Extended through November 5, 2022
Works Exhibited
About
Art is not an object; it is an event.
—Richard Artschwager
Gagosian is pleased to present a selection of paintings, sculptures, and drawings by the late Richard Artschwager (1923–2013), the first exhibition of his work at Gagosian Basel. Since Artschwager’s participation in curator Harald Szeemann’s epoch-making exhibition Live in Your Head. When Attitudes Become Form at Kunsthalle Bern in 1969, his work has been shown internationally, including throughout Switzerland at such major institutions as Kunsthalle Basel (1981), Kunst Museum Winterthur (2002 and 2006), and Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2005).
Artschwager specialized in crossing boundaries between genres and mediums, revealing the deception involved in pictorial illusion and communicating the essential strangeness of everyday objects and spaces. His work foregrounds the structures of human perception, often conflating the worlds of flat images and three-dimensional objects in witty and confounding ways. Artschwager made extensive use of synthetic materials, especially Formica and Celotex, a highly textured compound board.
The exhibition in Basel features several paintings on Celotex, including two titled Weaving (1969) that focus on the details of a fabric surface; Untitled (1992), an exterior view of a suburban house; and The Kitchen (1971), a depiction of the titular room. Also included is T.W.M.D.R.B. (1987), a view of six objects (the titular table, window, mirror, door, rug, and basket). All these works reflect Artschwager’s longstanding interest in domesticity and infuse a deadpan, documentary approach with a surreal effect, as if their subjects were being observed at a physical and cultural distance. Artschwager derived these images, as he often did, from newspaper photographs, employing a grid system to enlarge them from their sources and enhance blurred details.
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Artist
Richard Artschwager
A conversation between Adam McEwen and Bob Monk.
Artists’ Magazines
Gwen Allen recounts her discovery of cutting-edge artists’ magazines from the 1960s and 1970s and explores the roots and implications of these singular publications.
Richard Artschwager
On the occasion of the exhibition Richard Artschwager: Primary Sources, recently on view at Gagosian, New York, Bob Monk and Maggie Dougherty explore the artist’s use of reference materials as the impetus for his paintings.
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2019
The Spring 2019 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Red Pot with Lute Player #2 by Jonas Wood on its cover.
News
Visit
Kunsttage Basel 2022
Richard Artschwager and Douglas Gordon
September 1–4, 2022, 11am–6pm
Basel
kunsttagebasel.ch
Kunsttage Basel is a citywide program of art events at more than fifty-five museums, galleries, and other spaces. The exhibition Richard Artschwager, featuring a selection of paintings, sculptures, and drawings by the artist, will be on view at Gagosian, Basel, with extended hours. Douglas Gordon will also present work—including Pretty Much Every Film and Video Work from About 1992 Until Now (1999–)—in a weekend-long installation at Fondation Beyeler as part of the program.
Richard Artschwager, Chair/Chair, 1990 © 2022 Richard Artschwager/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever
