In Conversation
Katharina Grosse and Alexander Kluge
with Joachim Bernauer and Julia Draganović
Tuesday, November 24, 2020, 1pm EST (7pm CET)
Katharina Grosse will speak with writer, theorist, and filmmaker Alexander Kluge about his writings on Leibniz’s theory of the “separatrix” and its key impact on her new body of watercolors and paintings on canvas, on view at Gagosian, Rome, through January 7. The conversation will be moderated by special guests Joachim Bernauer, director of Goethe-Institut Italien, and Julia Draganović, director of Accademia Tedesca Roma Villa Massimo, Rome. For this online discussion, Bernauer and Draganović will be speaking live from the gallery while Grosse and Kluge will join remotely. To join, complete this form.
Still from Alexander Kluge’s film Separatrix (2020), featuring Katharina Grosse’s painting Untitled (2019)
Events
Support
The Kitchen
Ice and Fire: A Benefit Exhibition in Three Parts
October 15, 2020–January 31, 2021
The benefit exhibition Ice and Fire features works by more than forty artists who have enduring relationships with the Kitchen in New York. Installed within the organization’s three-story space in Chelsea, which is currently closed due to the global pandemic, the three-part exhibition is viewable online. Proceeds from sales will go toward a planned renovation on the occasion of the Kitchen’s fiftieth anniversary, ensuring that the nonprofit space will remain a platform for artistic experimentation in its historic and beloved building. Work by Cecily Brown, Roe Ethridge, Mark Grotjahn, Alex Israel, Ed Ruscha, Taryn Simon, Mary Weatherford, and Christopher Wool is included.
Mark Grotjahn, Untitled (Capri 53.57), 2020 © Mark Grotjahn
Exhibition
The Future
November 30, 2020–January 9, 2021
gagosian-deitch.com
Gagosian is pleased to announce The Future, the sixth in a series of annual thematic exhibitions presented by Gagosian and Jeffrey Deitch during Art Basel Miami Beach. Previously staged at the historic Moore Building in the Miami Design District, this year the collaborative project will be hosted on a new stand-alone website.
Ed Ruscha, The Future, 1999 © Ed Ruscha. Photo: Jeff McLane
Support
Artist Plate Project
Coalition for the Homeless
November 16–December 14, 2020
Gagosian is pleased to support the Coalition for the Homeless’s Artist Plate Project fundraiser. Artwork by fifty artists, including Cecily Brown, Katharina Grosse, Sterling Ruby, Ed Ruscha, Sarah Sze, Andy Warhol, Jonas Wood, and Christopher Wool, is featured on limited-edition dinner plates produced by Prospect and made available through Artware Editions to support the Coalition’s lifesaving programs. All of the funds raised by the sale of the plates will provide food, crisis services, housing, and other critical aid to thousands of people experiencing homelessness and instability. The purchase of one plate can feed seventy-five homeless and hungry New Yorkers.
Katharina Grosse, Shake Before Using, 2020 © Katharina Grosse and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany 2020
In Conversation
Meleko Mokgosi
Antwaun Sargent
Thursday, November 19, 2020, 1pm EST
To mark the publication of Meleko Mokgosi: Democratic Intuition, Gagosian and Jack Shainman Gallery will host a dialogue between the artist and critic Antwaun Sargent. Published by Pacific with Jack Shainman Gallery, the book documents Mokgosi’s epic painting project Democratic Intuition (2013–20), which explores the internal contradictions of the theory that the function of democracy is dependent upon accessible education. Compelling genre scenes, often involving prominent figures from African public life, jump-cut between the confines of manual work, the freedoms of intellectual enterprise, and their ties to gender and race. In a conversation introduced by Gagosian director Louise Neri and moderated by Jack Shainman Gallery director Joeonna Bellorado-Samuels, Mokgosi and Sargent will discuss the artist’s interdisciplinary investigation of postcolonial nationhood and the democratic process. To join, register at zoom.us.
Meleko Mokgosi: Democratic Intuition (New York: Pacific Publishing, 2020). Photo: Dan Bradica © Pacific
In Conversation
Jay DeFeo’s Generation
Suzanne Hudson, Dana Miller, and Clifford Ross
Tuesday, November 17, 2020, 2pm EST
Join Gagosian for a conversation on Jay DeFeo with Los Angeles–based art historian and critic Suzanne Hudson, Seattle-based art historian and independent curator Dana Miller, and New York–based artist Clifford Ross. The trio will discuss the unique place DeFeo occupies in art history, shaped by a diverse body of work that defies categorization, a practice situated outside of the American art centers of New York and Los Angeles, and relationships with other artists of her generation. To join, register at zoom.us.
