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Giuseppe Penone

Selected Works

January 30–March 23, 2018
Geneva

Installation view Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view

Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view

Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view

Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view

Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Annik Wetter

Works Exhibited

Giuseppe Penone, Pelle del monte, 2012 (detail) Carrara marble, 67 × 63 × 2 ¼ inches (170.2 × 160 × 5.7 cm)© Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio

Giuseppe Penone, Pelle del monte, 2012 (detail)

Carrara marble, 67 × 63 × 2 ¼ inches (170.2 × 160 × 5.7 cm)
© Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio

Giuseppe Penone, Pelle del monte, 2012 (detail) Carrara marble, 67 × 63 × 2 ¼ inches (170.2 × 160 × 5.7 cm)© Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio

Giuseppe Penone, Pelle del monte, 2012 (detail)

Carrara marble, 67 × 63 × 2 ¼ inches (170.2 × 160 × 5.7 cm)
© Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio

Giuseppe Penone, Propagazione, 1995 Ink on paper, 18 ⅞ × 13 inches (48 × 33 cm)© Giuseppe Penone

Giuseppe Penone, Propagazione, 1995

Ink on paper, 18 ⅞ × 13 inches (48 × 33 cm)
© Giuseppe Penone

Giuseppe Penone, Indistinti confini—Aesontium (Indistinct Boundaries—Aesontium), 2013 Carrara marble, bronze, and iron, 72 ¼ × 13 ¼ × 21 ⅞ inches (183.5 × 33.5 × 55.5 cm)© Giuseppe Penone

Giuseppe Penone, Indistinti confini—Aesontium (Indistinct Boundaries—Aesontium), 2013

Carrara marble, bronze, and iron, 72 ¼ × 13 ¼ × 21 ⅞ inches (183.5 × 33.5 × 55.5 cm)
© Giuseppe Penone

About

On the occasion of the installation Idee di Pietra in Gstaad, Switzerland, Gagosian is pleased to present selected works by Giuseppe Penone in the Geneva gallery.

The works on view reveal Penone’s ongoing dialogue with the surfaces and patterns of nature—from trees, vines, and thorns to mountains, gold, and flesh. While the Idee di pietra (Ideas of Stone) drawings depict small rocks balanced atop twisting fingers and tree branches, addressing concepts of gravity, weight, and scale, the Propagazione (Propagation) drawings—inspired by the concentric rings of crosscut trees—become metaphors for memory and identity. In the Indistinti confini (Indistinct Boundaries) sculptures, Penone renders tree parts in bronze and marble, uniting additive and subtractive formal processes within harmonious, organic forms.

For Pelle del monte (Mountain Skin), quarried blocks of Carrara marble retain a fine surface crust of incidental dirt, insects, and organic matter. Each of these works is, literally, a slice or cross-section of the outer skin of the mountain, which Penone then carves out to reveal the “vascular system” of the stone, underscoring the classical analogy between stone and flesh. And in Spine d’acacia – Contatto 16 maggio 2008 (Acacia thorns—Contact, May 16, 2008), thousands of sharp thorns, painstakingly attached onto paneled canvas, form subtle zones and vectors of energy. Both vicious and appealing, each thorn represents a nerve ending, evoking the sensitivity of skin when exposed to various environmental factors.

À l’occasion de l’installation de Idee di Pietra à Gstaad, Gagosian a le plaisir de présenter une sélection de travaux de Giuseppe Penone à sa galerie de Genève.

Les travaux exposés révèlent le dialogue constant qu’entretient Penone avec les surfaces et les modèles de la nature, allant des arbres et des vignes aux épines en passant par les montagnes, l’or et la chair. Alors que les dessins de Idee di pietra [Idées de pierre] représentent des petits rocs en équilibre au sommet de doigts tordus ou de branches d’arbres en traitant les concepts de pesanteur, de poids et d’équilibre, ceux de Propagazione [Propagation], inspirés des cercles concentriques des arbres, deviennent des métaphores de la mémoire et de l’identité. Dans ses sculptures Indistinti confini [Frontières indistinctes], Penone transforme des parties d’arbres en bronze et en marbre en appliquant des procédés formels additifs et soustractifs à l’intérieur de formes organiques harmonieuses.

Pour Pelle del monte [Peau de montagne], des blocs extraits des carrières de marbre de Carrare retiennent une fine couche de saleté accidentelle, des insectes et de la matière organique. Tous ces travaux sont littéralement une tranche coupée transversalement dans la peau extérieure de la montagne, que Penone sculpte ensuite pour révéler le «système vasculaire» de la pierre qui fait ressortir l’analogie entre celle-ci et la chair. Et dans Spine d’acacia – Contatto 16 maggio 2008 [Epines d’acacia – Contact, 16 mai, 2008], des milliers d’épines pointues attachées minutieusement sur une toile forment de subtiles zones et des vecteurs d’énergie. À la fois repoussante et attirante, chaque épine représente une terminaison nerveuse qui évoque la sensibilité de la peau lorsqu’elle est exposée à différents facteurs environnementaux.

Jordan Wolfson’s House with Face (2017) on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Fall 2022

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Fall 2022

The Fall 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Jordan Wolfson’s House with Face (2017) on its cover.

Photograph of the execution of Giuseppe Penone’s frottages in La Tourette, Éveux, France. Giuseppe Penone, Le Bois Sacré (The Sacred Forest), 2022, prepared canvas oil and wax pastel

Giuseppe Penone À La Tourette

Le Couvent Sainte-Marie de La Tourette, in Éveux, France, is both an active Dominican priory and the last building designed by Le Corbusier. As a result, the priory, completed in 1961, is a center both religious and architectural, a site of spiritual significance and a magnetic draw for artists, writers, architects, and others. This fall, at the invitation of Frère Marc Chauveau, Giuseppe Penone will be exhibiting a selection of existing sculptures at La Tourette alongside new work directly inspired by the context and materials of the building. Here, Penone and Frère Chauveau discuss the power and peculiarities of the space, as well as the artwork that will be exhibited there.

Augurs of Spring

Augurs of Spring

As spring approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, Sydney Stutterheim reflects on the iconography and symbolism of the season in art both past and present.

Giuseppe Penone, Idee di pietra (Ideas of Stone), 2004, installation view, Fort Mason, San Francisco, 2019–2021.

Giuseppe Penone: By the Bay

Elizabeth Mangini writes on Giuseppe Penone’s installation of two sculptures at San Francisco’s Fort Mason.

The cover of the Spring 2020 edition of the Gagosian Quarterly magazine. A Cindy Sherman photograph of herself dressed as a clown against a rainbow background.

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2020

The Spring 2020 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #412 (2003) on its cover.

Still from the video Giuseppe Penone at Fort Mason showing the artist's 2004 sculpture Idee di pietra (Ideas of Stone) installed at Fort Mason in San Francisco.

Giuseppe Penone at Fort Mason

An outdoor installation by Giuseppe Penone in San Francisco’s historic Fort Mason features two life-size bronze sculptures cast from fallen trees. The project continues the artist’s long investigation of the perpetual give-and-take between humans and nature. In this video, Penone discusses what drew him to this landscape and the concepts behind the installation.