Events
Public Installation
Giuseppe Penone
Desert X AlUla 2024
February 9–March 23, 2024
AlUla, Saudi Arabia
desertx.org
Giuseppe Penone’s sculpture La logica del vegetale – Metamorfosi (Vegetal Logic – Metamorphosis) (2024) is installed in an ancient desert canyon in the Arabian Peninsula as part of Desert X AlUla 2024. The 17-meter-tall (almost 56-foot-tall) cast bronze chestnut tree lies on its side with gnarled roots exposed, surrounded by pieces of fossilized trees, revealing the interdependence between sculpture and nature across geological time. This is the third edition of Desert X AlUla, a collaboration between Desert X and the Royal Commission for AlUla established to advance new cultural dialogue through art. Curated by Maya El Khalil and Marcello Dantas, the selection of works explores the theme “In the Presence of Absence” and asks the question “What cannot be seen?”
Giuseppe Penone, La logica del vegetale – Metamorfosi (Vegetal Logic – Metamorphosis), 2024, installation view, AlUla, Saudi Arabia © Giuseppe Penone/2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris
In Conversation
Giuseppe Penone
Hala Wardé
Wednesday, December 6, 2023, 6:30pm
Gagosian, 4 rue de Ponthieu, Paris
Please join Gagosian for a conversation between Giuseppe Penone and architect Hala Wardé inside Impronte di luce / Empreintes de lumière, an exhibition of new paintings by the artist inspired by his experience of Le Corbusier’s Couvent Sainte-Marie de La Tourette in Éveux, France. The longtime friends will discuss Penone’s latest body of work and their most recent collaboration for Louvre Abu Dhabi, where Wardé was partner architect and Penone was one of two artists commissioned to create site-specific permanent installations. They will also consider the creative exploration of space, form, and material inherent to both art and architecture, shedding light on the fascinating intersections that shape their collaborative efforts. The conversation will be conducted in French.
Giuseppe Penone, Impronte di luce (Imprints of Light), 2023 © Giuseppe Penone/2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Thomas Lannes
Shop Takeover
Giuseppe Penone
Somersault
March 29–May 20, 2023
Gagosian Shop, London
Giuseppe Penone is taking over the Gagosian Shop in London’s historic Burlington Arcade with Somersault. Posters, books, and catalogues, including historical items, are presented alongside selected works on paper by the artist to coincide with his exhibition at Galleria Borghese, Rome, on view through May 28, 2023.
In a diverse body of sculpture, performance, photography, and works on paper spanning more than fifty years, Penone, a practitioner of Arte Povera, explores growth, respiration, and other involuntary natural processes, drawing attention to the relationship between man and nature. The works on view in the Shop include Somersault (2020), a suite of twenty-one drypoint etchings; the print Identity (2018); and the iconic photograph Rovesciare i propri occhi (Reversing One’s Eyes) (1970), in which Penone was photographed wearing custom-made mirrored contact lenses.
Highlights of the presentation also include two rare 1970s exhibition posters and numerous catalogues and monographs on the artist, including The Inner Life of Forms, published by Gagosian in 2018, and Le Bois Sacré du Couvent de la Tourette (2022), an artist’s book inspired by the recent installation at the monastery designed by Le Corbusier in Éveux, France.
Giuseppe Penone, Rovesciare i propri occhi (Reversing One’s Eyes), 1970 © Giuseppe Penone
Installation
Idee di pietra (Ideas of Stone)
Giuseppe Penone in Caracalla
June 7–March 19, 2023
Terme di Caracalla, Rome
www.coopculture.it
Four monumental bronze sculptures of trees by Giuseppe Penone—Idee di pietra, Olmo (2008), Idee di pietra, Ciliegio (2011), Triplice (2011), and ldentity (2019)—are installed in the former Olympic-size swimming pool of the Terme di Caracalla in Rome. Built in the early third century CE, these public baths occupy a vast area near the Palatine Hill in the center of the city and are defined by mighty walls, some up to 30 meters (almost 100 feet) high, and extensive and well-preserved mosaic floors. Installed among the ruins, Penone’s trees are in dialogue with the architecture of the past, inspiring reflection on humanity’s relationship with nature, space, and time.