Jay DeFeo, Lotus Eater No. 1, 1974 © 2020 The Jay DeFeo Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Robert Divers Herrick
Panel Discussion
Catching Ideas in Process
Jay DeFeo’s Photography
Wednesday, November 18, 2020, 8–9pm EST
The medium of photography enabled Jay DeFeo to further explore the themes and forms she continually returned to in her diverse practice, and to capture her own process, resulting in images that blur the line between documentation and art. Organized by the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco, this panel discussion brings together Corey Keller, curator of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, in conversation with artists Paul Mpagi Sepuya and Rayyane Tabet to discuss this lesser-known body of DeFeo’s oeuvre and the ways in which her highly experimental practice continues to resonate with photographers working today. The conversation will be moderated by Emily Markert, a curatorial fellow at the Wattis Institute. To register for the event, visit eventbrite.com.
Jay DeFeo, Untitled, 1973 © 2020 The Jay DeFeo Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Announcements
Award
Titus Kaphar
2020 WSJ Magazine Innovator Award
On November 11, 2020, Titus Kaphar was honored at the 2020 WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards, which has been recognizing inspiring talents from a variety of cultural pursuits for a decade. The musician and producer Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean presented the Art Innovator award to Kaphar, whose work explores the limited representation of Black people in Western painting and whose multidisciplinary arts incubator, NXTHVN, breaks the mold for nonprofit organizations. In the past the red-carpet event has been held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, but this year, due to COVID-19 restrictions, it was filmed. To watch the ceremony, visit the WSJ Magazine’s YouTube channel.
Titus Kaphar in his studio, New Haven, Connecticut, 2020. Artwork © Titus Kaphar
Award
Patti Smith
2020 WSJ Magazine Innovator Award
Patti Smith was named the Literature Innovator at the 2020 WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards on November 11, 2020. This year marked the tenth anniversary of the awards, which recognize inspiring talents from a variety of cultural pursuits. The poet, artist, and award-winning memoirist and musician was honored for the indelible mark she has made on American letters and for her decades of revelatory work. Actor Ethan Hawke presented the award during the ceremony, which was filmed this year due to covid-19 restrictions. To watch the ceremony, visit the WSJ Magazine’s YouTube channel.
Patti Smith. Photo: Steven Sebring for WSJ Magazine
Video
Photographers in Focus: Jeff Wall
In this video, filmed during the installation of the exhibition Jeff Wall at Gagosian, West 21st Street, New York, Jeff Wall discusses the evolution of his process and the role of photography as both an art form and a documentary device. “Photographers in Focus” is a series produced by Nowness that turns the camera on photographers in action.
Still from “Photographers in Focus: Jeff Wall.” Artwork © Jeff Wall
Support
Gallery Climate Coalition
Gagosian has joined the Gallery Climate Coalition, a nonprofit organization aimed at creating a greener and more sustainable art world. Founded by a group of London-based gallerists and art professionals, the organization provides guidelines and resources—including a specifically tailored carbon calculator—to help members work collectively toward reducing their carbon footprints by 50 percent over the next ten years in line with the Paris Agreement, as well as promoting near zero-waste practices.
Taryn Simon, Black Square XXIII. Phoenix canariensis, a date palm native to the Canary Islands, is an invasive species in the state of California. The Los Angeles County Fire Department lists Phoenix canariensis as a fire hazard that should be removed from the vicinity of structures. The scale and severity of California’s fires have escalated markedly since the 1980s due to overgrowth resulting from aggressive fire suppression tactics, climate change, and increased residential construction in forested areas. The Woolsey Fire, which began on November 8, 2018, burned 96,949 acres of land in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, leaving a burn scar that is visible from space., 2019, from the series Black Square, 2006– © Taryn Simon
Design
Takashi Murakami
RxART
In collaboration with RxART, Takashi Murakami has transformed the CT/PET Scan Suite at the Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, by wrapping the walls and CT/PET scanner itself with a vibrant landscape featuring his signature smiling flowers. The installation has turned the once intimidating room—in which over 2,500 scans are performed each year—into an uplifting space, in an effort to alleviate the anxiety that many pediatric patients feel when they receive scans.
Takashi Murakami’s transformation of the CT/PET Scan Suite at the Children’s National Hospital, Washington, DC. Artwork ©️ Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co. Ltd. All rights reserved. Photo: Kenson Noel
Award
Sally Mann
Centenary Medal
Sally Mann has been awarded the 2020 Centenary Medal by the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) of Great Britain, in recognition of her sustained, significant contribution to the field of photography. Founded in 1853, the RPS aims to make the art and science of photography more widely accessible. The international charitable organization is dedicated to increasing knowledge and understanding of photography and film, supporting photographers, and inspiring public engagement.
Sally Mann, Georgia, Untitled (Kudzu), 1996 © Sally Mann
Museum Exhibitions
Closing this Week
L’homme qui marche
Une icône de l’art du XXè siècle
Through November 29, 2020
Institut Giacometti, Paris
www.fondation-giacometti.fr
This exhibition, whose title translates to The Walking Man: An Icon of 20th Century Art, explores Alberto Giacometti’s most famous work, the Walking Man. The show brings together for the first time the various life-size models, as well as most of the sculpted and drawn variations, of the famous artwork. Accompanied by numerous unpublished documents and drawings, it traces the genealogy of the motif, from the Walking Woman of Giacometti’s Surrealist period to the icons created between 1959 and 1960.
Installation view, L’homme qui marche: Une icône de l’art du XXè siècle, Institut Giacometti, Paris, July 4–November 29, 2020 © Succession Alberto Giacometti
Closing this Week
Sterling Ruby in
Manifesta 13
Through November 29, 2020
Various locations in Marseille, France
manifesta13.org
Presented as part of Manifesta 13, the European Nomadic Biennial that changes location every two years, the exhibition Anima Mundi gathers the work of several international artists in the ancient crypts of the Abbey of Saint-Victor, one of the oldest monuments in the Provence region. The works on display, mainly sculptures, communicate with the Paleo-Christian sarcophagi in the crypts and propose a reflection on death, spirituality, and the relation to history. Work by Sterling Ruby is included.
Sterling Ruby, TROUGH, 2014, installation view, Abbaye de Saint-Victor, Marseille, France © Sterling Ruby
Closing this Week
Photography’s Last Century
The Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Collection
Through November 30, 2020
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
www.metmuseum.org
This exhibition celebrates the remarkable ascendancy of photography in the last century, and Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee’s promised gift of over sixty photographs in honor of the Met’s 150th anniversary in 2020. The collection is particularly notable for its breadth and depth of works by women artists, its sustained interest in the nude, and its focus on artists’ beginnings. Work by Gregory Crewdson, Andreas Gursky, Man Ray, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol, and Rachel Whiteread is included.
Gregory Crewdson, Untitled, 2005 © Gregory Crewdson
On View
Theaster Gates
The Black Image Corporation
Through December 5, 2020
Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta
www.spelman.edu
As an ongoing concern, Theaster Gates’s Black Image Archive examines the legacy of the Johnson Publishing Company archive, which contains more than four million images and helped shape the aesthetic and cultural vision of modern African American identity. Founded by John H. Johnson in 1942, the company created Ebony and Jet, two key periodicals for Black American audiences. Gates’s participatory exhibition invites visitors to actively explore the archive, which includes images by Moneta Sleet Jr. and Isaac Sutton, among many others.
Photo: Isaac Sutton, courtesy Johnson Publishing Company, LLC. All rights reserved
On View
Olivier Mosset
Through December 6, 2020
Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva
www.mamco.ch
Olivier Mosset’s retrospective reviews his career over almost sixty years, from the early experiments of the 1960s to his monumental recent works, via the painter’s reflections on artistic appropriation, monochrome painting, and shaped canvases. In addition to his own work, several rooms are devoted to movements and artists with whom Mosset was or remains closely associated, allowing the viewer to consider his work in a variety of different contexts.
Olivier Mosset, ABC, 1997 © Olivier Mosset
On View
Untitled, 2020
Through December 13, 2020
Punta della Dogana, Venice
www.palazzograssi.it
Conceived and curated by Thomas Houseago, Muna El Fituri, and Caroline Bourgeois, Untitled, 2020 places into dialogue works in a broad range of media by more than sixty artists held by the Pinault Collection, international museums, and private collections. The exhibition centers around a re-creation of Houseago’s studio in Tadao Ando’s cube room, in the heart of Punta della Dogana. Work by Ellen Gallagher, Duane Hanson, Mike Kelley, Henry Moore, and Nam June Paik is included.
Installation view, Untitled, 2020, Punta della Dogana, Venice, March 22–December 13, 2020. Artwork © Thomas Houseago. Photo: Marco Cappelletti/DSL Studio
On View
Chris Burden in
States of Mind: Art and American Democracy
Through December 19, 2020
Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston
moody.rice.edu
Reflecting on some of the most pressing topics facing American democracy, States of Mind is timed to coincide with the 2020 presidential election in order to encourage dialogue around current social and political issues. Many of the works on view examine the status of our country’s founding principles of freedom and equality, while others engage with questions of voting access, gun control, and immigration policies—three issues that are common throughout the United States and that are of particular concern to Texas. The exhibition does not attempt to cover the myriad complexities of a democratic government but rather invites viewers to consider timely yet recurrent questions around these themes. Work by Chris Burden is included.
Chris Burden, L.A.P.D. Uniforms, 1993, installation view, Made in California: Art, Image and Identity, 1900–2000, Los Angeles County Museum of Art © Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Museum Associates/LACMA
On View
All of the Above
2011–2020
Through December 27, 2020
Kanal–Centre Pompidou, Brussels
kanal.brussels
Curated by artist John Armleder, All of the Above was inspired by his memories of feeling that he was being observed in return by the cultural artifacts he saw when he visited museums and temples as a child. This exhibition seeks to reproduce that experience by presenting a constellation of works by more than forty artists on a large multilevel platform to form a landscape that visitors can explore from a distance. Work by Chris Burden, Olivier Mosset, and Blair Thurman is included.
On View
Taryn Simon
Assembled Audience
Through December 27, 2020
Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus
wexarts.org
Taryn Simon’s Assembled Audience (2018) draws on the notion of engineered applause, gathering individuals with varying political, corporate, and ideological allegiances into a single crowd. Simon assimilated recordings of single attendees applauding at local concerts, sporting events, and political rallies at three of the largest venues in the capital city of the bellwether state of Ohio. Her experiential installation wholly immerses the visitor in a darkened space punctuated only by the sound of randomized individual applause tracks; the same crowd never comes together twice. Presented for the first time in the city of its creation, Assembled Audience proves prescient in the isolation that it forecasted as these same gathering spaces, once crowd-filled, are now quieted by covid-19, the spaces respectively repurposed for eviction trials, police trainings, and a field hospital.
Photo © Taryn Simon
On View
Person of Interest
Through December 31, 2020
Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
sheldonartmuseum.org
Exploring nuances in portraiture from the late nineteenth century to today—and testing the very definition of the genre—Person of Interest presents depictions of the literal and abstracted body from Sheldon’s rich holdings and selected loans. This exhibition asks open-ended questions about self-fashioning, cultural memory, gender identity, and the performance of identity. In doing so, it prompts conversations about race and representation, institutional power, and lived experiences. Work by Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Jenny Saville, and Cindy Sherman is included.
Cindy Sherman, Untitled (#138), 1984, Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska–Lincoln © Cindy Sherman
On View
Gregory Crewdson in
Home: Live > In Room
Through January 3, 2021
Whitechapel Gallery, London
www.whitechapelgallery.org
Considering the ways in which lockdown has affected experiences of art and culture, Whitechapel Gallery’s youth forum, Duchamp & Sons, presents a virtually curated display featuring artworks drawn from the Hiscox Collection. Confined to their homes and communicating virtually, the youth collective asked “How do we imagine a space where we have spent so much time over the past months? What does it mean to curate an exhibition from our kitchens and bedrooms, with our laptops and screens?” The selected artworks transport us to faraway destinations or compel us to look closer to home. Work by Gregory Crewdson is included.
Gregory Crewdson, Untitled, 2004 © Gregory Crewdson
On View
Crossing Views
Through January 3, 2021
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr
Presented in conjunction with a retrospective on Cindy Sherman, Crossing Views examines a selection of works from the collection of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, chosen in collaboration with Cindy Sherman. Echoing the artist’s work, the exhibition unfolds across two floors and is centered on the theme of the portrait and its interpretation through different approaches and media, including painting, photography, sculpture, video, and installation. Work by Damien Hirst, Albert Oehlen, Cindy Sherman, and Andy Warhol is included.
Cindy Sherman, Untitled #582, 2016 © Cindy Sherman. Photo: courtesy the artist and Metro Pictures, New York