News / Edmund de Waal / Events

Saturday, October 28, 2023, 11am–5pm
New York
madisonavenuebid.org

Join Artnews and the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District on an autumn walk to visit over fifty galleries that line Madison Avenue from East 57th to East 86th Streets. The Gagosian Shop, which offers an exclusive and extensive selection of artist’s books, exhibition catalogues, posters, and prints, is featuring a display dedicated to Roy Lichtenstein and offering a 10% discount on all Gagosian titles and posters. It is also the final day to see to light, and then return—, an exhibition of new works by Edmund de Waal and Sally Mann inspired by each other’s practices, at the 976 Madison Avenue gallery behind the Shop.

Monday, October 9, 2023
Raffles Hotel, London
www.artofwishes.org.uk

Founded by philanthropist and Make‐A‐Wish patron Batia Ofer, the Art of Wishes is a charitable initiative that brings the international art community together to raise funds for Make-A-Wish UK, a nonprofit organization that grants the wishes of children with critical illnesses. The sixth annual Art of Wishes benefit auction and gala will take place at Raffles Hotel in London. The auction will be hosted on Artsy, with a preview of the artworks open to the public from October 4 through 7 at Christie’s London. Twelve works by leading international artists such as Edmund de Waal, Jadé Fadojutimi, Albert Oehlen, Stanley Whitney, and others will be included.

Friday, October 20, 2023, 6pm
Gagosian, 976 Madison Avenue, New York

Join Gagosian for an evening of poetry inside to light, and then return—, an exhibition of new works by Edmund de Waal and Sally Mann, inspired by each other’s practices, at Gagosian, New York. Taking the artists’ shared love of poetry, fragments, and metamorphosis as a point of departure, poets Elisa Gonzalez and Terrance Hayes will share a selection of their recent works that resonate with the themes of elegy and historical reckoning that are explored in the show. Jonathan Galassi, chairman and executive editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, will also read from The FSG Poetry Anthology, a collection of work by more than 125 poets published on the occasion of the publisher’s seventy-fifth anniversary. Following the readings, Gonzalez and Hayes will discuss poetry’s enduring magnetism and its ability to foster dialogue in a conversation moderated by Galassi.

Register

Tuesday, December 13, 2022, 7pm
Burlington Arcade, London

Join Gagosian for an evening with Edmund de Waal in celebration of de Waal +, his takeover of the Gagosian Shop in Burlington Arcade. The artist will give a short reading and then sign copies of his books, which will be available to purchase at the event. Composer Simon Fisher Turner, de Waal’s friend and collaborator, will be signing a limited number of copies of A Quiet Corner in Time, the 2020 album that marked the first time de Waal worked closely with a musician.

Register

Thursday, December 1, 2022, 9:30am
Cromwell Place, London
icra.art

The International Catalogue Raisonné Association conference will give artists, their families, and catalogue raisonné authors space to articulate their thoughts on the theme of legacy. Engaging with the question of posterity, the conference asks how a family’s closeness to the artist can be both a blessing and a challenge, and thinks about ways in which later generations as well as nonfamily members can address issues surrounding an artist’s continued relevance. Edmund de Waal will be the keynote speaker and Michael Craig-Martin and Rachel Whiteread will contribute to the conference as well. The in-person and online event will include a question-and-answer session.

Purchase Tickets

November 8–December 23, 2022
Gagosian Shop, London

Edmund de Waal is taking over the Gagosian Shop in London’s historic Burlington Arcade with de Waal +, which brings together recent artworks, treasured objects, and a selection of books curated by the artist.

“I’ve always wanted to take over a bookshop,” de Waal remarks. “I’ve filled it with books, of course. And music and photography, pamphlets recording projects created over the last decade, writing on artists I adore and poetry that sustains me, collaborations with dancers and composers, editions I have made for the British Art Medal Society and for the Victoria & Albert Museum. And I’ve added some pots that I have just made.”

In his interlinked sculptural, writing, and research practices, de Waal studies and utilizes objects as vehicles for human emotion and history. His installations of handmade porcelain vessels, often contained in minimalist structures, investigate themes of diaspora, memory, and materiality. 

In addition to working across mediums, de Waal has also collaborated with museums, poets, performers, musicians, and other artists. Offering viewers a glimpse of his varied interests and inspirations, de Waal says, “I hope you come and find a corner to sit and read.”

