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bookshop EXIT ENTRANCE INTRODUCTION Punta della Dogana is pleased to present “Untitled, 2020. Three perspectives on the art of the present”, a group exhibition curated by Caroline Bourgeois, artist and art historian Muna El Fituri and artist Thomas Houseago.

By means of an itinerary organised into 18 rooms, each of which devoted to a specific thread (such as activism, utopia or loss), the exhibition design explores the genesis and evolution of the creative process. It also explores some issues that are central to contemporary art (such as the beginnings of painting and the artist's studio). The exhibition revolves around a site-specific installation conceived for the inside of the Cube designed by architect Tadao Ando, at very the heart of Punta della Dogana: the installation presents a remake of an artist’s studio (inspired by Thomas Houseago’s own) that invites viewers to interact with the elements that make up the place where art works and projects are conceived.

4 5 This exhibition proposes a more informal type We hope that this multifaceted exhibition, of relationship with the museum, which is fruit of discussions and dialogue among the presented like a house, as well as with the art three curators, who are linked by longstanding works, considered above all in emotional and personal and professional relationships, aesthetic – almost bodily – terms. We hope will give visitors a chance to make their own to give the feeling of a congenial space that is point of view. conducive to reflection and the exchange of ideas; a comfortable space also where visitors feel welcome to stop, take the time to look and give shape to ideas and images. To that aim, we have arranged for seatings throughout the exhibition space, sanitary dispositions permitting.

The exhibition shows works by 67 artists from various generations (with dates of birth ranging from 1840 to 1995), including a large number of African-American and pioneering women artists whom the institutions have historically under- represented. Many of the works come from the Pinault Collection and from international museums and private collections. Some works, such as those of Kasia Fudakowski, Ellen Gallagher, Lauren Halsey and Henry Taylor, were created specifically for this exhibition.

6 7 LOCKERS PETER MITCHELL ROOM 1 – MAGDALENA 1943, Manchester (United Kingdom) STANDING ABAKANOWICZ FRANCIS GAVAN. SUNDAY 22 APRIL 79. 2 P.M. 1930, Falenty (Poland) – 2017, Warsaw (Poland) The exhibition WOODHOUSE MOOR, LEEDS, 1979/2017 PIGMENT PRINT ABAKAN RED I, 1970-73 begins with the work 35.5 × 35.5 CM A fundamental fact SISAL WEAVING ON METAL SUPPORT C. 300 × 300 × 100 CM of Peter Mitchell, PRIVATE COLLECTION, LOS ANGELES of the human ZÜRCHER HOCHSCHULE DER KÜNSTE/ a documentary ► Peter Mitchell’s photograph is the first work condition: getting to MUSEUM FÜR GESTALTUNG ZÜRICH / we see in this exhibition; like an epigraph in a book, KUNSTGEWERBESAMMLUNG photographer the photo is positioned in the vestibule, at the en- one’s feet, remaining trance to the first room, almost like a manifesto for ► Magdalena Abakanowicz’s work signalled a renowned principally the entire show. Peter Mitchell was the first British standing, or refusing break with the past following her experience of the artist to use colour in documentary photography; he brutality and the social and political conflicts of post- for his photographs is a “radical and pioneering photographer” who since to kneel are all war Poland. From the early 1960s, she revolutionised his beginnings has focused on his surroundings, on textile sculpture with her handmade works in wool, of run-down scenes the place and world in which he lives (Leeds, an in- philosophical or hemp, linen and sisal. She eschewed decorative tap- dustrial town in the north of England). He also focus- estry-making and instead came up with billowing in and around Leeds, es enormous attention on the Other (the inhabitants political issues. three-dimensional shapes that embodied complex of Leeds and their living spaces). and contradictory interchanges. Along with Sheila England. Hicks and Geta Brătescu, Abakanowicz was one of This photograph is from a series of portraits that are the most famous “fibre artists” who further culti- both nostalgic and humorous, depicting Leeds in- vated the radical developments elaborated by the habitants in front of their homes, shops or workplac- German-American artist Anni Albers. es. The backstory recounts the improbable tale of a Martian survey: at a time when the first Viking Lander Her Abakans (1966–75), such as the one shown here, probes were being sent on outer-space reconnais- represent a series of monumental sculptures whose sance missions in the 1970s, Mitchell imagined what fluidity and freedom combine and contrast with their might have happened if Martians had landed in Leeds firmness and their lacerated surfaces. By contem- and it was they who were taking the series of photos, plating these works in the space that they form, as souvenirs of their visit. viewers are encouraged to share the artist’s fasci- nation for the organic life, embodied in the fibre, Mitchell’s first solo exhibition, “European Architectural that constitutes the epidermis. The shapes thus re- Heritage Year 1975”, took place at the Leeds City Art cur over time, exploring the materiality of life, its Gallery in 1975. And in 1979, his ground-breaking show, true depth and its vital tension. “A New Refutation of the Viking 4 Space Mission” at the Impressions Gallery of Photography in York, had an enormous impact on the documentary-photogra- phy scene of the 1970s and 80s, paving the way for the use of colour photography at a time when black and white prints dominated the field to the exclu- sion of all else.

8 9 War as well as on the Cubist artists. Some art crit- GARRY BARKER LEE BONTECOU ics interpret her works as allusions to the female VALIE EXPORT 1950, Dudley (United Kingdom) 1931, Providence, RI (United States) anatomy, but Lee Bontecou seeks above all to de- 1940, Linz (Austria) fy convention both in her choice of materials and CONFESSIONS OF A HOUSE UNTITLED, 1965 in the way she presents her works, which she de- IDENTITY TRANSFER 1, 1968 OWNING SOCIALIST, 1991 WELDED STEEL, EPOXY, PAINT, scribed, in her own words as “as much of life as BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH ETCHING WITH AQUATINT CANVAS, WIRE, TWINE AND WOOD possible—no barriers—no boundaries—all free- 80 × 52 CM (FRAMED) 12 PRINTS, 31.7 × 29.8 CM EACH 118.1 × 138.4 × 43.8 CM dom in every sense.” PRIVATE COLLECTION PRIVATE COLLECTION, LOS ANGELES PRIVATE COLLECTION COURTESY OF HAUSER & WIRTH ► VALIE EXPORT is a multifaceted and politi- ► Garry Barker was born in the West Midlands, COLLECTION SERVICES cally committed artist who began her career in the an area known as the Black Country that is noted TERESA BURGA 1960s-1970s under her real name, Waltraud Lehner for its industrial past and widespread pollution. ► Lee Bontecou draws using soot and began 1935, Iquitos (Peru) Hollinger, using various mediums such as perfor- He is a multifaceted artist, producing pen-and-ink depicting empty circular areas that became a hall- mance, video and photography to investigate the drawings, watercolours, prints, tapestries, graph- mark of her aesthetic. She exhibited for the first time SIN TÍTULO, 1967 condition of women. In 1967, she decided to adopt ics and animation. He is also an author and editor, at the Leo Castelli gallery in 1960. The exhibition MIXED MEDIA the name of a brand of cigarettes, Smart Export – exploring the myths surrounding the arts and the marked the beginning of the international recog- BED: 80 × 108 × 208 CM the symbol of virility par excellence – in an act of issues linking art and fiction. nition of her work, which was still rare for women CURTAIN: 383 × 280 CM provocation and emancipation with regard to her artists in the 1960s. She developed an art practice father. “I wanted my own name,” she explains. This series of illustrations entitled Confessions of that is sometimes considered feminist, post-mini- PINAULT COLLECTION a House Owning Socialist, which Garry Barker pro- malist or related to late surrealism, but in fact de- This new identity, written in capital letters, made duced in 1991, depicts naked, armless figures with fies all classification. Her aim is to “glimpse some ► Teresa Burga is a pioneering figure in con- her as strong as others, as male others. Since then, terrifying open-mouthed, goggle-eyed faces, as of the fear, hope, ugliness, beauty, and mystery ceptual art in Latin America. She explores the pa- she has used her body as an artistic medium, in par- they are transformed into trees. His carefully pro- that exist in us all.” In the mid-1970s, she with- triarchal social structures that govern women’s ticular in her performance Tap and touch cinema, duced drawings plunge the viewer into a sort of wor- drew from the art world and only rarely exhibited lives. She shows marginalised female figures, such in which she invites spectators to come touch her rying, dystopic vision. The psychological, philosoph- her work thereafter. She was rediscovered by a new as prostitutes, women alone in the streets or alone breasts, which are concealed by a box in the shape ical and sexual aspects are emphasised by the art- generation of artists in the 1990s. Lee Bontecou be- in their home environment, focusing on the imbal- of a television. She thus explores the status of wom- ist, who gives a central role to narration and socio- longs to a generation of female sculptors, such as ances and inequalities of power between the sex- en in film and, more generally, the hold that social political exploration. He investigates the links be- Eva Hesse, Louise Bourgeois, Yayoi Kusama or Alina es, which she herself has experienced in Peru. codes have over our bodies, in particular through tween the local level, in Chapeltown – the British Szapocznikow, who give form to an idea of the or- her series Body Configurations in which she chal- town where he lives – and the global. Garry Barker ganic body. In her work Sin título [Untitled], Burga recreates lenges the patriarchal architecture. has always prioritised his work as an art teacher a brightly coloured domestic space in which a fe- and regularly organises art shows in the exhibition Lee Bontecou is known for her sewn and welded male outline is seen flattened on the surface of With Identity Transfer 1, part of a series of four em- spaces of the art school. He draws what he sees mural sculptures created using various industri- a bed. At first sight gay and colourful, this work blematic portraits, the artist impersonates a pimp, on his walk to the school, and his imagination then al materials such as copper, iron, or epoxy, as well soon reveals itself to be a critical reflection on dressed in tight black trousers, a curly, short–haired takes over and transforms the real. His approach as more organic substances such as fossils, bones, the social inequities in Peru and on the situation wig, heavy gold necklaces and bracelets, and ex- involves investigating the process of creating imag- canvas or found objects and army surplus equip- of women in general. Burga’s work is often com- aggerated makeup. The resulting images call into es, dreams and the fantastic. He draws on his own ment that she found in second-hand shops in New pared to American and British Pop Art, but she de- question conventional gender roles and reflect a history, and on the landscapes of his childhood, York. Her monumental aerodynamic, violent, hol- fines herself by her links with Argentine art. Pop moment in history when male and female clothing when “danger was part of the poetry of childhood.” lowed-out, pierced or metallic constructions seem Art at that time was a way of creating a subver- and hairstyles merged. to be marked by the memory of the Second World sive art for the new generation of artists, a “weap- War, when Bontecou’s mother worked in the fac- on” against the “good taste” of the middle classes tories producing submarines. The artist was also which were more attracted by American Abstract deeply aware of the reverberations of the Vietnam Expressionism. war. Her works, with their strong sculptural pres- ence, are both organic and mechanical, they evoke the body and the machine, the abstract and the fig- urative, and draw on the iconography of the Cold 10 11 placed in front of or on top of the canvases seem Henry Moore Bound to Fail recalls the first work NANCY DAVID HAMMONS both to protect them, and at the same time to ren- produced by McCarthy in 1959 as well as a work of 1943, Springfield, IL (United States) der them partially invisible – a metaphor for the the same title produced by Bruce Nauman in 1967. GROSSMAN way minorities and marginalised people are treated. McCarthy adopts the use of holes found in the sculp- 1940, New York, NY (United States) UNTITLED, 2008 tures of Moore, whose figures are known through- MIXED MEDIA out the world. “I’m taking back the work I did in the T.R., 1968 259.1 × 182.9 × 61 CM 1950s-1960s when I was a young adult. I’m recycling. LEATHER OVER WOOD, COURTESY OF THE GEORGE ECONOMOU A cycle across time,” he says. This artistic tour de WITH PORCELAIN AND HARDWARE COLLECTION THOMAS force enables him, through humour, to transform 43.2 × 22.9 × 19 CM the museum into a pedestal bearing an updated ver- ► By displacing objects and their status, David HOUSEAGO sion of his first work. The 1967 Nauman work whose COLLAGE PASTEL #9, 1976 Hammons’ performances and sculptures, such as 1972, Leeds (United Kingdom) title he ironically borrows, although formally dis- COLLAGE AND PASTEL ON PAPER the wardrobe shown here, explore his own African- tant from that of McCarthy, also examined the no- 66 × 49,5 CM American identity and his potentials, urban culture BEAUTIFUL BOY, 2019 tion of artistic dialogue. Nauman produced a plaster and the fight for civil rights and against racism. This TUF-CAL, HEMP, IRON REBAR cast of his torso with his arms tied behind his back, COURTESY OF MARC SELWYN FINE ART, political standpoint ultimately led him to focus on 302.3 × 119.4 × 106.7 CM imprisoned by the influence of established artists LOS ANGELES nonconformism and discretion with regard to the such as the British artist Henry Moore. McCarthy’s art world. To wage this battle, he mostly takes to COURTESY OF THE ARTIST polished stainless-steel version enables an aston- ► Nancy Grossman’s compositions, produced the streets, the urban public spaces, briefly but in- AND GAGOSIAN GALLERY ishing encounter to be established with the view- from scrapheap items such as the leather from a tensely, as was the case for Bliz-aard Ball Sale in er, who plunges into it and even witnesses him- or biker’s jacket or from a pair of boots, or the wood 1983, in which he organised a street-sale of snow- herself being deformed by the artistic experience. of a telegraph pole, echo the Abstract Expressionist balls. For his assemblages, he gathers discarded works that dominated the New York art scene in materials that he often finds on the road and that [SEE ALSO ROOM 11] the 1960s. Grossman’s childhood, which she spent are linked to the African-American culture – frag- working with her parents in the textile industry, in- ments of metal and wood, hair, cigarettes, basket- fluenced her use of these materials and dyes as well ball hoops, stones and cloth – and raises them to PAUL MCCARTHY HENRY MOORE as her use of sewing in her artistic creations. She the rank of artworks. Hammons’ works also refer- 1945, Salt Lake City, UT (United States) 1898, Castleford (United Kingdom) – decided to leave for Europe, and on her return two ence the jazz culture and its history. 1986, Much Hadham (United Kingdom) years later set up her enormous studio in Chinatown. HENRY MOORE BOUND The size of her workshop enabled her to produce In his installation Untitled, Hammons tackles the TO FAIL MAQUETTE (STAINLESS STEEL), 2007 STUDY FOR “GREY TUBE SHELTER”, 1940 large-format works and to investigate the use of new elitist and exclusive nature of the world of art – POLISHED STAINLESS STEEL WATERCOLOUR, GOUACHE, elements. which in this case is jammed behind a massive wood- 154.9 × 101 × 74.9 CM INK AND CHALK ON PAPER en wardrobe – and that of a marginalised society, 27.9 × 33.1 CM Grossman exhibited the first of her life-size heads in of minorities trying to survive through the use of PINAULT COLLECTION 1969. These works were destined to become a se- second-hand materials. This work is part of a se- SHELTER DRAWING, 1940 ries that she would continue to produce until the ries in which, using the same principle, the artist ► For more than fifty years, the American art- WATERCOLOUR, GOUACHE, mid-1990s. Under the sway of the work on women conceals and covers up paintings that he has pro- ist Paul McCarthy has been developing an artistic INK AND CHALK ON PAPER wearing bondage gear produced by her professor duced himself and that bring to mind the paintings approach aimed at conveying a stinging criticism of 28.9 × 27.3 CM and mentor Richard Lindner, and also influenced by of De Kooning or Gerhard Richter. He drapes in- the prevailing value system through the mediums the liberation movements of the late 1960s and the dustrial tarpaulins or black plastic bin bags in lay- of performance, photography, video, installation, THE MOORE DANOWSKI TRUST violence of the Vietnam War, Grossman began to ers over the paintings, leaving only a glimpse of the sculpture, drawing and painting. McCarthy explores sculpt these leather-covered heads, equipped with painting at the edges or through tears in the cover- and challenges the consumer society values and, ► Henry Moore, the British artist famed for his dentures, zippers, straps or horns. Mute, trussed ing strata. In this way, Hammons focuses a critical more generally, the taboos and hierarchies within modernist sculptures that merge abstraction and up, their eyes covered by straps, these heads are gaze on an art world that is obsessed with Abstract the Western world. Making use of icons of popu- biomorphic human figures, was also the creator of like the witnesses of the brutality and social disrup- Expressionist paintings by countering them with lar culture and of childhood, such as Santa Claus, countless works in pencil, ink, gouache and waterco- tions that were happening around the artist, and these lowly utilitarian materials that can be found the seven dwarves, Snow White, or more recent- lour – mediums that were more suited than sculpture despite their seeming aggressiveness they appear on the street or on building sites, and that pertain ly Donald Trump, the artist stages his characters to producing creative output during times of war. on the contrary to be caught in a trap. more to those who work, sweat, sleep and try to in violent and explicit scenes that are intended to The artist first achieved recognition for his series of keep themselves warm and survive. The objects perturb the viewer. Shelter Drawings commissioned by the War Artists 12 13 THE WORKS SHOWN IN ROOM 2 MAY OFFEND SOME VIEWERS’ SENSIBILITIES.

