Art Fair
May 6–10, 2022, booth 350
Park Avenue Armory, New York
www.tefaf.com
Gagosian is pleased to announce its participation in TEFAF New York Spring 2022, with a special presentation juxtaposing works by Urs Fischer and Man Ray. Two artworks, hung in opposite corners of the stand, beckon to one another, engaging in a silent dialogue. On one wall is Man Ray’s Les grands-trans-parents (c. 1970–75), a consummate example of the artist’s enduring interest in Surrealist imagery and concepts since the 1920s. This work comprises a decorative oval mirror mounted on a sage green velvet support, with the enigmatic phrase of the title scrawled by the artist in black ink on the glass surface. The writing playfully refers to André Breton’s concept of the “Great Transparents,” unseen entities that were thought to cause illogical events in the world. As the text’s placement intentionally eclipses visual access to a viewer’s image—thereby thwarting the key function of a mirror—Les grands-trans-parents wittily captures the Surrealist desire to estrange the everyday world, drawing out extraordinary elements from ordinary objects or situations.
This strategy of using incongruous elements to induce new meanings is elaborated as well in the work located on the stand’s opposing wall. As an example of the artist’s celebrated Problem Paintings, Urs Fischer’s Grilled (2010) comprises a black-and-white vintage publicity still of an Old Hollywood screen siren that is supplanted by an enlarged color image of a bent stainless-steel spoon. Fischer’s tactical placement of the utensil obscures the identity of the actress, refracting the viewer’s gaze to instead draw out formal elements of the composition.
Using key techniques introduced by the Surrealist movement—such as illogical juxtapositions, changes of scale, and dislocation of objects from their typical contexts—both Man Ray’s Les grands-trans-parents and Fischer’s Grilled disrupt established visual orders to awaken the viewer to the remarkable strangeness that exists in the world around us. As such, Gagosian’s joint presentation of these two works at TEFAF offers a unique opportunity to consider points of conceptual similarity and difference, creating a deeper reflection on each respective work. When facing one another, Les grands-trans-parents and Grilled develop a provocative interplay, inspiring the viewer to see the world—in all its fantastic contradictions—anew.
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 tefaf.com.
In his introduction to the catalogue for Urs Fischer’s exhibition The Lyrical and the Prosaic, at the Aïshti Foundation in Beirut, curator Massimiliano Gioni traces the material and conceptual tensions that reverberate throughout the artist’s paintings, sculptures, installations, and interventions.
Timothy Baum muses on Man Ray’s foray into filmmaking in the 1920s, the subject of the exhibition Man Ray: The Mysteries of Château du Dé at Gagosian, San Francisco.
Urs Fischer and choreographer Madeline Hollander speak with novelist Natasha Stagg about the ways in which choreographic experimentation and an interest in our ability to project emotion onto objects led to the one-of-a-kind project PLAY.
At the 2018 Frieze Masters fair in London, Gagosian’s stand presented more than ninety works by Man Ray: objects and assemblages, collages, oils, prints, drawings, and photographs. Richard Calvocoressi traces the development of the artist’s wide-ranging work and looks at his legendary three-year collaboration with Lee Miller.
Urs Fischer and Francesco Bonami sat down with the Gagosian Quarterly to discuss Sōtatsu, a new painting in nine parts.
In midtown Manhattan, a new sculpture by Urs Fischer, entitled Things, was debuted in May 2018. Fischer and international curator, Francesco Bonami, discuss this unique exhibition with the Gagosian Quarterly.
Timothy Baum explores this period of transition in response to an exhibition of Man Ray’s vintage gelatin silver photographs from his “Hollywood” period.
Mary Ann Caws and Charles Stuckey discuss the presence of food and the dining table in the history of modern art.
In the early 1980s, Ira Nowinski visited a studio frozen in time.
For Printed Matter’s 2015 LA Art Book Fair, artist Urs Fischer and chef Mina Stone hosted an installation of a kitchen within Gagosian’s booth. Here is a recap of the fair.
Gagosian and Sadie Coles HQ hosted a conversation between Urs Fischer and film curator and writer Róisín Tapponi about fearless creativity and the artist’s most recent monograph, Urs Fischer: Monumental Sculpture.
Lee Miller and Tanja Ramm’s friendship took them from New York to Paris and back, in front of and behind many cameras, and into the Surrealist avant-garde. Here, Gagosian director Richard Calvocoressi speaks with Ramm’s daughter, art historian Margit Rowell, about discovering her mother’s early life, her memories of Miller, and the collaborative work of photographers and models.