Thursday, November 17, 2022, 5–7pm
Gagosian Shop, New York

Maria Hummer-Tuttle will sign copies of her new book, Objects of Desire, at the Gagosian Shop in New York, to celebrate its publication. Featuring over two hundred photographs and a foreword by Edmund de Waal, the book captures Hummer-Tuttle’s three dwellings—a Los Angeles hillside house, a New York City pied-à-terre, and a beach house north of LA—highlighting objects ranging from an ancient Chinese horse sculpture to Andy Warhol lithographs. For Hummer-Tuttle, the objects she has collected over the years, from flea-market finds to the priceless, are precious not only for their beauty, uniqueness, and craftsmanship but also for the stories they tell. Published by Vendome Press, the book will be available for purchase at the event.

Register

Thursday, April 7, 2022, 6:30pm EDT

In conjunction with the exhibition The Hare with Amber Eyes, on view at the Jewish Museum, New York, through May 15, 2022, Edmund de Waal will be in conversation with journalist and author Sandee Brawarsky as part of the James L. Weinberg Distinguished Lecture series. The pair will discuss de Waal’s recently published writings and their intricate mappings of objects and stories, as well as the exhibition and his ceramic installations that investigate themes of history, memory, identity, exile, and displacement. To join the online event, register at thejewishmuseum.org.

Friday, March 4, 2022
Phillips, London
www.phillips.com

As part of Phillips’s 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, donated works by artists including Edmund de Waal, Anselm Kiefer, and Gerhard Richter will be offered in support of the Warburg Renaissance, a project to enhance the Warburg Institute’s facilities and programming. Proceeds will help fund the completion of the Institute’s renovation and expansion, led by Stirling Prize–winning architecture firm Haworth Tompkins, as well as provide support for new exhibitions, residencies, and commissions for contemporary artists, writers, and thinkers. The artworks are viewable at 30 Berkeley Square in London from February 23 to March 3.

Wednesday, February 23, 2022, 2pm est (7pm BST)

From February 2 to 23, 1922, poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote the Sonnets to Orpheus and completed the Duino Elegies in less than three weeks, a period he described as a “savage creative storm.” As part of the London Review Bookshop’s “That Year Again” series, a program of special events marking some of 2022’s many significant centenaries, Edmund de Waal will join poets Ange Mlinko and Don Paterson in a discussion about Rilke and intense productivity, a century after the conclusion of his “creative storm.” To attend the online event, purchase tickets at eventbrite.co.uk.

Wednesday, February 9, 2022, 2pm EST

In conjunction with the exhibition The Hare with Amber Eyes, on view at the Jewish Museum, New York, through May 15, 2022, Edmund de Waal will be in conversation with attorney, philanthropist, and genealogist E. Randol Schoenberg, as part of JewishGen Talks. The pair will discuss the exhibition, de Waal’s best-selling memoir of the same name, family histories, and how family heirlooms can function as storytelling devices to perpetuate the legacy and memory of a family over generations. To join the online event, register at mjhnyc.org.

Saturday, September 4, 2021, 11–11:45am
Kenwood House, London
ftweekend.live.ft.com

As part of this year’s FT Weekend Festival in London, Edmund de Waal will be in conversation with Financial Times arts editor Jan Dalley on the Arts Stage to discuss his latest book, Letters to Camondo, and his placing of his contemporary work in dialogue with another era.

Gagosian is partnering with the Financial Times to host the Arts Stage at the one-day event where leading experts discuss the arts, music, literature, food, business, and technology. Recent Gagosian Quarterly films will be screened between sessions on the stage throughout the day and Gagosian publications will also be presented. To attend the event, purchase tickets at www.ftweekendfestival.com.

Wednesday, June 30, 2021, 8am EDT (1pm BST)

Edmund de Waal will speak with Gagosian director Richard Calvocoressi in a conversation entitled “The Thinking Hand,” on the occasion of the exhibition The Human Touch at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, England. Sitting in front of a large painting of a hand by Georg Baselitz, the final work in the exhibition, they will explore the creativity of the artist’s hands and the marks and traces they leave, beginning by discussing Calvocoressi’s monograph on Baselitz, published by Thames and Hudson in May 2021. The pair will revisit their conversation entitled “The Possibility of Touch,” published in the catalogue for the 2015 exhibition Henry Moore: Wunderkammer—Origin of Forms at Gagosian, London, curated by Calvocoressi, formerly director of the Henry Moore Foundation. De Waal has also been exploring the role of touch and the iconography of the hand in Henry Moore’s art in This Living Hand, an exhibition he curated at the Henry Moore Studios and Gardens, Perry Green, England, on view through October 31, 2021. To join the online event, register at tickets.museums.cam.ac.uk.