Installation view, Idee di pietra (Ideas of Stone): Giuseppe Penone in Caracalla, Baths of Caracalla, Rome, June 7–March 19, 2023. Artwork © Giuseppe Penone/2022 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Pepi Marchetti Franchi
Seminar
Sèvres and the Art of Giuseppe Penone
Tuesday, June 7, 2022, 5pm EDT
On the occasion of the exhibition Propagazioni: Giuseppe Penone at Sèvres, on view at Frick Madison, New York, through August 28, 2022, members of the museum’s curatorial team have organized an online seminar about the Sèvres porcelain manufactory in France and the distinguished career of Giuseppe Penone. Assistant curator of decorative arts Marie-Laure Buku Pongo will discuss the manufactory’s technical and artistic achievements, in particular its collaborations with contemporary artists. Assistant curator of sculpture Giulio Dalvit will explore Penone’s practice and the ways it challenges distinctions between art and nature, sculpture and painting, seeing and touching. To attend the event, purchase tickets at tickets.frick.org.
Giuseppe Penone holding a Propagazione di Sévres work, 2022. Artwork © Giuseppe Penone/2022 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Archivio Penone
Public Installation
Giuseppe Penone
Abete (Fir)
March 25–September 12, 2021
Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy
Giuseppe Penone’s Abete (Fir) is installed in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy, to celebrate Dantedì, the day dedicated to the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri, and the 700th anniversary of his death. The trunk and branches are made of cast stainless steel, encircled by a lattice with eighteen cast bronze elements. At just over 72 feet high, Penone’s sculpture is the largest ever installed in a public space in Florence and anticipates an upcoming exhibition of his work at the Gallerie degli Uffizi entitled Alberi In-versi (In-verse Trees), opening July 6.
Giuseppe Penone, Abete (Fir), 2013, installation view, Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy © Giuseppe Penone/2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris
Announcements
Honor
Giuseppe Penone
Académie des Beaux-Arts Foreign Associate Member
Giuseppe Penone has been elected a foreign associate member of the prestigious Académie des beaux-arts, one of five institutions comprising the Institut de France. Penone joins ten other foreign members, taking the seat previously held by the late Senegalese sculptor Ousmane Sow. The artist’s induction ceremony took place on October 18, 2023.
Dedicated to the fine arts, the Académie des beaux-arts encourages artistic creation and ensures the defense of France’s cultural heritage by awarding prizes to both emerging and recognized artists, organizing competitions, funding artist residencies, and granting aid to artistic projects, events, and associations. As an advisory body to the French public authorities, it is organized around the notion of multidisciplinarity, bringing together members within eight different artistic sections, foreign associate members, and corresponding members.
Giuseppe Penone during his induction into the Académie des beaux-arts, Paris, 2023. Photo: Edouard Brane
Donation
Giuseppe Penone
Philadelphia Museum of Art and Centre Pompidou
Giuseppe Penone has given the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Centre Pompidou in Paris major gifts of works on paper. Each institution received more than three hundred pieces spanning five decades of the artist’s career, beginning in the late 1960s. The work reflects the artist’s wide range of influences and the connections he draws between humans and nature in exploring the involuntary processes of breathing, growth, and aging through materials such as stones, branches, and leaves. Both institutions plan to have exhibitions by Penone in 2022.
Giuseppe Penone, Attorno alla scultura, attorno allo scultore (Around the Sculpture, Around the Sculptor), 1984, Centre Pompidou, Paris © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: © Archivio Penone
Honor
Giuseppe Penone
Brown University will bestow an honorary doctorate of fine arts to Giuseppe Penone for his work as a visual artist on Sunday, May 27, 2018, during its 250th commencement ceremony.
Photo: James Ewing
Commission
Giuseppe Penone
Unveiling November 11, 2017
Louvre Abu Dhabi
www.louvreabudhabi.ae
Giuseppe Penone’s Germination, a permanent site-specific commission for the Louvre Abu Dhabi, will be unveiled in the museum’s courtyard on November 11. The four-part installation reveals the artist’s fascination with the use of organic materials, such as trees, to highlight the connection between man, nature, and art. The central element of the installation is Leaves of Light, a vast bronze tree which interacts with Jean Nouvel’s architectural design through mirrors placed on its branches.
Rendering of Giuseppe Penone’s Leaves of Light (2017) © Giuseppe Penone
Award
Giuseppe Penone
The American Academy in Rome has announced that Giuseppe Penone will receive the prestigious 2017 McKim Medal on June 7. This is an annual prize that honors individuals whose work exemplifies creative and intellectual exchange and who have contributed significantly to the arts and humanities on an international level. Past recipients include Cy Twombly, Renzo Piano, Umberto Eco, Miuccia Prada, and Bernardo Bertolucci.
