Gagosian is pleased to participate in Frieze Masters 2021 with Material Process. Conceived, carved, cast, or constructed—sculpture remained a continuously strong tradition throughout the twentieth century in Britain. Artists such as Henry Moore, Anthony Caro, Michael Craig-Martin, Rachel Whiteread, Damien Hirst, and Douglas Gordon have extended this lineage, often focusing on human figures or body parts, transforming materials and techniques, including language, into a widely diverse practice that is internationally recognized.
Henry Moore pushed the historic materials of bronze and stone to new levels of innovation as he explored the bond between body and nature in his undulating figurative forms. Anthony Caro created his own sculptural language in response to Moore, experimenting with the effects of modeling and the sensations of the body from within, and later moving into constructed and collaged works. Realism and abstraction are reimagined in works that have subtle relationships with each other, and with the viewer. Both Moore and Caro used drawing to further their sculptural oeuvres and develop their own notions of space, movement, and volume. While Moore represented natural forms of shells, rocks, bones, and bark, Caro’s drawings echoed his own works in three dimensions, which inscribe the air with curves of steel, like pencil to paper.
Damien Hirst harnesses the liquid substance of formaldehyde in his sculpture to preserve the remains of animal carcasses. For Hirst, formaldehyde conjures associations with memory and humankind’s futile efforts to avoid the certainty of death. Rachel Whiteread’s casts of the spaces within domestic objects similarly give solid form to the soft edges of memory as she makes tangible the very absence of material. Within this uncertain space between presence and absence, Douglas Gordon’s text-based works toy with the resonance of language to foster a dialogue between artist and viewer. The concept of transformation between negative and positive equally resonates with Michael Craig-Martin’s momentous work An Oak Tree (1973). Evoking the belief in transubstantiation and the metamorphosis of materials, Craig-Martin invites faith in the notion that a simple glass of water may actually be an oak tree.
Through the work of these British artists, sculptural languages of experimentation come into focus, defined by a preoccupation with the materials and processes of art making.
To receive a pdf with detailed information on the works, please contact the gallery at inquire@gagosian.com. To attend the fair, purchase tickets at frieze.com.
On the occasion of Douglas Gordon: All I need is a little bit of everything, an exhibition in London, curator Adam Szymczyk recounts his experiences with Gordon’s work across nearly three decades, noting the continuities and evolutions.
An installation by Rachel Whiteread in the Palazzo della Ragione, Bergamo, Italy, commissioned by Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo and cocurated by Lorenzo Giusti and Sara Fumagalli, opened in June of 2023 and ran into the fall. Conceived in relation to the city, the architecture of the site, and the history of the region, it comprised sixty sculptures made with local types of stone. Fumagalli writes on the exhibition and architect Luca Cipelletti speaks with Whiteread.
Douglas Gordon took over the Piccadilly Lights advertising screen in London’s Piccadilly Circus, as well as a global network of screens in cities including Berlin, Melbourne, Milan, New York, and Seoul, nightly for three minutes at 20:22 (8:22pm) throughout December 2022, with his new film, if when why what (2018–22). The project was presented by the Cultural Institute of Radical Contemporary Art (CIRCA) in conjunction with the exhibition Douglas Gordon: Neon Ark at Gagosian, Davies Street, London.
The Winter 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Anna Weyant’s Two Eileens (2022) on its cover.
On the occasion of the unveiling of her latest Shy Sculpture, in Kunisaki, Japan, Rachel Whiteread joined curator and art historian Fumio Nanjo for a conversation about this ongoing series.They address the origins of these sculptures and the details of each project.
In conversation with James Fox, Damien Hirst reflects on the artwork of his longtime friend.
Join Chloe Barter, John Kasmin, and Paul Moorhouse as they discuss the work and legacy of Anthony Caro. Their conversation took place in conjunction with the exhibition Caro and North American Painters, which included sculptures by Anthony Caro from the 1960s and 1970s, shown together with contemporaneous paintings by his friends and peers.
Michael Craig-Martin and Jan Dalley sat down together in London as part of this year’s FT Weekend Festival. Join the two for a conversation about the artist’s long career in art, teaching, and writing, as well as his latest projects. A principal figure of British Conceptual art, Craig-Martin probes the relationship between objects and images, harnessing the human capacity to imagine absent forms through symbols and pictures.
The Fall 2021 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Damien Hirst’s Reclining Woman (2011) on its cover.
As spring approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, Sydney Stutterheim reflects on the iconography and symbolism of the season in art both past and present.
On the occasion of Artist Spotlight: Rachel Whiteread, curator Tom Eccles and artist Kiki Smith speak about the work of Rachel Whiteread through the lens of their personal friendships with her. They discuss her public projects from the early 1990s to the present, the relationship between drawing and sculpture in her practice, and the way her works reveal the memories embedded in familiar everyday objects.
Rachel Whiteread speaks to Ann Gallagher about a new group of resin sculptures for an exhibition at Gagosian in London. They discuss the works’ emphasis on surface texture, light, and reflection.