Thursday, May 20, 2021, 6:30pm EDT

Join the Jewish Museum, New York, for a conversation between Edmund de Waal and author Adam Gopnik to celebrate the US launch of de Waal’s new book Letters to Camondo. The pair will discuss the book’s themes, including assimilation, art, and the essence of memory. Letters to Camondo consists of a series of haunting letters de Waal wrote to Count Moïse de Camondo—the owner of a Parisian palace turned into a memorial for his son lost in the First World War, now known as the Musée Nissim de Camondo. The Camondo family lived in Paris a few doors away from de Waal’s forebears, the Ephrussis. Both families were collectors and part of belle epoque society; both were also targets of anti-Semitism. To join the online event, register at thejewishmuseum.org.

Tuesday, April 20, 2021, 2pm EDT

Edmund de Waal will speak with Olivier Gabet, director of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and the Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris, about the themes explored in his new book, Letters to Camondo—to be released in the United Kingdom on April 22—including assimilation, art, and the essence of memory. The book consists of a series of haunting letters de Waal wrote to Count Moïse de Camondo—the owner of a Parisian palace turned into a memorial for his son lost in the First World War, now known as the Musée Nissim de Camondo. The Camondo family lived in Paris a few doors away from de Waal’s forebears, the Ephrussis. Both families were collectors and part of belle epoque society; both were also targets of anti-Semitism. To attend the event, purchase tickets at www.vam.ac.uk.

Friday, January 29, 2021, 1–2:30pm EST (6–7:30pm GMT)

Join musician, composer, and television presenter Soumik Datta for an evening of performances to mark the closing of Edmund de Waal’s installation library of exile at the British Museum in London, before the books move to their permanent home at the University of Mosul in Iraq. The event will feature original musical responses to the work by Datta, singer-songwriter Amahla, UK-born rubab virtuoso Shaphwat Simab, and Tasmanian-British saxophonist Yasmin Ogilvie, as well as readings by de Waal and other acclaimed guest writers. To watch the live event, visit the British Museum’s YouTube channel.

Friday, November 8, 2019, 6:30–7:30pm
Frick Collection, New York
www.frick.org

In conjunction with the exhibition Elective Affinities: Edmund de Waal at the Frick Collection, artist and writer Edmund de Waal will speak with Sally Mann about art and writing, and about the pair’s individual practices. The event has reached capacity. To join the wait list, RSVP to edevents@frick.org.

Friday, October 4, 2019, 3pm
Regent’s Park, London
frieze.com

As part of the Frieze Masters Talks program, Edmund de Waal will discuss the work of Cy Twombly with Christine Kondoleon of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. De Waal has a particular affinity for Twombly’s ability to create works that are simultaneously personal and mythological, allowing narrative, language, and inner visions to erupt from his intimate, abstract notations. To attend the free event, register at the Frieze Masters auditorium desk the day of the talk.

Saturday, September 7, 2019, 8am edt (1pm bst)
Kenwood House, London
www.ftweekendfestival.com

As part of this year’s FT Weekend Festival in London, Edmund de Waal will be in conversation with Jan Dalley on the Arts Stage to discuss the relationship between words and sculpture in his practice. De Waal will also discuss the poetry of pots with Lucia van der Post on the How To Spend It Stage earlier in the day. 

Gagosian is partnering with the Financial Times to host the Arts Stage at the one-day event where leading experts discuss the arts, music, literature, food, business, and technology. Recent Gagosian Quarterly films will be screened between sessions on the stage throughout the day and Gagosian publications will also be presented. To attend the event, purchase tickets at www.ftweekendfestival.com.

Edmund de Waal is one of the first participants in Frick Diptychs, a new series of books to be published by the Frick. Each book will illuminate a single work from the museum’s collection by juxtaposing an essay by a curator with a text from a contemporary cultural figure. De Waal and Charlotte Vignon will each contribute an essay about a pair of porcelain and bronze candlesticks by the eighteenth-century French metalworker Pierre Gouthière.

Wednesday, May 17, 2017, 6–11pm
4 rue de Ponthieu, Paris
www.art-rivedroite.com

Galleries located in the triangle d’or will be open to visitors after hours. A group exhibition including work by John Chamberlain, Walter De Maria, Edmund de Waal, Carsten Höller, Olivier Mosset, Steven Parrino, Sterling Ruby, Richard Serra, Taryn Simon, and Tatiana Trouvé will be on view at our Paris gallery.