Photo: Manuel Lagos Cid/Getty Images
Museum Exhibitions
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Favoloso Calvino
October 13, 2023–February 4, 2024
Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome
scuderiequirinale.it
Favoloso Calvino, which translates to Fabulous Calvino, celebrates the centenary of the birth of the Italian author Italo Calvino (1923–1985), and examines his creative path by displaying art that inspired his imagination, writings, and theories. The exhibition comprises more than two hundred works including medieval illuminated manuscripts and tapestries as well as paintings, sculptures, and drawings by artists from the Renaissance to today, presented alongside original volumes and first editions of Calvino’s books. Work by Giuseppe Penone and Richard Serra is included.
Richard Serra, Calvino, 2009 © 2023 Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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Storie di pietra
October 13, 2023–January 14, 2024
Villa Medici–Académie de France à Rome
www.villamedici.it
This exhibition, whose title translates to Stories of Stones, brings together nearly two hundred works, from the oldest terrestrial mineral dating back 4.4 billion years to the latest mineral, Sentimentite, created by contemporary artist Agnieszka Kurant. The exhibition explores the idea that stones have inspired artists from all eras. Work by Damien Hirst, Henry Moore, Giuseppe Penone, Pablo Picasso, and Tatiana Trouvé is included.
Tatiana Trouvé, Rock, 2007 © Tatiana Trouvé. Photo: Philippe Migeat
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Giuseppe Penone in
Saint Francis of Assisi
May 6–July 30, 2023
National Gallery, London
www.nationalgallery.org.uk
Through art from the thirteenth century to the present day, this exhibition examines why Saint Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) remains a figure of enormous relevance to our time. From early medieval panels, relics, and manuscripts to contemporary films, paintings, sculpture, and a Marvel comic, the exhibition shines a light on how the saint has captured the imagination of artists throughout the centuries, and how his appeal has transcended generations, continents, and different religious traditions. Work by Giuseppe Penone is included.
Giuseppe Penone, Albero porta – cedro (Door Tree – Cedar), 2012 © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Josh White
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Giuseppe Penone
Gesti universali
March 14–July 9, 2023
Galleria Borghese, Rome
galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it
Curated by Francesco Stocchi, this exhibition, whose title translates to Universal Gestures, features more than thirty works created by Giuseppe Penone between the 1970s and the early 2000s. Installed in both the ground-floor rooms and gardens of the Galleria Borghese, the sculptures highlight a symbiosis between built and natural forms, underlining the fluidity that unites all plant, human, and mineral elements. The exhibition proposes a new reading of the relationship between landscape and sculpture embodied in the museum’s collection of work by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680).
Installation view, Giuseppe Penone: Gesti universali, Galleria Borghese, Rome, March 14–July 9, 2023. Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: S. Pellion, courtesy Galleria Borghese
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De la nature
October 22, 2022–March 19, 2023
Musée de Grenoble, France
www.museedegrenoble.fr
This exhibition, whose title translates to Of Nature, explores the work of four artists whose practices examine one of the major subjects of the twenty-first century: the relationship between humans and nature. Ecological awareness on a planetary scale is in the process of upsetting systems of thought in economics, politics, and culture. Work by Cristina Iglesias and Giuseppe Penone is included.
Cristina Iglesias, Cave Study (x), 2022 (detail) © Cristina Iglesias. Photo: José Luis López de Zubiria, courtesy Cristina Iglesias Studio
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Giuseppe Penone
Dessins
October 19, 2022–March 6, 2023
Centre Pompidou, Paris
www.centrepompidou.fr
In 2020, Giuseppe Penone made a substantial donation to the Centre Pompidou in Paris: 328 drawings covering fifty years of creation, from 1967 to 2019. This exhibition presents 241 drawings from his gift, displayed thematically rather than in chronological order, to convey the importance of serial work. Six sculptures are shown alongside the drawings, showcasing all of Penone’s favorite materials: wood, clay, stone, leaves, and bronze.
Giuseppe Penone, 2450 grammi (2450 Grams), 1994 © Giuseppe Penone/2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Archivio Penone
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River of Forms
Giuseppe Penone’s Drawings
September 24, 2022–February 26, 2023
Philadelphia Museum of Art
philamuseum.org
River of Forms, curated by Carlos Basualdo, examines the central role that drawing plays in Giuseppe Penone’s practice and how it informs many of his large sculptural works from the 1960s until today. Celebrating the artist’s recent gift of drawings and artist’s books to the museum, this exhibition of nearly two hundred works on paper and a selection of sculptures reflects Penone’s extraordinary range of techniques and materials, and his belief in art as a means of understanding our place in the world.
Installation view, River of Forms: Giuseppe Penone’s Drawings, Philadelphia Museum of Art, September 24, 2022–February 26, 2023. Artwork © Giuseppe Penone/2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art
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Giuseppe Penone
October 8, 2022–January 29, 2023
Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, Netherlands
www.voorlinden.nl
Throughout his fifty-year career, Giuseppe Penone, a protagonist of Arte Povera, has explored respiration, growth, and aging—among other involuntary processes—to create an expansive body of work that includes sculpture, performance, works on paper, and photography. This retrospective exhibition features both early and recent work by Penone.
Giuseppe Penone, Sculture di linfa (Lymph Sculptures), 2005–07, installation view, 52nd Biennale di Venezia © Giuseppe Penone/2022 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Archivio Penone
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Giuseppe Penone in
Renverser ses yeux: Autour de l’arte povera 1960–1975: photographie, film, vidéo
October 11, 2022–January 29, 2023
Jeu de Paume and Le Bal, Paris
jeudepaume.org
For the first time, Jeu de Paume and Le Bal in Paris present a joint thematic exhibition on the use of media—photography, film, and video—by Italian artists of the 1960s and early 1970s. This show, whose title translates to Reversing the Eye: Arte Povera and Beyond, 1960–75: Photography, Film, Video, provides an overview of the visual experiments of the Arte Povera group and other members of the Italian avant-garde. Work by Giuseppe Penone is included.
Giuseppe Penone, Svolgere la propria pelle (To Unroll One’s Skin), 1970 (detail) © Giuseppe Penone/2022 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Archivio Penone
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Giuseppe Penone à La Tourette
September 6–December 24, 2022
Couvent de La Tourette, Éveux, France
www.couventdelatourette.fr
Invited to show at Couvent de La Tourette, the monastery designed by Le Corbusier in Éveux, France, Giuseppe Penone executed in situ a series of rubbings of the building’s walls, creating a group of frottages and a limited-edition book. Included in the exhibition as well are older and recent works that explore a dialogue between architecture and nature.
Installation view, Giuseppe Penone à La Tourette, Couvent de La Tourette, Éveux, France, September 6–December 24, 2022. Artwork © Giuseppe Penone/2022 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Jonathan Letoublon
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Propagazioni
Giuseppe Penone at Sèvres
March 17–August 28, 2022
Frick Madison, New York
www.frick.org
This one-room installation of work by Giuseppe Penone is displayed at Frick Madison within the broader context of the museum’s collection of decorative arts, old master paintings, and sculpture. Consisting of eleven porcelain disks created during Penone’s 2013 collaboration with the Sèvres porcelain manufactory in France, the work, which has never before been shown publicly, invites a dialogue with the Frick’s rich holdings in the medium.
Frick Madison is the Frick Collection’s temporary home in New York’s iconic Breuer building on the corner of Madison Avenue and 75th Street during the renovation of its own buildings.
Installation view, Propagazioni: Giuseppe Penone at Sèvres, Frick Madison, New York, March 17–August 28, 2022. Artwork © Giuseppe Penone/2022 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Archivio Penone
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Giuseppe Penone
Art Club #34
December 17, 2021–February 27, 2022
Villa Medici–Académie de France à Rome
www.villamedici.it
As part of its Art Club exhibition series curated by Pier Paolo Pancotto, nine works by Giuseppe Penone are on view at Villa Medici in Rome, including five sculptures in terra-cotta and bronze and a video. In the exhibition, conceived for the private rooms of Cardinal Ferdinando de Medici, Penone aims to highlight the singularity of these intimate spaces by presenting emblematic works that question the material and the concept of sculpture.
Giuseppe Penone, Vaso, 1986, installation view, Villa Medici–Académie de France à Rome © Giuseppe Penone/2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: © Daniele Molajoli/AFR–Villa Medici