des exemples d’artistes qui ont fait du langage et des lettres ce que le poète William Carlos Williams décrit comme «la chose en soi»: le langage devenant un objet physique.
L’exposition comprend des œuvres de Carl Andre, Giovanni Anselmo, Julien Audebert, Robert Barry, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alighiero Boetti, Joe Bradley, Marcel Broodthaers, Robert Filliou, John Giorno, Robert Gober, Piero Golia, Douglas Gordon, Loris Gréaud, Damien Hirst, Jenny Holzer, Emilio Isgrò, Neil Jenney, Jasper Johns, Joseph Kosuth, Barbara Kruger, Claude Lévêque, Glenn Ligon, Adam McEwen, Sarah Morris, Albert Oehlen, Nam June Paik, Steven Parrino, Richard Prince, Sterling Ruby, Ed Ruscha, Cy Twombly, et Lawrence Weiner.
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In Conversation
Neil Jenney and Michael Cary
On the occasion of Neil Jenney: AMERICAN REALISM TODAY, the artist sat down with Gagosian curator Michael Cary to discuss paintings from Jenney’s recent series Modern Africa (2015–)—a subseries of the New Good Paintings (2015–)—and the preceding series, Good Paintings (1971–2015).
Picture Books: Percival Everett and Brandon Taylor
The second installment of Picture Books, an imprint organized by Emma Cline and Gagosian, presents author Percival Everett’s novella Grand Canyon, Inc. alongside Untitled (Original Cowboy), a photograph by Richard Prince. In celebration of the publication, Everett met with author Brandon Taylor to discuss the novella, the role of history in the writing process, and the similarity in methodologies for science and literature.
Say Goodbye, Catullus, to the Shores of Asia Minor
Thierry Greub tracks the literary references in Cy Twombly’s epic painting of 1994.
Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror
Carlos Basualdo, the Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Scott Rothkopf, Senior Deputy Director and Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, spoke with the Quarterly’s Alison McDonald ahead of the opening of the unprecedented collaborative retrospective Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror to discuss the goals, revelations, and unique structure of the project.
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Fall 2021
The Fall 2021 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Damien Hirst’s Reclining Woman (2011) on its cover.
Albert Oehlen: Terrifying Sunset
The artist speaks with Mark Godfrey about his new paintings, touching on the works’ relationship to John Graham, the Rothko Chapel, and Leigh Bowery.