Advisory Committee during the Second World War moves past the work. Each of the faces in turn be- and exhibited at the National Gallery in London from comes flattened, deformed and abstract, a meta- ROOM 2 – INDUS VALLEY 1942. Much more intimate than his “public” art, phor for unsophisticated and hesitant childhood. these sketches which he did in the shelters and then This planar sculpture appears to borrow from the SEXE CIVILIZATION, reworked in his studio powerfully depict the hun- classical techniques and aesthetics. In this case, dreds of thousands of London residents who took fibreglass replaces the marble and noble materi- BALOCHISTAN, refuge in the stations of the London Underground als, while the depiction of the two models resem- under the threat of the German bombardments. In bles the realistic portraiture of the Roman age. The Is sex still our MEHRGARTH his writings, Moore recalled the long queues outside artist plays with the laws of portrayal, the medium, these stations at dusk: “I was fascinated by the sight the techniques and the scale in order to produce a driving force? STANDING FEMALE STATUETTE of people camping out deep under the ground. I had timeless sculpture that is difficult to pin down as ei- STYLE VII, C. 2700-2500 BCE never seen so many reclining figures and even the ther contemporary or antique. The sculpture exudes This room reassesses TERRACOTTA holes out of which the trains were coming seemed a “strange familiarity” that strikes viewers with its 15 × 6 × 7 CM to me like the holes in my sculpture. [They were] immediate magnetism. The empty gaze of the chil- our still deeply … a bit like the chorus in a Greek drama, telling us dren with their pupil-less eyes contrasts with their LIGABUE COLLECTION, VENICE about the violence we don’t actually witness.” The smiles and prevents us from grasping the true ex- patriarchal society. dark hues of the floor contrast with the coldness pressions of these two brothers. ► This terracotta female figurine – depicted of the dehumanised bodies, which seem “buried” with a bald head, fine nose, broad shoulders, folded alive. The underground station is transformed from arms, wide hips and straight cylindrical legs, is one a place of transit to a dead-end, a tomb to house of the few surviving intact examples of the genre. all these human figures with their absent expres- sions who resemble prisoners, corpses or ghosts. An emotional intensity emerges from these draw- ings that foreshadow the horrors of the concen- tration camps. LOCAL CULTURE, FIJI COMMAND STICK: CHARLES RAY BULLI BULLI 1953, Chicago, IL (United States) 19TH CENTURY ENGRAVED WOOD TWO BOYS, 2010 100,3 CM FIBREGLASS 279 × 452 × 27 CM LIGABUE COLLECTION, VENICE

PINAULT COLLECTION ► Finely decorated, this war club from Fiji is made of wood and carved using sperm whale teeth. ► Charles Ray is known for his enigmatic sculp- tures and installations through which he investigates space, the reality around us, and the manner in which we perceive it. For him, sculpture – a discipline that creates a special relationship with space – stood out as the ideal medium for destabilising observers and making them lose their bearings.

With Two Boys, a monochrome white relief in fibre- glass, Charles Ray focuses on the distortion of the two brothers’ features that occurs as the viewer 14 15 and the American comedian Andy Kaufman (1949– IAN AND ME V, 1983 LOCAL VALIE EXPORT 1984) who both had very free approaches, search- PENCIL ON PAPER 1940, Linz (Austria) ing for the extreme, for action. Fudakowski admires 57.2 × 76.2 CM CULTURE, Kaufman’s performance techniques which leave the AKTIONHOSE: GENITALPANIK, 1969/1994 spectator disconcerted, and is equally fascinated IAN AND ME VI, 1983 MARQUESAS BLACK AND WHITE POSTER by Lozano’s radical work, Decide to Boycott Women. PENCIL ON PAPER 79 × 56 CM Fudakowski’s politically committed approach consists 57.2 × 76.2 CM ISLANDS of giving substance to the absurdities of social life and COURTESY OF GALERIE THADDAEUS ROPAC, of socially accepted logics, and highlighting them in IAN AND ME VII, 1983 COMMAND STICK: U’U LONDON / PARIS / SALZBURG order to better deconstruct them through her quirky PENCIL ON PAPER 18TH-19TH CENTURY sense of humour. She thus uses comic skills and tim- 57.2 × 76.2 CM ENGRAVED WOOD [SEE ALSO ROOM 1] ing as tools that enable her to frustrate the viewer’s 140 CM expectations. Her sculptures, performances, instal- © DAVID HOCKNEY ► In Genitalpanik, she bursts into a porno- lations and videos often take the form of jokes that COLLECTION THE DAVID HOCKNEY FOUNDATION LIGABUE COLLECTION, VENICE graphic film theatre in Munich, armed with a subma- are heavily based on puns and wordplay. Humour is chine-gun and dressed entirely in leather, with her “both a communication tool and a measuring stick,” ► David Hockney, one of the leading fig- ► This large, heavy war club or staff undoubt- trousers open at the level of her sex, declaring to the she explains. For Fudakowski, the reaction of the spec- ures in the Pop Art movement of the 1960s and of edly belonged to one of the most important warriors men in the room: “A real sex is at your disposal!” By tator plays a central role in her approach. Hyperrealism, is one of the most influential British of the Marquesas society, for whom such clubs were reversing the roles and taking ascendancy over the painters of the 20th century. Known for his use of of their most prized emblems. These finely decorat- male public, she denounces the image of the wom- For the “Untitled, 2020” exhibition, Fudakowski has attractive acid colours, Hockney produces paint- ed clubs are sculpted in a wood known locally as an as a simple sexual object in this kind of film pro- created an amusing and irreverent sculpture related ings that blend painting and photography. “Toa” or “warrior” wood. The large head is formed duction, and flips the relationship of domination. “I to the theme of the room that acts as an interactive of a series of smaller heads and faces. These are felt it was important to use the female body to create work and offers the spectator the unique experience In 1966, Hockney began a series of drawings to be arranged to resemble a larger face, as a sort of vi- art. I knew that if I did it naked, I would really change of touching and passing through a work. She takes used as illustrations for the Greek poet Constantine sual pun, in which the eyes and nose are formed of how the (mostly male) audience would look at me. the quality of workmanship to the extreme, evoking Cavafy’s poems that openly refer to homosexual de- small heads. The club conferred a sense of power There would be no pornographic or erotic/sexual de- church furniture in terms of material and form, but sire. That year, he travelled to Beirut in Lebanon. and invulnerability on its owner, not just in times sire involved–so there would be a contradiction.” at the same time referencing the turnstiles found at The scenes of intimacy and lovemaking between of war, but also in a spiritual sense. shop entrances. By means of a humorous gesture, this men that are shown in this exhibition were based hilarious analogy creates a link between the sphere on life models as well as on photographs and old COMMAND STICK: U’U of religion and that of commerce. drawings. Although the narration is not explicit, the 19TH CENTURY hotel interiors that Hockney depicts bring to mind ENGRAVED WOOD KASIA fleeting encounters and evoke a certain longing for 142.9 CM the erotic. These pencil drawings, which have rarely FUDAKOWSKI been shown, take on an eminently poetical and po- LIGABUE COLLECTION, VENICE 1985, London (United Kingdom) DAVID HOCKNEY litical dimension, especially in this particular space; 1937, Bradford (United Kingdom) they also remind us of Hockney’s commitment to the ► This finely carved, elaborate and majestic TURNSTILE, 2020 homosexual cause – far removed from his painter- dual-purpose war club and ceremonial staff was LACQUERED OAK HAND CARVED IAN AND ME II, 1983 ly obsession with scenes of Californian swimming produced in the workshop of an artist known as BY ÖMER OKUTAN, CONSTRUCTED BY ÖZKAN PENCIL ON PAPER pools. As a great devotee of the latest technical in- the “Master of the Lizard”. The head of the club is ŞENER, AND PAINTED STEEL MECHANISMS 76.2 × 57.2 CM novations and a knowledgeable expert in the his- decorated with sixteen carved depictions of heads MADE BY SERHAT ÖZTEMIR IN ISTANBUL tory of art, Hockney has continued to explore new and faces. There are also two lizards and forty-two C. 120 × 200 × 80 CM IAN AND ME III, 1983 pictorial territories, in particular that of perspec- etuas (stylised tikis with raised arms) within the or- PENCIL ON PAPER tive, which he helped to revolutionise. According namental band representing the tattoo below the COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND CHERTLÜDDE 76.2 × 57.2 CM to Hockney, “[w]e do not look at the world from a secondary “eye-nose” mask found on both sides of distance; we are in it, and that’s how we feel”, and the club. ► Kasia Fudakowski’s work reveals a sharp IAN AND ME IV, 1983 for this reason, he adds, “I don’t want just to look sense of humour on the subject of sex. She reflects on PENCIL ON PAPER through keyholes” and instead chooses to immerse the stance she takes regarding her influences, in par- 76.2 × 57.2 CM viewers in the scenes he creates and thereby con- ticular the conceptual artist Lee Lozano (1930–1999) front them with a multiplicity of viewing angles. 16 17 cannot live without boxes. We are conceived in box- ironmongery hardware (screws, nails, nuts) and PENISAKTION, 1964 TETSUMI KUDO es (wombs), we grew up in boxes (apartments) and tools (hammers, monkey wrenches) that displayed BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH 1935 – 1990, Osaka (Japan) we end up in boxes (coffins),” Kudo wrote in 1976. a certain eroticism and a phallic nature that sym- 23.5 × 17.5 CM In Untitled (La bouche dans la cage), Kudo enclos- bolised the predominant male power. UNTITLED, C. 1970 es a cast of his own mouth inside a birdcage, with a JOKER, 1985 COMPOSITE PLASTIC MATERIAL, smoked cigarette poised between his lips. A sprig of The series of drawings shown here exude a certain WATERCOLOUR RESIN, HAIR lily-of-the-valley poking out of this enclosed space violence, in both the vigorous pencil strokes and in 100 × 70 CM 7 × 25 × 2 CM gives the misleading appearance – since it is made the choice of motifs depicted: the pointed teeth, of plastic – of a natural element. Kudo created arti- the extended thumb that transforms into a men- O.T. (PENISVARIATION, ROT-ORANGE), 1985 VOTRE PORTRAIT, 1970-75 ficial worlds that explore the metamorphoses and acing penis, or the naked buttocks shooting out WATERCOLOUR PAINTED PLASTIC AND WOOD, PAINTED upheavals of contemporary society. sharp metallic staples. Around 1964–65, Lozano’s 100 × 70 CM MOSS AND RESIN, PLASTIC OBJECTS, WIRE, drawings gradually transformed to become densely TRANSISTORS WIRE With Votre Portrait, the viewer is confronted with a packed scenes of the tools she found during her out- PINAULT COLLECTION 30 × 42 × 21 CM human being whose disembodied gaze stares at us ings along Canal Street in south Manhattan. At the but whose seemingly acid-corroded hands hark back time, this district was a paradise for hawkers and ► Otto Mühl was a central figure in theWiener UNTITLED (LA BOUCHE DANS LA CAGE), 1975 to a post-apocalyptic moment of mankind’s histo- for sales of spare parts from the breaking of navy Aktionsgruppe – Viennese Actionism. He joined the MIXED MEDIA AND CAGE ry. This creature appears to be the prisoner of his craft that had been used during the Second World German army at the age of 18 and participated in the 18 × 11.5 × 9 CM destiny, like the imprisoned ecosystem inside the War and the Korean War. A number of motifs from Ardennes Offensive in 1944. He was marked for life aquarium on which he is perched. the Judaeo-Christian civilisation, such as the Cross by this experience of war and death, and recorded his PARADISE, 1979 and the Star of David, are also present in Lozano’s thoughts in his autobiography Weg aus dem Sumpf PAINTED METAL AND WOOD, work, as is the case in this 1963 drawing in which (“getting out of the quagmire”). At the beginning of VEGETAL FIBRES AND PAINTED RESIN, the Jewish symbol is imprisoned in the disturbing the 1960s, Mühl created Viennese Actionism – in col- PLASTIC AND MEDICINES clenched mouth, surrounded by strange breast-like laboration with the artists Hermann Nitsch, Günter 38 × 31 × 21 CM LEE LOZANO elements and something we might guess to be an Brus and Rudolf Schwarzkogler – an extreme artistic 1930, Newark, NJ (United States) – airplane. Strongly marked by the predominance of current that sought to protest in a creative and lib- PINAULT COLLECTION 1999, Dallas, TX (United States) men in the art world, Lozano continually subvert- erating manner against conformity, laws and social ed the patriarchal principles by showing violent rules and to rediscover an authenticity of experience. ► Deeply marked by the nuclear trauma, NO TITLE, 1962 scenes, including images of cannibalism and pen- Tetsumi Kudo ceaselessly explored progress, con- CONTÉ PASTEL AND CRAYON ON PAPER etration. With her aggressive gestural application These two watercolours produced by Mühl in 1985, sumerism, human dignity and the violence that was 29.9 × 45.5 CM and her garish colours, Lozano produced scenes of entitled Joker and o.T. (Penisvariation, rot-orange), no doubt inherited from the war and the American “hybridisations between body parts and tools in the depict male and female genitalia that merge togeth- atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. NO TITLE, C. 1963 act of reciprocal interpenetration.” er, multiply, metamorphose and busy themselves CRAYON AND GRAPHITE ON PAPER while releasing their fluids. The images are both bur- The walls and ceiling of the space are hung with ar- 23 × 24 CM lesque and obscene; the excited organs with their tificial phalluses, with miniature lightbulbs play- bright red, orange or blue colours, and their mu- ing the role of the seminal fluid. For Kudo, this om- NO TITLE, C. 1963 tant forms – like that of the human figure that can nipresence of male organs, as in the works shown CRAYON AND GRAPHITE ON PAPER OTTO MÜHL be seen in Joker – represent the cathartic libera- here, symbolised the advent of a post-sexual world. 44 × 57 CM 1925, Grodnau (Autriche) – tion of bodies that lay at the heart of Mühl’s prac- Using an approach that was both scientific and ar- 2013, Moncarapacho (Portugal) tice in particular, and of Viennese Actionism in gen- tistic in equal measure, he transformed composite PINAULT COLLECTION eral, which sought to subvert art through the body. plastic materials, resin, hairs, modelling clay, fibres, COSINUS ALPHA, 1964 mosses and all sorts of electrical wires. Kudo posi- ► Lee Lozano played a central role on the BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH Penisaktion and Cosinus Alpha depict the artist’s gen- tioned plastic body parts, genitalia, masks, mouths, New York art scene between 1960 and 1972. Her 29.5 × 23.5 CM itals and his wife playing enacting a lesbian role, re- hands or breasts inside metal cages or aquariums motto throughout her short career was “seek the spectively. These ritual experiments, somewhere be- alongside laboratory instruments, thus creating a extremes, that’s where all the action is.” COSINUS ALPHA, 1964 tween action painting and body art, extol an order of sick and mutant post-apocalyptic vision of human BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH destruction, an absolute revolt. Using food, rubbish, civilisation that he later called a “new ecology.” His Lozano was a subversive artist, whose work lay 24 × 18 CM and liquids such as vomit, urine or blood, poured over works sarcastically reflect contemporary society’s midway between minimalism and conceptual the bodies that are reduced to their most bestial lev- compartmentalised and controlled way of life: “We art. She produced countless drawings depicting el, Mühl devised these increasingly provocative bodily 18 19 actions, aimed directly at the respectable and prud- ish post-war society. It was not destruction per se that ALINA ROOM 3 – ENRICO DAVID interested the artist, but the fact of destroying art as 1966, Ancona (Italy) an institution, as a comfort zone. In destroying every- SZAPOCZNIKOW THE BEGINNINGS thing that academicism represented and regarded 1926, Kalisz (Poland) – 1973, Paris (France) SENZA TITOLO, 2012 as sacred, Mühl – through the Viennese Actionism – OF PAINTING ACRYLIC ON CANVAS replaced the canvas with the use of the body, which SEIN ILLUMINÉ, 1967 293 × 209 CM thus became a catalyst, an instrument of liberation. RESIN, LIGHT BULB, ELECTRIC WIRE AND METAL PINAULT COLLECTION 46 × 28 × 17 CM What should be ROOM FOR SMALL HEAD (NADIA), 2013 SCULPTURE-LAMPE IX, 1970 depicted and how can 21 × 147 × 28 CM SER SERPAS COLOURED POLYSTYRENE RESIN, BRONZE 1995, Los Angeles, CA (United States) ELECTRIC WIRE AND METAL the spirit be freed? 127 × 42 × 33 CM COURTESY OF THE ARTIST UNTITLED, 2018 AND MICHAEL WERNER GALLERY, OIL ON WOOD FIANCÉE FOLLE BLANCHE, 1971 NEW YORK AND LONDON 61 × 61 CM POLYSTYRENE RESIN, CLOTH, PLEXIGLAS PEDESTAL ► Enrico David’s work is permeated with ref- PRIVATE COLLECTION 46 × 30 × 30 CM erences to philosophy, anthropology, psychology and sexuality. With an aesthetic that approaches UNTITLED (FROM THE TBILISI SERIES), 2019 PINAULT COLLECTION contemporary surrealism, he depicts bodies in the OIL ON CANVAS process of metamorphosis, and their dissolution, 36.5 × 46.5 CM ► Alina Szapocznikow was born in Poland in like a modern art that tends towards abstraction, 1926, and lived through the horrors of the Pabianice whether his medium is painting or sculpture. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND THE COLLECTION and Łódź ghettos and then of the death camps dur- OF OLIVIER REYNAUD-CLÉMENT, ORC INC. ing the Second World War. As a follower of Rodin David always comes back to the body as the start- and a precursor to body art, she represents an es- ing point. He sees the human figure as a metaphor ► Ser Serpas works with “disgusting, ephem- sential turning point in the history of the depic- for transformation, which he considers to be inher- eral, mistreated” found objects that are charged with tion of the body, along with artists such as Louise ent to the act of creation both with regard to the their own energy and history. Through seemingly cha- Bourgeois, Eva Hesse and ORLAN. shapes and regarding the possibility of creating po- otic assemblages, she investigates the mundane, and tential meanings. While his visual language remains reinterprets and reconfigures it, seeking in this way Using dismembered and disarticulated body parts, coherent, he draws on a wide variety of techniques to reflect a certain harmony, somewhere between Alina Szapocznikow’s coloured resin sculptures of and mediums, using bronze as well as Jesmonite, desire and fear. Her creation process is similar to breasts, mouths and deformed hands provide visual a little-known material composed of gypsum and musical interventions in space: “I tackle each work evidence of the body’s frailty, its depths and its mem- acrylic resin. David’s anthropomorphic subjects, session like a video clip. The installation is more im- ory. Following on from the legacy of the Surrealists, which are somewhere between delicacy and bru- portant to me than each piece seen individually.” Alina Szapocznikow’s work reveals a courageous fem- tality, are not completely formed; rather, they are in inist and poetic introspection. Among the themes she the process of evolving and at times evoke a sense In conjunction with these sculptures and installations, explored are the organic, the sexual and the living – of melancholy, uncertainty or pain. Serpas has recently become interested in oil painting, even the ephemeral – eventually coming up with de- a process that requires new timescales and long work- sign objects such as her Lampe-bouche or her Sein ing hours. Like her drawings, Serpas’ paintings de- illuminé. Her work shows her obsession with physical pict nude bodies, anatomical details (hands, genitals, destruction, and is striking in its intensity. It is almost breasts), figures in sensual poses in which the eroti- impossible not to see in her sculptures and drawings, cism is constantly changing. As a transgender artist, in which the bodies – her own body – are torn and Serpas’ works testify to her interest in issues related dismembered, the deep marks of her own history. to identity and sexuality and to how these are depict- ed in our times, in particular through the Internet. 20 21 HÉLÈNE DELPRAT ALICE KETTLE ELLEN MARKUS LÜPERTZ 1957, Amiens (France) 1961, Winchester (United Kingdom) GALLAGHER 1941, Reichenberg (Germany) PLUIE BATTANTE, FLEURS ROSES ET UN LOUKANIKOS THE DOG AND THE CAT’S 1965, Providence, RI (United States) HELM I, 1970 PAPILLON EN TUBE QUI PASSE PAR LÀ, 2016 CRADLE, 2015 DISTEMPER ON CANVAS PIGMENT AND ACRYLIC ON CANVAS MOUNTED THREAD ON PRINTED AND PAINTED CANVAS PARADISE SHIFT, 2020 235 × 189.5 CM (FRAMED) ON STRETCHER WITH GLASS AND COPPER ATTACHMENTS, ROPE MIXED MEDIA ON CANVAS 211 × 245 CM 217 × 520 CM 202 × 188 CM PINAULT COLLECTION

PINAULT COLLECTION COURTESY OF ALICE KETTLE AND CANDIDA © ELLEN GALLAGHER ► Markus Lüpertz’ prolific output draws on a STEVENS GALLERY COURTESY OF THE ARTIST multitude of references to history, myths and the ► In 1995, Hélène Delprat decided to with- AND HAUSER & WIRTH great figures of art history. His large-format can- draw from the world of art and devote herself to ► Alice Kettle, a British artist who comes from vases blend figuration and abstraction, simplify- writing and to producing videos and theatre de- a family of couturiers and tailors, is famous for her ► Ellen Gallagher, the daughter of an Irish- ing shapes and enlarging the details of the motifs sign, thus enriching her fantastic and disturbing large-format figurative textile works that combine American mother and an African-American father, he depicts, which originate from different registers universe. In her studio, she produces “radiophonic” meticulous needlework with large swathes of co- was exposed at a very early age to latent racism and and periods. drawings while listening to the radio, and has run a lour. to the concept of belonging that would impel her to blog, Days, since 2004. She also set up a “museum explore post-colonial history, issues of racial iden- In the early 1970s, Lüpertz produced a series of of titles,” of which she is “head curator”, in which Her embroidered work, Loukanikos the Dog and the tity, social class and gender in her work. paintings dominated by motifs drawn from German she lists the rather sophisticated titles of paintings Cat’s Cradle depicts Loukanikos, a direct reference history, including, in particular, uniforms, military from the history of art, just like her own titles such to the dog that became famous for having “opposed” As she trawls through the history and myths of Black insignia and Nazi-army helmets, as is the case in as Pluie battante, fleurs roses et un papillon en tube the riot police between 2008 and 2012 when the an- Americans, she focuses our attention on the caricat- this Helm I dated 1970. The central role of the shape, qui passe par là. ti-austerity protests were taking place in Greece, ural depictions and the past and present discrimi- which renders the motif absurd, heightens the ten- and whose death in 2014 sparked an outpouring nations still imposed on Black communities. In the sion between content and container and encourag- Delprat is a unique artist who, through her exhibi- of sorrow. Kettle depicts contemporary events in early 2000s, she began to produce works based on es the spectator to take a fresh look at history. With tions, reveals a “hotchpotch” – as she calls her work a fairy-tale manner, drawing her references from adverts drawn from beauty magazines aimed at the great stylistic freedom, Lüpertz produces series of – enriched by references to film, literature, histo- the history of figurative textiles and monumental African-American market that were published be- variations on a theme. When challenged about the ry of art and popular culture. In order to achieve narrative tapestries. tween the 1930s and 1970s (Ebony, Sepia, Tan, Black fact that the representation of these military acces- her aim of unsettling the viewer, she muses on bad Obsession, and so on). These adverts, for skin-light- sories is not meaningless and might on the contrary taste, at times bringing to mind Shakespeare’s words For Kettle, needlework is “freeing” because it is not ening and hair-straightening products, among oth- shock viewers, Lüpertz explains his choice with an in Macbeth – “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” – and, at “constrained by shape, format or surface and be- ers, serve as the raw material for Gallagher, who cuts anecdote describing an incident that occurred in others, evincing her admiration for Magritte’s “péri- cause one can play with light and the different qual- them out and reuses the texts and images as a de- Italy: as he was watching a war movie at the cinema, ode vache.” With her spangled paintings over which ities of thread – it’s a never-ending conversation nunciation of advertising hype. The theme of trans- the steel helmets on the screen appeared to him like march a series of amusing yet terrifying magical between the thread and the cloth.” She constantly formation, of metamorphosis, is omnipresent in her a “visual phenomenon.” In order to highlight his role creatures on the point of metamorphosis, Delprat’s tries out different techniques with threads of vary- works. Using highly fluid mediums such as inks, wa- as an abstract painter, Lüpertz repeated a number of work hovers between life and theatre in a sort of ing qualities, thicknesses, types and blends, which tercolour or tempera, she creates ethereal figures his works, such as Helmet (four times), at the begin- comic illusion. “Apart from the studio where I work, enables her to perfect the form, scale and surface. that cannot be easily categorised either as real hu- ning of the 1970s in order to undermine the impor- one of the places where I feel best is on the stage Kettle’s works almost always incorporate a narra- mans or as mutations. These hybrid figures created tance of the subject and to question its uniqueness. or in a box at the theatre or on a film set” she con- tive dimension linked to her numerous projects. by the contamination of the ink on the paper are the fesses. Careful staging is at the heart of her work, artist’s visions symbolising the mythologies of Africa. which investigates not just identity, secrets and “a By cultivating ambiguity, Gallagher’s works seem to room of one’s own,” but also the creative process become like a dream in which figures from African- and the status of the artist in general. American mythology stand alongside aquatic organic shapes. Although her visions are fictional, they appear loaded with painful recollections. For this exhibition, Gallagher has produced Paradise Shift, a charged work in which the colours, layering and shapes lead us more towards abstraction, to a dreamlike world. 22 23 Younger (1497-1543) and shows Christ between the ROOM 4 – KARON DAVIS MARLENE Deposition and the Resurrection with a raw and mor- 1977, Reno, NV (United States) bid realism. Through this diptych, which is painted DEATH DUMAS in a range of grey, green and brown tones, Dumas THE BIRTH OF HORUS, 2018 1953, Cape Town (South Africa) mingles reflections on death, redemption and the PLASTER, 24-CARAT GOLD LEAF, GLASS history of art. EYEBALLS, WHITE ACRYLIC PAINT, HEMP, STEEL GELIJKENIS I & II (LIKENESS I & II), 2002 What we 122 × 92 × 53 CM OIL ON CANVAS 60 × 230 CM EACH are all facing. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND WILDING CRAN GALLERY LONG LIFE, 2002 VALIE EXPORT OIL ON CANVAS 1940, Linz (Autriche) ► Karon Davis’ sculptures, made of white plas- 80 × 70 CM ter, metal wire, plastic tubes and paper, are incom- VERKREUZUNG, 1972 plete but delicate. Their inner armatures are left PINAULT COLLECTION COLOURED PENCIL ON BLACK AND WHITE intentionally visible, linking the sculptures’ inner PHOTOGRAPH strength to their external fragility. Through this me- ► Marlene Dumas was born in 1953 in Cape 58.5 × 39 CM dium and these characters, Davis seeks to capture a Town, South Africa, and for the past forty years has lost, forgotten time, an emotion, and to freeze it so lived and worked in Amsterdam. In view of the bru- COURTESY OF GALERIE THADDAEUS ROPAC, that it can continue to live. The Egyptians were the tal apartheid regime, she decided to leave the coun- LONDON / PARIS / SALZBURG keepers of their heritage, and Davis includes her- try where she had grown up and studied fine art, self in that line of descent. According to her, plas- and instead settled in the Netherlands in 1976. She ter has the ability to “reassemble broken spirits” is one of the major figures in contemporary figura- and reminds her of the processes used by the old tive painting, and powerfully explores deeply inti- [SEE ROOM 1] funeral parlours to prepare the bodies for the af- mate, existential themes, such as death, violence, terlife. childhood and sexuality. MERET Davis sculpts what she knows and what she has ex- Dumas draws inspiration from images that she finds perienced, and in the case of pain she uses her art in newspapers, masterpieces from the history of art, OPPENHEIM as a form of catharsis to free her spirit from this films, or Polaroids that she takes herself of friends, 1913, Berlin (Germany) – 1985, Basel (Switzerland) fear and sadness. She encapsulates all these feel- lovers or family, and in particular of her daughter ings inside her works, and in so doing takes on the Helena. This process enables her to create a tension RÖNTGENAUFNAHME DES SCHÄDELS M.O./ position of observer, of subject of these traumas. between the myths of history and current events. X-RAY OF M. O.’S SKULL, 1964 Through her work, she explores her own grief as Her output is based on the consciousness that the CONTECT SILVER PRINT well as more universal pain, focusing on subjects endless flow of images that bombards us each day FROM THE ORIGINAL X-RAY PLATE such as migrations due to fire, flooding or natural interferes with our perception of ourselves and with 74.6 × 61 CM catastrophes, which she herself experienced dur- our way of understanding the world. Her fluid, cold ing the recent “Thomas Fire” in California in 2017. characters represent not so much the individual as PETER FREEMAN AND LLUÏSA SARRIES, the emotions, and the works shown here are repre- NEW YORK sentative of this tension between pain and beauty, between Eros and Thanatos. ► The Swiss artist and poet, Meret Oppenheim, was one of the major figures in Surrealism and de- In Long Life (2002), Dumas depicts a dead man in veloped a free and multifaceted body of work. Using tones of blue and violet, stretched out in a halo of drawing, sculpture, painting and collage, among grey and white light. His face, now at ease, brings other mediums, she produced works that were both a sense of silence and a certain serenity and at abstract and figurative in equal measure, and creat- the same time a great astonishment. The diptych ed strange objects, such as her iconic work Déjeuner Gellijkenis I & II (Likeness I & II), painted in 2002, is en fourrure (1936), which consists of a cup, saucer inspired by the masterpiece by Hans Holbein the and spoon, each completely covered with fur. 24 25 In 1964, Oppenheim produced her x-ray self-por- movement of her body. The goddess, inspired by a Taylor’s works are painted not only on very large Most of Thomas’ sculptural output consists of skulls trait, which brings to mind Man Ray’s “rayogra- cancan dancer who is said to have been the mod- format canvases, but also on cigarette packs or and busts which were either portraits of members phies.” Oppenheim added the title M.O. 1913-2000, el, is shown here with her legs spread, explicitly re- suitcases. His characters all have a familiar but at of his community or simply imaginary. He painted thereby suggesting it was a posthumous depiction vealing her sexuality, while the focus on her genita- the same time foreign air about them. His paint- them and added real human teeth and tufts of hu- of herself. She played with the self-portrait genre lia brings to mind Gustave Courbet’s famous paint- ings are not confined to just the depiction of the man hair or various accessories such as glasses. by removing all identifying features, and the view- ing L’origine du monde (1866). figure; like poems, they also suggest a whole nar- The objects, which could be used as ashtrays or er sees only her skull, neck bones, shoulders and rative, a universe in which the social and politi- as bowls, reveal the artist’s obsession with death. raised right hand. She appears even more revealed This work reveals Rodin’s fascination for the study cal questions that affect the African-American He also produced birds, snakes, squirrels and fish than in the nude, but paradoxically allows no emo- of movement and his skill in bringing out expressive community are raised. Taylor documents the that reflected the wild species of the Mississippi tion to appear. The viewer cannot tell offhand wheth- and carnal forms from the stone. The uneven treat- life around him: “My paintings are what I see and also recalled their symbolism in the African- er the image is of a man or a woman, but the pres- ment of the material and the visible casting marks around me… they are my landscape paintings.” American folklore tradition of that region of the ence of jewellery – a mark of femininity – reduces create an interplay of light and shadow on the mus- Mississippi delta – Hoodoo. These beliefs, which uncertainty while also evoking high-quality grave cles, inviting the viewer to circle around the work were very important for the artist, were inherited goods. This macabre photograph brings to mind to better appreciate its nuances. from the slaves who had been brought from West the 17th century Dutch vanitas or vanity paintings; Africa. Certain works recall this painful past and the allegorical paintings representing the passage JAMES «SON the enduring racial inequalities. of time and the inevitability of death. FORD» THOMAS HENRY TAYLOR 1926, Eden, MS (United States) – 1958, Ventura, CA (United States) 1993, Greenville, MS (United States) LUC TUYMANS AUGUSTE RODIN DON’T HATE HAITIANS, 2016 UNTITLED, 1986 1958, Mortsel (Belgium) 1840, Paris (France) – 1917, Meudon (France) ACRYLIC ON CANVAS SCULPTURE 91.5 × 91.5 CM 26.7 CM TWENTY-SEVENTEEN, 2017 IRIS, MESSAGÈRE DES DIEUX, 1890-91 OIL ON CANVAS PLASTER PINAULT COLLECTION UNTITLED, 1987 94.7 × 62.7 CM 86 × 76 × 36 CM SCULPTURE UNTITLED (LIZ GLYNN), 2019 22.8 CM PINAULT COLLECTION PINAULT COLLECTION ACRYLIC ON CANVAS 188 × 121.9 CM SKULL, 1988 ► Luc Tuymans selects archive images from ► No other sculptor, after Canova, had as SCULPTURE the press, film or found on the Internet, which he great an influence in Europe as Rodin: he legiti- © HENRY TAYLOR 16.1 × 11.4 × 17.8 CM then photographs with his smartphone or a Polaroid mised the “uncompleted” style, thanks to which COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND BLUM – a step that enables him to blur or fade certain de- he was able to achieve delicate aesthetic effects; & POE LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK/TOKYO COLLECTION OF THE SOULS tails and to modify the colours. What he then paints he transformed the hardness of marble into soft GROWN DEEP FOUNDATION appears increasingly enigmatic and mysterious, as flesh; and he was capable of miraculously bringing ► Henry Taylor is an African-American paint- if suspended in time. Tuymans has a complex rela- out the stone’s eroticism by imbuing it with a re- er whose enigmatic works are structured around ► James “Son Ford” Thomas was an American tionship with the tonality of his paintings, and the fined realism. portraits of his patients (when he was a psychiat- sculptor and Delta blues musician. At around ten nuance obtained by mixing colours allows him to ric nurse), his friends, family, neighbours, home- years old, Thomas produced his first skulls to fright- create depth and an entrancing light. Initially designed as an allegorical figure intended less people, drug addicts, beggars or victims of po- en his grandfather, who feared ghosts. As a child, to crown the Monument à Victor Hugo (1897), the lice violence and also of celebrities such as Serena his uncle taught him to play the guitar and to sculpt The title of the work Twenty Seventeen refers to the mythological figure shown here is one of Auguste Williams or Nick Drake, and even of members of the with the red “gumbo” clay – a mix of sand, organ- year of its creation. It shows the face of a fright- Rodin’s most audacious sculptures, due to the erot- art world. Whether his subjects came from privi- ic matter and fine particles of clay – that he gath- ened, frozen, woman, but it is not a real portrait. icism it takes on and also to its unconventional dy- leged backgrounds or not, they all received the ered on the banks of the river Yazoo. Later Thomas This canvas depicts a figure from the dystopic tele- namic pose. The figure was originally placed in a same treatment: a thick and rapid touch, general- would say that “we all return to clay” after death. vision series entitled 3%. In this Brazilian TV series, downwards position and had a head, a right arm ly in bright colours. His work is strongly marked by Using this material, Thomas would create his own society is split into the wealthy and the rest. Some and a pair of wings, but was divested of these at- his affiliation with the Los Angeles Black commu- toys, dogs, horses and Ford Company tractors – of the most destitute individuals are allowed to par- tributes and placed upright in order to heighten nity, for whom he is a leading figure. which is how he got his nickname “Son Ford.” ticipate in a competition, “The Process”, in which the composition’s focus on Iris’ anatomy and on the they can “win” their chance to attain a better life: 26 27 but only 3% are successful. The others are killed, like this woman who has just discovered that she ROOM 5 – ELLIOT DUBAIL BERND LOHAUS has been poisoned. This portrait, part fiction part 1989 – 2018, Paris (France) 1940, Dusseldorf (Germany) – reality, with its icy expression, also references re- MOURNING 2010, Antwerp (Belgium) cent events, particularly Donald Trump’s election in UNTITLED, 2018 the United States and Brexit in the United Kingdom, DIPTYCH UNTITLED, 1969 that herald an upset in world history. All Tuymans’ OIL, PIGMENT AND DAMMAR RESIN WOOD, ROPE, IRON subjects are cold and violent, linked to historical Mourning as 260 × 190 CM 120 × 41.5 × 25 CM facts that explore the human condition in a radi- cal way, such as colonisation, religious fanaticism, an experience that PINAULT COLLECTION UNTITLED, 1970 Nazism and the Holocaust… WOOD, HEMP ROPE we must all deal ► Elliot Dubail was born in Paris in 1989, and 17 × 80 × 115 CM died in 2018 at the age of 29. Dubail, a French na- with in our lives. tional, grew up in Great Britain under the influence UNTITLED, 2000 of a family environment in which art played a natu- WOOD, TWO PARTS rally important part. He studied first at the French- 24 × 175 × 73 CM English Northbourne Park School then trained at the Ateliers de Sèvres and at Villa Arson, in Nice. PINAULT COLLECTION

The diptych Untitled, which is shown here, is part of ► Bernd Lohaus, who studied under Joseph the Appartement series that Dubail painted in 2018. Beuys from 1963 to 1966, developed a poetic and All the paintings in this series are views of a fire- pared-back sculptural approach using materials he ravaged apartment belonging to a collector who admired for their previous lives, whether natural or had acquired one of his first paintings. They reveal industrial: these included driftwood, stones, met- a complex architecture that attracts us and that we al and ropes. attempt to decipher. The colours, which the artist made himself, are applied with lively and instinctive “I have a direct relationship with these materials,” movements, playing with light as though the can- he confided. “There is a certain warmth in wood, and vases were lit by candle. The spaces are simulta- when I work the wood I almost never hurt myself. neously calm and disturbing, and despite their ev- I speak to the wood and the wood speaks to me.” ident absence of life, they seem to be inhabited by Lohaus therefore made only a few subtle changes to a presence that defies description but that chal- the materials in his workshop, leaving traces or marks lenges us. This canvas nonetheless emits a partic- that allowed him to emphasise the form. He was fas- ular atmosphere, an almost supernatural energy, cinated by language and philosophy, and sometimes like an extension of the artist himself. engraved words on his otherwise raw sculptures, giv- ing them a romantic or even existential dimension. Dubail’s perfect mastery of chemical components enabled him to achieve the bewitching light that in- The three works displayed here are consistent with habits his paintings with their unsettling mysticism. this poetic way working of the material. The idea of These paintings are of gloomy interiors, awash with contrast or dialogue between strength and fragility is nostalgia, like the artist himself, who often created at the core of the two rope-and-wood Untitled sculp- spaces full of solitude, in which time is suspended tures, one from 1969 and the other from 1970. Untitled, and the human figure is often absent. 2000 also reflects this working of form which, accord- ing to Lohaus, brought his work closer to the work of Michelangelo than to that of Rodin, since he worked by subtraction and not by modelling. His aim was to “remove all the faults, all the excess.” With Lohaus, for whom “the action of making” was fundamental, the artwork became like a metamorphosis. 28 29 have auditory qualities. “I like (…) these silences ROOM 6 – EDUARDO or empty spaces (…) where form can vibrate. In my GEORG HEROLD sculptures, one can find a reminder of Basque mu- 1947, Jena (Germany) ELEMENTAL CHILLIDA sic, of those tunes that endlessly vary from major 1924 – 2002, San Sebastian (Spain) to minor to the point that the listener is free to hear GELANDETE HORIZONTE, 1996 them sometimes in one way, at others in a different ROOF BATTENS, CHIPBOARD, GLASS, GLASS PROYECTO PARA UN MONUMENTO, 1969 way,” the artist stated. The works chosen here re- CONTAINERS, DISTILLED WATER, PUMICE STONES Natural elements IRON call his work in response to the history of sculpture 164 × 270 × 39 CM 36 × 41 × 42 CM in particular, as a sort of tribute to his predeces- reflecting the climate sors. All artists come from somewhere… GRÄSSLIN COLLECTION, ST. GEORGEN MAQUETA PARA HOMENAJE A HOKUSAI, 1991 emergency. STEEL ► Like the proponents of Arte Povera or Joseph 22 × 43.8 × 28 CM Beuys, Georg Herold uses simple construction ma- terials such as wood, brick, canvas, glass and elec- SALUDO A GIACOMETTI, 1992 VALIE EXPORT tric wires, as well as reflecting pools. His approach STEEL 1940, Linz (Austria) is similar to that of conceptual art since he rejects 112.5 × 16 × 16.2 CM the concept of the sublime and prefers to carry out BODY CONFIGURATION / ZUDRÜCKUNG, his investigations of language by means of visu- SALUDO A BRANCUSI, 1993 C. 1972-76 al word play and texts. “I aim to achieve a state of STEEL BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH ambiguity that allows all sorts of interpretations,” 11.5 × 21.7 × 13.2 CM 52 × 80 CM (FRAMED) he explains. His works, which defy both gravity and order, capture a tension that reflects an energet- LURRA M-35 (HOMENAJE A BACH), 1996 PRIVATE COLLECTION ic creation process. Along with the German artists CHAMOTTE CLAY Albert Oehlen, Martin Kippenberger, Werner Büttner 37 × 29 × 15 CM EINARMUNG, 1972 or Günther Förg, Herold belongs to a generation of BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH provocative artists who are linked to the punk and COURTESY OF THE ESTATE OF EDUARDO CHILLIDA 42 × 62 CM anti-bourgeois movement. AND HAUSER & WIRTH EINPASSUNG, 1972 The work shown here, Gelandete Horizonte (1996) ► Eduardo Chillida’s first works were influ- BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH seems to resonate with the water that surrounds enced by Cubism and Abstraction but displayed 41 × 61 CM the building; its shape and its title allow Herold to unique formal qualities by combining empty space challenge the viewer’s perception and the associ- with volume. “I had the feeling that the plaster, as OHNE TITEL, 1976 ated material. In Herold’s works, which are often well as my visits to the Louvre, were leading me to- BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH critical and ironic, he uses simple materials such wards the white light of Greece (…). I come from a 42 × 60.5 CM as slats of wood, bricks and other objects from ev- country that has a black light. The Atlantic is dark.” eryday life in order to better challenge the tradi- With great technical mastery, he sang the praises VERDOPPELUNG, 1976 tional forms of expression of wall-mounted paint- of the formal qualities and dynamism of these pure ERASURE ON BLACK ing and of sculpture. materials. The viewer can sense the air and space AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH that move within the heart of the sculpture, which 39.8 × 44.2 CM often defies gravity. COURTESY OF GALERIE THADDAEUS ROPAC, Throughout his career, which was punctuated by LONDON / PARIS / SALZBURG REI NAITO numerous exhibitions world-wide, Eduardo Chillida 1961, Hiroshima (Japan) produced many series of sculptures in wood, iron, [SEE ROOM 1] granite and concrete, as well as in Corten steel. PILLOW FOR THE DEAD , 1997 Chillida drew inspiration from the Basque iron-work- SILK ORGANZA AND THREAD, CUSTOM VITRINE ing traditions to work the material with simplicity 5.6 × 4.5 × 2.5 CM and authenticity. His poetically titled works also 30 31 COURTESY OF THE COLLECTION his visits to the Museu do Açude, in Rio, the artist OF OLIVER RENAUD-CLÉMENT, ORC INC. DANIEL had apparently briefly spotted one of these insects ROOM 7 – on the surface of an empty pool. The animal’s rap- UNTITLED, 2017/2018/2020 STEEGMAN id disappearance led him to rethink the status of HOWL FLOWER, WATER, GLASS JAR the image, a thought which he interprets here us- Ø 7.5 × H 11.4 CM MANGRANÉ ing cellulose, the organic component of the original VARIABLE DIMENSIONS DEPENDING 1977, Barcelona (Spain) celluloid photographic film strips. Works such as ON THE SIZE OF THE FLOWER Growing Economies (2013) and Espaço Avenca (2014) Is howling PHASMIDES, 2008-12 highlight the organic and geometric compositions COURTESY OF THE ARTIST 16 MM FILM TRANSFERRED TO COLOUR HD VIDEO, of branches, the purity and delicacy of which also the only option AND TAKA ISHII GALLERY WITHOUT SOUND bring to mind the phasmids. 22 MIN. 41 SEC. in the face ► From the outset, Rei Naito has always ob- served and analysed the human condition. She pre- PINAULT COLLECTION of growing fers “soft and weak things” and uses familiar mate- rials such as cloth, bits of wood, beads or seashells ESPAÇO AVENCA, 2020 inequalities, and a particular light that transforms the visitor’s INTERTWINED AVENCA BRANCHES experience into a moment perfect for meditation 58 × 41 × 30 CM racism, etc.? and contemplation. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST In March 2011, the earthquake followed by the nu- clear disaster in Fukushima brought back memories ► At the heart of the work of Catalan artist, buried within her of an even older catastrophe, that Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, is nature. He con- of the atomic bomb dropped on her native town on siders that the relationship to the other – wheth- 4 August 1945. Until then, Hiroshima’s painful past er human, animal, vegetable or object – should be – which she hadn’t dared to broach – had been ab- seen from the viewpoint of a common culture and sent from Naito’s artistic reflections, but from that that, ultimately, everything is human. Steegmann point it would become a central element of her fu- Mangrané thus transforms the exhibition space in- ture practice. Re-evaluating her way of seeing the to an immersive ecosystem in its own right, where world and our relationship with it, she manipulates the living and tropicality feed his installations. The emptiness, space, absence, and the delicate, in- artist seeks by all means available to combine the significant forms of life like dust or light. Despite work and the spectator into the same organic unit, the delicate and subdued nature of her installa- freed from any hierarchical conception of the world, tions, through them Rei Naito speaks to us of vio- using drawing, sculpture, photography and video lent things; of death, of the inexpressible. Her tiny to achieve this end. “Merging interior and exterior,” anthropomorphic sculptures, which are sometimes and breaking down the walls of the place of exhibi- exhibited beside her works, are not human beings tion is a fundamental act. but figures that the artist has charged with a mis- sion: to believe in hope. Water is another recurring The two works shown in this exhibition sum up element in Naito’s work. It is poured over the flow- Steegmann Mangrané’s ecological thought, in par- ers present in her installations, or it may be shown ticular through the figure of the phasmid – an in- in the form of drops that may begin to move, to join sect resembling a stick or a leaf – the Latin root of up with each other and form a trickle and then final- whose name, phasma, means “ghost.” Steegmann ly a pool. By showing us this water, this flower, this Mangrané plays with the appearance and disap- living organism or cushion of air, the artist shows pearance of these sensitive beings, masters of cam- us life, which is omnipresent in her work and has ouflage, which almost become plants in our per- once again become the symbol of hope. ception. In the video Phasmides (2008-12), he films phasmids moving through geometric human con- structions and also through nature. During one of 32 33 verge on the surrealistic, he draws on the iconogra- OASIS, 1984 creation, that put social, cultural and political is- LLYN FOULKES phy of popular culture – Disney, comic strips, post- NEON sues at the heart of her approach. Saar is a politically 1934, Yakima, WA (United States) cards – that form a continuous connection with his 61 × 91.4 × 7.6 CM committed artist, and having lived through the times Pop Art roots. His portraits and narrative paintings of the 1965 Watts riots that the African-American UNTITLED (BLOODY HEAD), 1975 explore the themes of cruelty and manipulation in LOST DIMENSIONS OF TIME, 1988 community mounted against police crime and of MIXED MEDIA ironic tones. MIXED-MEDIA COLLAGE Martin Luther King’s assassination in Memphis in 23.5 × 20.2 CM 36.2 × 19.1 × 2.5 CM 1968, these events had a radical impact on her ar- Foulkes employs the drawing styles and speech bal- tistic undertakings. PORTRAIT IN A-FLAT, 1977 loons typical of comic strips in his two 1991 works, INDIGO ILLUSIONS, 1991 MIXED MEDIA: OIL ON PLASTER, TEXTILE, Day Dreams and The Rape of the Angels. Both the sub- MIXED-MEDIA COLLAGE WITH NEON The works shown here are intended to show the past PHOTOGRAPH, HAIR, WOOD jects and the motifs are violent, as shown more or 44.4 × 29.2 × 12.7 CM five decades of evolution of her pioneering work, 147.5 × 82.5 CM less explicitly through the presence of a revolver or which continues to inspire new generations of art- through the implied psychological brutality. Often KINGDOM OF THE SPIRITS, 1991 ists today. As both a female artist, and an African- DAY DREAMS, 1991 set in dark interiors with a window that opens onto MIXED-MEDIA ASSEMBLAGE American one, Saar is positioned at the crossover MIXED MEDIA an urban or wild landscape, his characters appear 15.2 × 25.4 × 12.7 CM between several protest movements and she com- 91.4 × 121.9 CM exhausted, tormented or even tortured. The Mickey ments ironically in her works on not just racial ste- Mouse found in most of his works, such as Untitled PAUSE HERE – SPIRIT CHAIR, 1996 reotypes but also on gender ones. The viewer will THE RAPE OF THE ANGELS, 1991 (Invest in Art) from 2001 and Deliverance (2007), sym- ASSEMBLAGE OF VARIOUS MATERIALS WITH find references to the African-American anti-cap- MIXED MEDIA bolises this destructive “Lalaland”. In Deliverance, METAL GARDEN CHAIR AND NEON italist liberation party, Black Panther; to police vi- 152.4 × 264.2 CM the artist portrays himself having just fatally shot 80 × 62.2 × 52.1 CM olence; to the poetry of Langston Hugues, a mem- the Disney character. The title speaks for itself: ber of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s; to the TO ELVIS WITH LOVE, 1994 for Foulks, Disney and Mickey represent existential DUBL-HANDI (RED), 1998-2014 city of Memphis; to Congo… Saar is interested in PAINT, COLLAGE AND HAIR threats. From the 1970s, Foulks began producing a 1998-2014 objects that evoke the oppression and violence, 35.9 × 30.2 CM series of portraits, the Bloody Heads, depicting not MIXED MEDIA ON WASHBOARD particularly the pro-slavery stances and the deni- only celebrities, such as Elvis Presley – To Elvis with 54.6 × 22.2 × 3.8 CM al of civil rights, directed at the African-American UNTITLED (INVEST IN ART), 2001 Love (1994) – and businessmen – Portrait in A-Flat community that is so deeply linked to the history MIXED MEDIA ON WOOD (1977) and Untitled (Bloody Head) (1975) – but also THE DESTINY OF LATITUDE & LONGITUDE, 2010 of the United States. 65 × 52.5 CM clergymen or religious figures such as Join the Club MIXED-MEDIA ASSEMBLAGE (2007-11). The figures are rendered almost anony- 137.2 × 109.2 × 52.1 CM DELIVERANCE, 2007 mous, their mutilated, disfigured and bloody faces MIXED MEDIA revealing a sombre and tragic view of human beings. RED ASCENSION, 2011 185.5 × 244 CM MIXED-MEDIA ASSEMBLAGE 44.5 × 245.1 × 8.3 CM JOIN THE CLUB, 2007-2011 MIXED MEDIA FLIGHT OF THE TRICKSTER, 2012 34.9 × 30.5 CM BETYE SAAR 176.5 × 104.1 × 2.5 CM 1926, Los Angeles, CA (United States) PINAULT COLLECTION DARK TIMES, 2015 DOG SKULLS, 1965 MIXED MEDIA ON WASHBOARD ► Llyn Foulkes has lived and worked in Los INK, PASTEL AND GOUACHE 54 × 21.6 × 6.3 CM Angeles since 1957. He quickly became known for ON PAPER, MOUNTED his macabre works that, by referencing American ON ILLUSTRATION BOARD COURTESY OF THE ARTIST icons in a subversive way, pave the way for an al- IMAGE: 25 × 28 CM AND ROBERTS PROJECTS, LOS ANGELES most systematic critique of the American dream, of PAPER: 30.5 × 40.6 CM Hollywood and of the world of businesses such as ► Betye Saar uses found objects to create Disney. Foulkes works in a number of mediums, but ANIMALS-LIONS-DOGS, 1968 something akin to a reliquary, which she fills with can be broadly included in the tradition of American SKETCHBOOK cultural and historical references closely linked figurative painting, which he approaches in a very 10.2 × 15.2 × 0.6 CM to her multifaceted identity. Saar builds magical idiosyncratic manner. In his works, which at times shrines filled with energy in the form of a ritual of 34 35 ROOM 8 – MIKE KELLEY ROOM 9 – ABIGAIL DEVILLE 1954, Detroit, MI (United States) – 1981, New York, NY (United States) SEX, ROCK 2012, Los Angeles, CA (United States) ENGAGEMENT TALISMÁN, 2015 & ROLL PINK CURTAIN, 2005 WOODEN DOOR, FOUR BROOMSTICKS MIXED MEDIA WITH VIDEO PROJECTION 200 × 85 × 20 CM AND PHOTOGRAPH Can we still A source 370 × 172 × 146 CM do something? PINAULT COLLECTION PINAULT COLLECTION ► Abigail DeVille trained in painting at Yale of inspiration To what end? University and the New York Fashion Institute of ► Mike Kelley is an inescapable figure in the Technology. She creates part-archaic, part-Afrofu- for many musicians freak-scene and grotesque art that influenced a turist sculptures and installations using rubbish and whole generation of artists. He was not only a sculp- found objects, such as the wooden door and four and artists. tor, curator, musician and writer, but also authored brooms that make up Talismán, continuing the tra- a radical ironic, poetic and deeply autobiographi- dition of assemblage developed in the United States cal multimedia work that became a reference point and Europe. For DeVille, history is recorded in these in the American counterculture before becoming objects – which are often items from everyday life established the contemporary art world. Kelley’s – that are the receptacles of lost voices. When she interest in countercultures is reflected in his art, talks of her work, she recalls the unfailing optimism which uses assemblage and appropriation, and is of the African-American communities in the face of marked by many references to popular imagery. In the weight of the past, and readily recites the Martin his multimedia installations he plays theatricality Luther King’s final speech: “But I know, somehow, that and gore, a genre derived from horror films that in- only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.” spires both disgust and laughter in the viewer, us- ing so-called “abject” materials or stuffed animals, DeVille’s works, a blend of archaic forms and for example, in order to encourage critical reflec- Afrofuturist symbols, investigate the issues of ab- tion on American society. sence, space, forced migrations and memory. The white door of Talismán seems to possess magical vir- Using photographs taken from his school year- tues, an ability to protect. Just as it contains count- books, Kelley reconstructed the various activi- less secrets and lives passed in silence, it also em- ties that punctuate the American schoolyear, in bodies the possibility of opening towards poten- particular those he considered “socially accepted tial futures. rituals of deviance.” He classified the images by categories – “Religious Performances,” “Thugs,” “Dance,” “Hick and Hillbilly,” “Halloween and Goth,” “Satanic,” “Mimes,” and “Equestrian Events” – and identified recurring characters who enliven the car- VALIE EXPORT nivalesque and disturbing universe that he created 1940, Linz (Austria) using motorised machines and video projections. Here, with Pink Curtain, the visitor is confronted by AKTIONHOSE : GENITALPANIK, 1969/1994 the swaying silhouette of a female dancer which be- BLACK AND WHITE POSTER comes gradually distorted as the curtain moves. The 79 × 56 CM work, which is both sensual and ghostly, explores the themes of desire and sexuality. COURTESY OF GALERIE THADDAEUS ROPAC, LONDON / PARIS / SALZBURG

[SEE ALSO ROOM 1] 36 37 DEANA LAWSON JOAN JONAS SENGA CAMERON 1979, Rochester, NY (United States) 1936, New York, NY (United States) NENGUDI ROWLAND DAUGHTER, 2007 MIRROR PIECES INSTALLATION II, 1969-2004 1943, Chicago, IL (United States) 1988, Philadelphia, PA (United States) PIGMENT PRINT FILM OF PERFORMANCES ON DVD, 88.9 × 111.8 CM THREE MIRRORS, TWO COSTUMES R.S.V.P. WINTER 1976, 1976-2003 U66, 2013 360 × 172 × 146 CM NYLON, MESH, BICYCLE TIRE, STRING STEEL WITH STANDARD FINISH COURTESY OF THE ARTIST 3 MIN. 20 SEC. LOOP 91.4 × 66 × 26 CM 167.6 × 4.7 × 6.3 CM AND SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO., NEW YORK PINAULT COLLECTION PINAULT COLLECTION PAYROLL, 2016 ► Deana Lawson became interested at a young TWO LAMINATE TABLETOPS, BASES, HARDWARE age in the social conditions of the African diaspora ► Joan Jonas was born in New York in 1936. ► Senga Nengudi grew up in Los Angeles and 66 × 48.3 × 114.3 CM and of the African-American community. A native She is often considered to have pioneered perfor- Pasadena, where in the 1970s she became one of the of Rochester, the birthplace of the Kodak company, mance art and video art at the end of the 1960s. leading artists in the avant-garde African-American PINAULT COLLECTION Lawson grew up with a photographer father and a Having trained in history of art and in sculpture, she circles. mother who collected family photo-albums, which soon came under the influence of her immersion in ► As a politically committed artist, Cameron profoundly influenced her art practice. Borrowing New York’s experimental art scene. Nengudi creates assemblages with found materials, Rowland produces art in which conceptual consid- from both documentary aesthetics and from ver- taken from daily life and thus cheap and easy to ob- erations override the aesthetics of the objects, while nacular photography, her works are typified by their The Mirror Pieces are part of Jonas’ first performanc- tain; nylon stockings in particular. For her, this ma- nonetheless considering their presentation in space. meticulous staging in which the often nude or semi- es, during which she recites texts written by Jorge terial best reflects the flexibility of the human body. nude models, whom she meets by chance and in- Luis Borges on the topic of mirrors. Jonas first took She is interested in the changes that take place in Rowland’s works are permeated with economic and vites to pose for her, interact with each other. up video after a trip to Japan with Richard Serra the female body, but also in the changes in mind and social reflections, tackling political issues such as in 1969, during which she was able to purchase a their influence on the body. Sometimes she fills the privatisation and the control of resources – includ- Through these carefully studied stagings and this ap- Portapak, the first portable video recorder mar- nylon stockings with sand to create sensual semi- ing water, electricity or metals – as well as the rac- parent intimacy, Lawson confronts the viewer with a keted by Sony. She was interested by the immedia- abstract shapes, at others she stretches them out ism linked to the pro-slavery past. He explores the complex vision of Black identity. She reveals the body’s cy of this new video imagery that offered the possi- in space, forming spider webs or genitalia, merging systemic origins and resurgences of a tragic history, ability to “channel personal and social histories” by bility of producing a direct and truly present art. As strength and vulnerability. The sculptures are then which has been rendered invisible by everyday life, using the different formal languages of photography. a feminist artist, Jonas saw mirrors and video as a used in performances with improvised ritual danc- and in his own way interprets an art of reparation. His way to distort the viewer’s perception of space and es that create an interchange between various in- sculptures take the form of ready-mades that con- In Daughter, the composition centres around two to deny the viewer any stable or safe position. The fluences, such as African Yoruba rituals, Noh the- tain within them stories and histories that are made Black women, one standing and naked, and the oth- performers, most of whom are female, move about atre, jazz and Australian aboriginal art. Hoping to clear by their titles or by the accompanying texts. er sitting and dressed, holding a baby in her arms. with slow gestures, carrying heavy mirrors before find this same energy through her art, Nengudi al- These objects contain within themselves econom- The passive nature of the two women takes us by their bodies. According to the artist, “the mirrors so encourages dialogue with the spectator and in- ic realities, the inequalities that coincide with racial surprise in the context of the nudity and the cry- create a space. They change the space. And they vites participation, with the title Répondez S’il Vous discrimination. Rowland’s work is an extension of the ing baby. The viewer’s gaze then continues around might easily break. People are always a bit uneasy Plaît, placing movement at the heart of her prac- work of Betye Saar, David Hammons or Kara Walker, the image and discovers numerous details, like the when faced with a mirror, when they catch sight of tice. With the materials and shapes that she uses, in an art where language and form are closely con- photographs placed to the right or the cheap cur- themselves. The first accessory I ever used was a the artist explores and challenges concepts of race, nected. Rowland bought the tables shown here from tain obstructing the view to the outside, that con- mirror.” In this way, she is able to explore represen- slavery, sex, the female body, imprisonment, ser- the NYC Office of Payroll, the body in charge of sal- tribute to the photograph’s narrative. Curtains play tation and fiction, reality and illusion, time, intro- vitude, violence, sensuality, skin, fertility and the ary management, during a sale of surplus furniture. an important role in Lawson’s compositions, mark- spection and narcissism, and she allows a relation- worn-out body. ing out the space being photographed and cutting ship with the artwork to develop that is as physical In the case of Rowland’s U66, the visitor is confronted us off from the outside world. They thus create a as it is intellectual. by an upright from a gondola shelving system (cre- private space, a sort of sanctuary where the bod- ated in 1957) that is displayed in solitary splendour ies are liberated and rediscover their original beau- on the wall. Set apart in this way, this upright part ty. The oversized scale of the images transforms the is hard to recognise and its meaning becomes com- cramped domestic spaces into striking decors and pletely altered, since it no longer has any function seems to raise the subjects above their every-day life without the missing parts. by giving them a new dignity, an almost divine aura. 38 39 With this installation, Kienholz served up an im- ROOM 10 – EDWARD mersive experience to the viewer, who is thus bru- ROOM 11 – tally confronted with the cruel reality of American ROXY’S KIENHOLZ society and, more generally, of human nature in THE STUDIO 1927, Fairfield, WA (United States) – the face of sexuality, desire and death. In 1977, the 1994, Hope, ID (United States) Kienholz admitted: “All my work has to do with liv- ing and dying, the fear of death.” This is the very first ROXYS, 1960-61 The artist’s INSTALLATION, MIXED MEDIA art installation. VARIABLE DIMENSIONS studio as a place It deals with the PINAULT COLLECTION for reflection disaster of the Vietnam ► The American artist Edward Kienholz was and creation. one of the pioneers of the assemblage and instal- War and also with lation movement that began in the late 1950s, and is known for his works that are highly critical of violence against American society. Already in 1943, the artist had come up with the concept of a large installation women during times that the viewer could enter, made by reconstitut- ing existing places inhabited by people, which he of war and peace called “tableaux.” (the brothel), and Having been marked in his youth by the memory of a brothel that was more sordid than erotic, he de- with racism. cided to recreate a life-size version of it and in 1963 presented it under the title Roxys. To immerse him- self in the interior of Roxys, the best-known brothel in Las Vegas, Kienholz gathered everyday objects such as a calendar showing the month of June 1943, Lucky Strike cigarette butts, a jukebox playing music from that period, a portrait of the Pacific War hero General MacArthur, and an army uniform; all details that indicated that this was a brothel for soldiers. In the dimly-lit interior Kienholz placed pedestals with figures – composed of bits of broken manne- quin parts fused with absurd and surreal bric-à- brac – depicting seven women and one man. Thus the head of The Madame, the moth-eaten black- robed brothel keeper, is actually a boar skull. All the women show the hallmarks of violence, as in the case of Five Dollar Baby who has a rose jabbed into her throat and whose torso is engraved with the names of all the men who have abused her. The black servant, Ben Brown, is the sole male charac- ter and wears a chastity belt. The words “See No – Hear No – Speak No” are incised on his head, strip- ping him of all humanity.

40 41 that now constitute the greater part of his work. The everything happens,” but she also captures the JAMES LEE THOMAS monumental nature of his pieces, and their indis- outcome of their countless conversations over the tinct and incomplete contours, reflect both their years. Cast Studio embodies the artist’s ideas on BYARS HOUSEAGO vulnerability as well as the fragility of an artistic sculpture and on his fundamental interaction with 1932, Detroit, IL United States) – Cairo (Egypt) 1972, Leeds (United Kingdom) action. Thomas Houseago’s immense silhouettes, the public. anchored in the earth, speak to us more of their THE WORLD QUESTION CENTER, 1969 CAST STUDIO (STAGE, CHAIRS, frailty and turmoil than they do of their strength. BLACK AND WHITE VIDEO ON MONITOR BED, MOUND, CAVE, BATH, GRAVE), 2018 61 MIN. 57 SEC. TUF-CAL, HEMP, IRON REBAR 124.5 × 538.5 × 309.9 CM SENUFO PEOPLE © THE ESTATE OF THE ARTIST, COURTESY MICHAEL WERNER GALLERY, NEW YORK COURTESY OF THE ARTIST, GAGOSIAN GALLERY MUNA EL FITURI (IVORY COAST) AND LONDON AND XAVIER HUFKENS 1965, Tripoli (Libya) SEATED FEMININE FIGURE ► 1969 can be remembered as a year of chan- STRIDING FIGURE, 2018 PHOTOGRAPHS AND FILMS PRODUCED DURING FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY ges and transformation: first man on the moon, the TIN THE PERFORMATIVE PRODUCTION OF CAST WOOD SCULPTURE Vietnam War rages on. It’s also when American arti- 35 × 21 × 30 CM STUDIO (STAGE, CHAIRS, BED, MOUND, CAVE, 78 × 25 × 26 CM st James Lee Byars conceives of The World Question BATH, GRAVE), 2018 Center and became its self-proclaimed director. COLLECTION OF THE ARTIST GALLERIA TOTEM IL CANALE, VENICE For this work, he collects questions, which he ne- COURTESY OF THE ARTIST ver ceased to do during his life and career. Which UNTITLED, 2019 questions disappeared with time? Is a question the GRAPHITE, PASTEL AND OIL ON CANVAS ► Muna El Fituri, an artist, and partner of embodiment of a person? Do questions require mo- 274.3 × 182.9 CM Thomas Houseago, has lived for some time in Los re energy than other sentences? Can any word be Angeles, where she and Houseago began to collab- interrogative? Can a question be art? COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND XAVIER HUFKENS orate, in particular on a set of photographs and a film documenting Houseago’s creative process – Surrounded by a circle of seated participants, dra- ► Thomas Houseago has lived and worked in over a long period (of more than three months) – ped in costumes designed by the artist, James Lee Los Angeles since 2003. Following in the footsteps in which dozens of their friends, musicians, artists Byars makes phone calls to some of the brightest of sculptors such as Giacometti, Henry Moore or and film-makers also played a part. minds of the world (politicians, doctors, writers, ar- more recently Thomas Schütte, he explores the rep- tists, lawyers and militants, architects, journalists resentation of the human figure and the relation- These remarkably intense photographs and film al- and conservators). He asks them to briefly present ships between the work, the space and the spec- low us to better grasp the physical implications of a pertinent question for the “evolution of their own tator who observes it. this work, and also to better understand the atmo- sense of knowledge”. sphere of creation in which the sculptor lives and These questions are still relevant today, even if po- The shapes and assemblages that Houseago creates works. As the chosen witness of Thomas Houseago’s sed fifty years ago: questions on humanity, war and defy classification. Inspired by African sculptures, work, El Fituri shows us its performative aspect: peace, individual freedom, social inequalities, en- Cubism, popular culture, and Futurism, as well as we see the artist in his studio, physically immersed vironmental justice, as well as fears and hopes on by science fiction, he creates works that seem un- in his labour, in his art, and everything is vitality, technology. finished and that emit a sense of vulnerability and, strength and childlike glee at the physical contact at the same time, of power. Exploiting the qualities with the material being discovered. of Tuf-Cal – a type of plaster created specifically for casting – he reinterprets the human anatomy, Before our eyes, with his feet in the earth, he mod- distorting it to create striking creatures that seem els a clay platform, a plaster cast of which – enti- to have emerged from some obscure universe. In tled Cast Studio (2018) – is exhibited here to reveal 2010, Thomas Houseago moved into a huge studio to us its final outcome. that made it possible for him to try out new tech- niques and new scales. The output from this peri- What El Fituri photographs and films is her own od marks a transition from the figurative works of view of the artist, who becomes a metaphor for his his early days and the more architectural elements studio, the centre-point of his “existence,” “where 42 43 ROOM 12 – ARTHUR JAFA ROOM 13 – DUANE HANSON 1960, Tupelo, MS (United States) 1925, Alexandria, MN (United States) – LOVE IS THE LABOUR 1996, Boca Raton, FL (United States) LOVE IS THE MESSAGE, MESSAGE THE MESSAGE IS DEATH, 2016 HOUSEPAINTER I, 1984-88 VIDEO POLYCHROMED CAR-BODY FILLER, (COLOUR, SOUND) This work speaks MIXED MEDIA AND ACCESSORIES This is the title of a 7 MIN. 25 SEC. for itself and highlights 268 × 310 × 203 CM work by Arthur Jafa: PINAULT COLLECTION the exploitation of COLLECTION PINAULT ► Born in Mississippi in 1960, Arthur Jafa ini- ► Born in 1925 in Minnesota, Duane Hanson is a collage on the issue tially studied architecture in Washington. He soon people of colour. considered the leading figure in hyperrealism, in the became interested in images and in his identity as wake of Pop Art. He drew inspiration from the work of the condition of an African-American artist. of George Segal for his plaster casts on living models and from the work of Edward Kienholz or the French Blacks. Jafa is deeply involved in theoretical artistic re- Realist painters of the 19th century. search, and seeks to determine what a “Black aes- thetic” might be that would be capable of expressing Hanson carefully moulded his characters on liv- African-American cultural identity, or “Blackness,” ing models, then painted them in oils and dressed not just in music but also – and this is what inter- them in real accessories that were intended to indi- ests him most – in the visual arts. The title of the cate what sociological group they belonged to. He work shown here, Love is the Message, the Message is staged scenes with middle-class American men and Death, references the 1970s chart-topping hit by the women, particularly delivery-men, tourists, house- Philadelphia band MFSB and James Tiptree’s 1973 wives, old-age pensioners, workers and supermar- science fiction novel entitled Love is the Plan and ket customers… the Plan is Death. In this seven-minute long mon- tage, Arthur Jafa underscores the tonality and the Hanson’s first signature work, War, produced in 1967, rhythm of images uploaded from the YouTube plat- depicts Vietnam War fatalities. That same year, in form. He then shows civil rights protests from the the context of the fight for civil rights, he exhibited 1960s, images of Malcolm X, Drake, Beyoncé and of Policeman and Rioter, which shows a white police- Walter Scott – a 50 year-old African-American man man brandishing his truncheon as he strikes a par- who was shot and killed by a white police officer in tially clad African-American man curled up on the 2015 – all of which enables him to develop an im- floor. The themes Hanson dealt with – including road- mersive and meditative narrative of the history of accidents, racially motivated violence and abortion, the African-American community. The soundtrack among others – were so raw that his first New York is a slower version of the hip-hop song Ultralight exhibition caused a scandal. Hanson sought to pro- Beam by Kanye West, who sings “We on a ultra- duce narrative sculptures that would challenge the light beam, we on a ultralight beam, this is a god concept of the “American Way of Life,” exploring the dream, this is a god dream, this is everything.” In a political and social context by holding up a mirror to context of police violence towards this communi- reality, to such an extent that viewers reacted with ty and of omnipresent racism, Jafa’s work reveals nausea. The figure in Housepainter, 1984-88, posi- the suffering but also the strength and beauty of tioned in front of a half-painted wall, seems lost in this Black America. thought, in an existential void at the centre of a nev- er-ending worksite. Although the pink and white co- lours suggest lightness and softness, the serious and absent facial expression soon plunges us into a state of malaise and arouses a sort of empathy. 44 45 ROOM 14 – ICE LORNA SIMPSON ROOM 15 – THOMAS 1960, New York, NY (United States) TORRINO HOUSEAGO WOMAN ON A SNOWBALL, 2018 1972, Leeds (United Kingdom) This work brilliantly STYROFOAM, PLYWOOD, PLASTER, STEEL, EPOXY COATING OWL ON WOOD I, 2014 illustrates the 276.9 × 209.9 CM BRONZE 170.2 × 73.7 × 73.7 CM difficulties faced © LORNA SIMPSON by Black women living COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND HAUSER & WIRTH COURTESY OF THE ARTIST ► Lorna Simpson is part of the generation of ► Thomas Houseago is inspired by his life, his in a society run by the artists who, in the 1980s, seized on issues relating most immediate environment, which are the active to identity politics, and focused on marginalised principles of his creative process. whites. communities in order to raise public awareness of the problems these communities were and still are Subjects and figures recur regularly in his sculp- faced with. Her works are veritable enigmas that tures, such as the owl, shown here in a bronze ver- are as complex as the subjects she tackles, and sion. Emblem of his hometown in England, name of possess both a visual and a verbal dimension. In his studio ("Owl Studio"), symbol of wisdom, the art- her latest works, Simpson combines archive imag- ist sculpted a first version at the request of one of es that she reinvents by placing herself as subject. his daughters. Then, this animal and its representa- “The theme I turn to most often is memory. But be- tion became an obsession, an element of his work's yond this subject, the underlying thread is my rela- vocabulary that one can encounter in different me- tionship to text and ideas about representation.” diums, forms and materials.

Woman on a Snowball is inspired by one of the for- ty collages Simpson created for the Unanswerable (2018) series. Inspired by archive documents, they depict women combined with architectural compo- nents, animals or natural elements in order to rec- reate her own scenarios. Based on these collages, Simpson conceived a sculptural work depicting an oversized snowball on which a small two-colour female figure perches precariously. This sculpture was part of a larger series using the theme of nat- ural elements, and more specifically ice, as a met- aphor for the prison environment, referencing the expression “on ice,” signifying “being in prison,” as well as the activist Eldridge Cleaver’s work, Soul on Ice, written in 1968 when he was incarcerated in Folsom State prison. The ice here represents both the isolation with regard to society, but also endur- ance and resistance. Simpson’s figures, which di- rectly reference the Black American community and its history, must fight in order to survive.

46 47 ROOM 13 – ROBERT ROOM 16 – GUSTAV AMERICANS COLESCOTT UTOPIA METZGER 1925, Oakland, CA (United States) – 1926, Nuremberg (Germany) – 2009, Tucson, AZ (United States) 2017, London (United Kingdom)

The definition AL MAHDI, 1968-70 Dreaming of utopia RECREATION OF FIRST PUBLIC ACRYLIC ON EGYPTIAN LINEN DEMONSTRATION OF AUTO-DESTRUCTIVE of a nation 200.7 × 149.2 CM in the face of and ART 1960, 1960/2020 REPRODUCTION BY THE ARTIST’S ESTATE, 2019 with all its BOMBS BURSTING IN AIR, 1978 against everything GLASS, NYLON, HYDROCHLORIC ACID, ACRYLIC ON CANVAS STEEL, TRASH BAG contradictions. 212.7 × 167.3 CM is a form of resistance. 300 × 250 × 100 CM

CULTURAL EXCHANGE, 1987 GUSTAV METZGER FOUNDATION ACRYLIC ON CANVAS 231 × 292 CM ► Gustav Metzger was born in Nuremberg in 1926 to a Jewish family of Polish origin, and died in PINAULT COLLECTION London in 2017. He is known both for his develop- ment of the concept of Auto-Destructive Art at the ► Robert Colescott’s paintings, which are in- end of the 1950s, and for his ecological and anti-cap- spired by Pop Art and comic strips, reveal his deep italist stances. It was an encounter with the British interest in contemporary politics and history. By sculptor Henry Moore that convinced him to study playing with stereotypes, his works provide a crit- fine art. ical interpretation of American society and its con- tradictions, and denounce in ironic tones the om- Metzger calls for art to be conceived not in terms of nipresent racism and sexism. space or object, but in terms of event, of ephemera. His art is not something that can be preserved or col- The three acrylic paintings shown here demonstrate lected, but a manifesto art. At the end of the 1950s, Colescott’s style evolution in his approach to figu- he took a stand against nuclear war and weapons by ration. Through Al Mahdi (1968–1970), literally “he establishing the Committee of 100 with the philoso- who shows the way,” the artist investigated the his- pher Bertrand Russell, and was even jailed for civil torical representation of the war. Ten years later, disobedience. He was wary of institutions and gal- he depicted women singing the American nation- leries, refusing to be represented by an art gallery al anthem under an apocalyptic sky, the colours throughout his career and distancing himself from of which recall those of the Vietnamese flag. He classical painting and sculpture to gradually develop called the work Bombs Bursting in Air (1987), playing his concept of Auto-Destructive Art. He wrote several on the words of the anthem and echoing the bom- manifestos and in 1961 produced his first large-scale bardments carried out during the Vietnam War. performance, which is recreated here. He threw acid The work explores the ideas of desire and power, onto nylon canvases, which enabled him to transform destruction and sex. In Cultural Exchange (1987), a the spectator’s perception. Wearing a gas mask as canvas imbued with references through the motifs protection, the violence of the performance and the of consumer society, advertising, mass media and toxicity of the products used reflected the violence of African art, Colescott offered a critical view of mul- his personal and our collective history. But according ticulturalism, challenging the notion of exchange to Metzger, although the aim of Auto-Destructive Art between the different male figures – the sailor, the was to leave no trace of the work since it was des- businessman and the sculptor – and female figures tined to disintegrate or be destroyed, it also made – the muse, the housewife and the bather. it possible to create something else. 48 49 artists used until the 15th century as binder for their GILBERTO ZORIO ROOM 17 – MARCEL pigments. As he declared in the title of his 1966 1944, Andorno Micca (Italy) work Je retourne à la matière. Je retrouve la tradi- MALE BROODTHAERS tion des primitifs. Peinture à l’œuf. Peinture à l’œuf, ROSA-BLU-ROSA, 1967 1924, Saint-Gilles (Belgium) – Broodthaers was returning to the matter, reviving HALF CYLINDER MADE OF ETERNIT, DOMESTICITY 1976, Cologne (Germany) the tradition of the ancients; tempera – also known PLASTER, COBALT CHLORIDE as egg painting. 15 × 280 × 32 CM ARMOIRE DE CUISINE, 1966-68 PAINTED WOODEN CUPBOARD FILLED WITH MACCHIA II, 1968 In contrast VARIOUS OBJECTS, PAINTED IRON BASKET RUBBER, ROPES FILLED WITH EGGSHELLS VARIABLE DIMENSIONS to female 232.8 × 119.9 × 49.8 CM COLLECTION PINAULT domesticity. PINAULT COLLECTION

► Gilberto Zorio (born in 1944) is an Italian artist associat- ► Until 1964, Marcel Broodthaers worked as ed with Arte Povera, an artistic movement born in Turin at the end a poet, photographer and art critic associated with of the 1960s, which included artists such as Anselmo, Calzolari, the Surrealists and the Belgian Communist Party, Kounellis, Merz. Through the use of so-called "poor" materials, Arte before declaring himself a sculptor at the age of Povera was above all a temporal and active experience, inscribed 40. He was inspired both by the poetry of Mallarmé into the totality of human activities. Thus, the notion of energy, no and by Magritte’s painted paradoxes, and is con- longer represented but experienced in a physical dimension, is at sidered one of the precursors of conceptual art in the very core of Zorio's work, whose singular approach makes ma- Europe. In 1964, on the occasion of his first exhibi- terials the vehicles through which action can take place. Zorio's tion at the Saint-Laurent gallery in Brussels, he ex- pieces request that the experience between work and man can hibited a radical work: he encased fifty copies of his be constantly renewed, therefore designating the work as a space last book of poetry, entitled Le Pense-Bête, in plas- for transmutation, art as a search for essence. Structures in bal- ter. In so doing, Broodthaers introduced a body of ance developed around directional axes, Zorio's installations al- work criticising language and representation, and ways express a tension between the elements which, despite their rapidly became one of the most influential artists apparent disparity, are complementary. Zorio is interested not on- of the post-World War II period. At the heart of his ly in unconventional materials, but also in ways of making visible approach was his exploration of the artist’s place in a so-called “raw” energy that will be at the heart of all his work. society and of the nature of the art work, continu- In 1967, Gilberto Zorio had his first solo exhibition at the Galleria ing along the lines of Marcel Duchamp’s work and Sperone in Turin, where he presented a work that has since be- his “ready-mades”, factory-made objects that are come famous: Rosa-Blu-Rosa. This seemingly innocuous work is divested of their utilitarian function and accorded composed of a cylinder of Eternit, cut lengthwise, and filled with the rank of artwork as a result of a simple decision cobalt chloride. This chemical component changes colour, from by the artist. pink to blue, in response to variations in atmospheric humidity. Gilberto Zorio developed an expanded reflection on sculpture Marcel Broodthaers produced assemblages of ob- by freeing it from its traditionally heavy and stationary materiali- jects from daily life, such as bricks, mussels or egg- ty. Using simple materials such as rubber and rope, and a device shells. Armoire de cuisine (1966–1968), an apparent- that takes account of the walls, the floor and the ceiling, he pro- ly commonplace kitchen cupboard, brings to mind duced more fluid and light sculptures, such as Macchia II: “I have the Renaissance Cabinets of Curiosities that were always been interested, […] in an attempt to raise up sculpture, intended to contain exotic and rare natural objects to suspend it and place it in the air, in order to occupy the entire and scientific instruments within a restricted space. space, including the aerial horizon,” said the artist, who took on This kitchen cupboard, too, contains “things” from the challenge of raising sculpture and the gaze in order to create the artist’s world. The open doors invite the view- surprise. The work, thus suspended, enables him to reinvent dy- er to imagine its contents. The viewer can see the namic shapes by adapting them to each environment. artist’s beloved eggs – recalling the egg-yolks that 50 51 everyday objects such as books, shoes and lamps in spaces inhabited by Ku Klux Klan-type figures ROOMS 18-19 – NAIRY that brought to mind his first undertakings. The work Lamp, bathed in the red hues so dear to the LOSS BAGHRAMIAN artist, is typical of this period. Sources of light, 1971, Ispahan (Iran) which symbolise modernity, are a recurring motif in Guston’s late work. SCRUFF OF THE NECK (STOPGAP), 2016 These two rooms CAST ALUMINIUM AND POLISHED ALUMINIUM, Between 1971 and 1975, Guston also produced sa- POLISHED ALUMINIUM RODS AND PARTS PHILIP GUSTON tirical drawings that reflect the turbulent politi- tackle atemporality, 210 × 290 × 135 CM 1913, Montreal (Canada) – cal climate of the day. He produced caricatures 1980, Woodstock, NY (United States) of Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United existential reflections, SCRUFF OF THE NECK (STOPGAP), 2016 States who in 1974 became the only one to ever CAST ALUMINIUM AND POLISHED ALUMINIUM, UNTITLED, 1971 resign in the wake of the press revelations about the artist’s condition, POLISHED ALUMINIUM RODS AND PARTS INK ON PAPER the “Pentagon Papers” and the Watergate scan- 220 × 280 × 107 CM 26.7 × 35.2 CM dal, which further reinforced protests against the and our own era, Vietnam War. Guston continued to paint his motifs PINAULT COLLECTION UNTITLED, 1971 with commitment and imagination right up to his among others. INK ON PAPER heart attack in 1979. SCRUFF OF THE NECK (STOPGAP), 2016 27.6 × 35.2 CM CAST ALUMINIUM AND POLISHED ALUMINIUM, POLISHED ALUMINIUM RODS AND PARTS UNTITLED, 1971 220 × 160 × 75 CM INK ON PAPER 27.6 × 35.2 CM EDWARD PRIVATE COLLECTION UNTITLED, 1975 KIENHOLZ & ► Nairy Baghramian’s work overturns the INK ON PAPER boundaries between strength and fragility, organ- 48.3 × 61 CM NANCY REDDIN ic and mechanical. Using a wide range of materi- als, including steel, silicon, resin and leather, she PRIVATE COLLECTION, LOS ANGELES SOLDIER X, 1990 produces sculptures that investigate the relation- MIXED MEDIA ASSEMBLAGE ships between shapes, and their ways of interact- LAMP, 1974 167.6 × 30.5 × 26.1 CM ing with, balancing and contradicting each other. OIL ON CANVAS She puts the history of sculpture into context and 171.5 × 265.4 CM PINAULT COLLECTION builds and plays on the institutional context, while PINAULT COLLECTION borrowing some of her references from the fields of ► For close to twenty-five years, Edward design, architecture and theatre. For Baghramian, ► Philip Guston was born to a family of Kienholz produced art in collaboration with his sculpture involves undergoing a corporal experi- Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. He is considered one wife, Nancy Reddin Kienholz. The work presented ence that is necessarily conditioned by the sur- of the founders of Abstract Expressionism, the post- here, Soldier X, is one of the most important from rounding space. Instability, one of the recurring war New York avant-garde artistic movement, but their series of works denouncing American milita- themes in Baghramian’s work, becomes apparent his artistic approach evolved throughout his ca- rism. This piece, which consists of a battered sol- in her use of tenuous and flimsy supports to prop reer, varying between figurative and abstract. dier’s helmet mounted on the end of an old rusted up and display her sculptures in a misleadingly pre- shovel, evokes the emaciated and tortured body of carious balance, as though they were about to fall In 1967, Guston moved to Woodstock, where he a soldier who has fallen in combat – a violent de- and crumble. worked for two years on the production of a new nunciation of American militarism and of armed exhibition scheduled for 1970 at the Marlborough conflict and wars. The works shown here, – which borrows dentist- Gallery. The works caused a scandal. Guston had ry terms signifying “lower left” and “lower right” returned to an unclassifiable figuration in a childish – are inspired by orthodontic appliances that have style approaching that of comic books, depicting been reproduced in an enlarged format, adhering as 52 53 always to the principle that her works should adapt with deformations. These works were produced using great internal coherence, based on an idea that, in to the location. The change of scale highlights the pneumatic casting techniques, with moulds created theory, is absurd. His starting point, the mundane BRUCE CONNER strangeness of these objects that are both biomor- using rubber balloons. These would be bound with act of walking, becomes a strange and totally new 1933, McPherson, KS (United States) – phic and mechanical and creates a mix of feelings string, crushed, or have objects pressed into them experience. From 1971, he explored different ways 2008, San Francisco, CA (United States) in the viewer, somewhere between aesthetic at- to produce formally abstract works that resemble of conceiving distance and measuring space, and traction and anxiety. living organisms, enlivened by a liberating potency. classified his movements using measurement stan- CROSSROADS, 1976 dards based on the length of his foot or his elbow, 35 MM BLACK AND WHITE FILM, SOUND for example, ultimately creating the “brouwn unit” (ORIGINAL MUSIC BY PATRICK GLEESON and declaring: “I have become a distance.” AND TERRY RILEY) MARIA STANLEY 36 MIN. BARTUSZOVÁ BROUWN PINAULT COLLECTION 1936, Prague (Czech Republic) – 1935, Paramaribo (Suriname) – JAMES LEE ► Bruce Conner’s works, which range from 1996, Kosice (Slovakia) 2017, Amsterdam (Netherlands) video art to painting, as well as assemblage, draw- BYARS ing, photography, performance and dance, investi- UNTITLED, 1985 THIS WAY BROUWN, 1964 1932, Detroit, MI (United States) – gate themes relating to the post-war American so- PLASTER, WOOD FELT-TIP PEN ON PAPER, TABLE TWO TRESTLES 1997, Cairo (Egypt) ciety, such as the consumer culture, mass media, 53.5 × 63 × 9.5 CM 2 SHEETS, 21 × 29.5 CM EACH the perception of women and the nuclear threat SELF PORTRAIT, C. 1959 linked to the Cold War. UNTITLED 15, 1985 COLLECTION PIERRE HUBER PAINTED WOOD, BREAD PLASTER, WOOD 165 × 33 × 199.5 CM During the 1970s, Bruce Conner decided to pro- 10 × 41 × 28 CM ► Throughout his career, stanley brouwn re- duce CROSSROADS, a film-assemblage in which, mained a discreet artist who refused to be inter- MICHAEL WERNER GALLERY, using a simple splicer, he recycled images of a nu- THE ESTATE OF MARIA BARTUSZOVÁ. viewed or photographed, whether the photographs NEW YORK AND LONDON clear test on the Bikini Atoll during the summer of COURTESY OF ALISON JACQUES GALLERY, were portraits of himself or shots of his works. 1946, which had been filmed from numerous view- LONDON Indeed, he considered that these works signified ► The American conceptual artist James Lee points by 500 military cameras but had remained nothing more than what they showed. brouwn, the Byars was known for his performances, his draw- top-secret until then. With the use of fades, jump ► Maria Baruszová was an emblematic figure individual, is shrouded in mystery, just as his art ings and his monumental installations influenced cuts and slow motion, he portrayed the atomic ex- in Central European sculpture in the second half of is. As a conceptual artist with close ties to perfor- by philosophy (including Buddhism, for example). plosion as it struck the American warships head-on. the 20th century. Her first sculptures were produced mance, he was interested in the subjective relation- Throughout his career, Byars combined geomet- The montage, which shows a fragmented explosion using materials such as plaster, bronze and alumin- ship to the world, to abstraction and to the efface- ric forms with luxurious materials such as marble, that is part psychotropic experience and part nu- ium. The sculptures invite the viewer to touch them; ment or absence of the artist. He destroyed all his precious woods, red roses and above all gold-leaf, clear apocalypse, is supplemented by two sound- they have echoes of both the maternal and the erot- pre-1959 works and was associated with the Fluxus the colour of which, for him, symbolised eternity, tracks: one, slightly offset, is devised by Patrick ic, and yet also form part of a spiritual exploration. group (a 1960s movement that promoted the con- beauty and perfection. Gleeson and plays the sounds of birdsong, airplane From 1979, Bartuszová began to include natural el- cept that “everything is art,” and later challenged engines and the blasts, while the other is a hypnot- ements, such as branches, stones or sand, in the its role with the idea of anti-art and non-art). Produced in 1959, his Self Portrait is one of the ic composition by Terry Riley. Conner thus present- surface of her plaster sculptures. These pure white works Byars produced during his Japanese period. ed a spectacle that is both terrifying and fascinat- works, with their air of fragility and impermanence, When stanley brouwn began his series entitled This In this delicate self-portrait in wood stretched out ing, which also plays on the erotic connotation of attained a metaphysical dimension that character- way brouwn – which he continued to work on until like a skeleton, one can see man in his most primi- the bikini. The atomic mushroom cloud is a recur- ised Bartuszová’s sculptural journey. 1964 – he asked passers-by to draw the directions to tive form, but also in all his modesty in the face of ring motif in Conner’s work. different places on a piece of paper, thereby giving the fragility of life. Bartuszová’s preferred medium, plaster, is imperma- precedence to the mental, subjective representa- In the Cold War context, this dramaturgical aes- nent by nature, and this gives her works a transient tion of movement and of space as it is experienced. thetic that left the viewer disconcerted enabled and ephemeral character. When she used heavier These drawings were then stamped with the words Conner to make a stand against his country’s poli- materials, it was to undermine the materiality of the “THIS WAY BROUWN”. “A This way brouwn is the tics. Nowadays Conner is considered one of the pi- works, to play on the shapes, the proportions and the portrait of a minute piece of the Earth fixed by the oneers of experimental film. medium. From the 1980s, her work was dominated memory of a passer-by,” the artist explained. His by pure, ovoid shapes whose perfection she altered creative process functions as a method-rule, with 54 55 hieroglyphs she created at the Studio Museum doc- JAN DIBBETS DOMINIQUE LAUREN HALSEY ument the list of traumas and tribulations that the 1941, Weert (Netherlands) 1987, Los Angeles, CA (United States) African-American community has suffered. GONZALEZ- “I’m interested in the hieroglyph’s capacity for nar- PAESTUM PANORAMA, 1980 UNTITLED, 2020 rative as well as the engraving as a collective exer- COLLAGE OF 13 FUJI CRYSTAL ARCHIVE FOERSTER HAND-CARVED GYPSUM ON WOOD cise of mark-making that we all can do,” Halsey ex- PHOTOGRAPHS MOUNTED ON OPAQUE BOARD 1965, Strasbourg (France) 120.7 × 121.3 × 4.8 CM plains. She adds: “I am a queer, black woman build- 244.5 × 55.5 CM ing black space in a world full of baggage and mess. RAINING (SOUND PIECE), 2012 CHARA SCHREYER COLLECTION I feel excited and inspired by that role. I have no in- PRIVATE COLLECTION, LOS ANGELES AUDIO FILE AND SPEAKER terest in not prioritizing blackness in anything that 25 × 25 CM UNTITLED, 2020 I do. This is the reason for the work!” Fascinated by ► Jan Dibbets lives and works in Amsterdam. 3 MIN. 1 SEC. LOOP HAND-CARVED GYPSUM ON WOOD architecture and the values related to the communi- He is known for his approach involving conceptu- 121 × 121.3 × 5.1 CM ty, Halsey first produces blueprints using Photoshop, al art and has at times been associated with Land PINAULT COLLECTION three-dimensional planning drawings that look like Art. Dibbets initially trained in painting before con- RALPH SEGRETI COLLECTION photomontages of fantastic spaces (as in the series centrating entirely on photography. In the 1970s, ► Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster became shown here), and like those invented in the 1970s by he became interested in the concept of horizon known in the 1990s for her “portraits” and “rooms,” UNTITLED, 2020 the Italian architecture office Superstudio. In these and produced panoramas that juxtaposed sever- interiors that place the construction of biographical HAND-CARVED GYPSUM ON WOOD blueprints, Halsey fuses images of Los Angeles and al shots with each photograph rotated by 30°, thus or dystopian scenarios at the heart of her art. She 121.3 × 121.3 × 5.1 CM of the Egypt of Cleopatra. transforming the perception of distance and cre- focuses less on the creation of objects than on en- ating a sort of deceptive space. vironments or stagings that merge literature, film PRIVATE COLLECTION and architecture. Her carefully staged exhibitions Paestum Panorama, a central work in this series, – in which video, installation, quotation, sound and COURTESY OF DAVID KORDANSKY GALLERY, represents the antique columns of Greek temples in light all interact together – represent a journey in- LOS ANGELES THOMAS the archaeological park south of Naples. The ruins to inner worlds and a collective science-fiction ex- of Paestum, which Mark Rothko explored in 1959, perience, inviting the spectator to an open-ended ► In her works, Lauren Halsey combines his- HOUSEAGO are part of the “Grand Tour” itinerary that European experience, a veritable reflection on the frontiers torical references – from references to ancient Egypt 1972, Leeds (United Kingdom) artists followed in the 18th century in order to learn of identity. In her search for sensations of art and up to more recent American ones, and references to about and draw inspiration from the classics. Here, existence, Gonzalez-Foerster plays on the spaces the fight for civil rights and to the battle for econom- MACHINE WALL, 2019 Dibbets transforms the landscape through the in- between interior and exterior and offers an explo- ic justice and visibility – with images related to the TUF-CAL, HEMP, IRON REBAR terplay of perspectives, creating rhythmic geomet- ration of time, to create, in her own words, a “new popular hip-hop culture, science fiction, funk and 259.1 × 914.4 × 63.5 CM ric patterns and recreating the antique-style archi- form of opera.” Afrofuturism – using in particular Sun Ra and the tectural symmetry. post-psychedelic Black aesthetics of Parliament/ COURTESY OF THE ARTIST, GAGOSIAN GALLERY In 2008, Gonzalez-Foerster was the first female art- Funkadelic. Afrofuturism, a multifarious phenomenon AND XAVIER HUFKENS In 1969, Dibbets produced a series of “corrected- ist and the first French person to be invited to exhib- that brings together elements of African-American perspective” photographs of parks, gardens and it in the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern in London. culture, hip-hop, psychedelism, science fiction and [SEE ALSO ROOM 11] beaches. He modified the position and angle of the In view of the crisis, she decided to turn it into a mysticism in an alternative philosophy, is expressed lens in order to overturn or cancel the effect of per- shelter. She created a sort of time warp towards as clearly through the visual arts as it is in music, lit- spective in the photograph. In this way, he modified a possible future, in 2058, when, as a result of cli- erature or film. At the meeting-point of architecture, the viewer’s perception and broke down the barri- mate change, rain falls ceaselessly on the city. The painting and sculpture, Halsey conceives immersive ers between abstraction and reality. spectator is thus projected into this space that has installations directly related to her native city, Los become a refuge for the city’s inhabitants, a make- Angeles, where she remains deeply politically com- shift shelter furnished with bunkbeds. At the heart of mitted. She explores the socio-political problems of the TH.2058 installation, which houses giant sculp- the southern districts and is against the gentrifica- tures, books and films, the soundtrack Raining re- tion currently taking place. Her stance is linked to the calls the never-ending sound of raindrops that is Black Lives Matter movement and she decries Donald both discreet and haunting, monotonous and men- Trump’s policies on the local scale. Her artistic ap- acing. This subdued work probes the visitor, creat- proach is intended to restore power to the members ing a deep impression and sparking the imagination. of her community. For example, the contemporary 56 57 LIST OF THE ARTISTS PALAZZO GRASSI UNTITLED, 2020 MAGDALENA ABAKANOWICZ PUNTA DELLA DOGANA THREE PERSPECTIVES ON NAIRY BAGHRAMIAN THE ART OF THE PRESENT GARRY BARKER Punta della Dogana, MARIA BARTUSZOVÁ Venice LEE BONTECOU 11.VII – 13.XII.2020 MARCEL BROODTHAERS NAM JUNE PAIK SOLANGE STANLEY BROUWN François Pinault 1932, Seoul (South Korea) – TERESA BURGA Chairman 2006, Miami, FL (United States) JAMES LEE BYARS Exhibition curators PESSOA EDUARDO CHILLIDA Lorena Amato Caroline Bourgeois 1961, Ferros (Brazil) ROBERT COLESCOTT Mauro Baronchelli Muna El Fituri ONE CANDLE, 2004 BRUCE CONNER Ester Baruffaldi Thomas Houseago VINTAGE TELEVISION, ACRYLIC PAINT, CANDLE SEM TÍTULO, 2013 ENRICO DAVID Oliver Beltramello KARON DAVIS Suzel Berneron in collaboration with 37.1 × 42.2 × 42.2 CM SOAPSTONE HÉLÈNE DELPRAT Martin Bethenod Owl Studios 64.5 × 53 × 103 CM ABIGAIL DEVILLE Elisabetta Bonomi Dylan Corbett PRIVATE COLLECTION, LOS ANGELES JAN DIBBETS Lisa Bortolussi Natasha Garcia Lomas SEM TÍTULO, 2013 ELLIOT DUBAIL Antonio Boscolo Jeff Guga MARLENE DUMAS Luca Busetto Helen Molesworth ► Nam June Paik was born in Seoul in 1932, SOAPSTONE MUNA EL FITURI Angelo Clerici Henry Reynoso and died in Miami, Florida, in 2006. This Korean 58 × 94 × 55 CM VALIE EXPORT Francesca Colasante American artist and composer is considered one LLYN FOULKES Claudia De Zordo Alexandra Bordes KASIA FUDAKOWSKI Alix Doran Nathalie Bourgeois of the pioneers of video art, often associated with SEM TÍTULO (FROM THE SERIES DIONÍSIAS), 2017 ELLEN GALLAGHER Jacqueline Feldmann Léo Rivault the avant-garde Fluxus movement. Paik produced SOAPSTONE DOMINIQUE GONZALEZ-FOERSTER Marco Ferraris Nicolas Valladon his first “video sculptures” using television sets as 40 × 125 × 80 CM NANCY GROSSMAN Carlo Gaino a medium, a technology that was becoming more PHILIP GUSTON Andrea Greco Graphic design LAUREN HALSEY Silvia Inio Studio Sonnoli and more popular, and the possibilities of which fas- SEM TÍTULO (FROM THE SERIES MIMESMAS), DAVID HAMMONS Martina Malobbia Leonardo Sonnoli cinated him. He was the first to consider using the 2017 DUANE HANSON Aline Montaigne Irene Bacchi television object, and to raise awareness of its role SOAPSTONE GEORG HEROLD Gianni Padoan in private spheres. With creativity and humour, Paik 24 × 44 × 76 CM DAVID HOCKNEY Federica Pascotto The catalogue THOMAS HOUSEAGO Bruno Racine of the “Untitled, 2020. continued these conceptual experiments based on ARTHUR JAFA Vittorio Righetti Three perspectives on the multiplication of the electronic image through- COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND MENDES WOOD JOAN JONAS Clementina Rizzi the art of the present” out his entire career. His spectacular visual environ- DM, SAO PAULO / BRUSSELS / NEW YORK MIKE KELLEY Angela Santangelo exhibition is published ALICE KETTLE Noëlle Solnon by Marsilio Editori ments allowed him to invent new forms of commu- EDWARD KIENHOLZ & NANCY REDDIN Alexis Sornin (July 2020) in French, nication and to explore our relationship with mass ► Solange Pessoa, a native of the Minas Gerais TETSUMI KUDO Dario Tocchi Italian and English. media, and our reception of and, more generally, region – the land of the Baroque and the Rococo, DEANA LAWSON Paola Trevisan the role of technology in culture. but also of soapstone mines – investigates the con- BERND LOHAUS LEE LOZANO cept of time and memory in her works through her MARKUS LÜPERTZ Press Office One Candle (2004) is part of a series of works pro- focus on references to the organic and her use of a PAUL MCCARTHY Claudine Colin duced in the mid-1970s in which Paik merged tech- variety of materials such as stone, leather, oil, fat GUSTAV METZGER Communication, Paris nology and meditation. Here, the candle flame, a or minerals. PETER MITCHELL HENRY MOORE Paola C. Manfredi, natural light which symbolises the beginnings of OTTO MÜHL PCM Studio, the human civilisation, suggests the beginning of The motifs in Pessoa’s sculptures reference pre- REI NAITO Milan a new civilisation linked to the new technologies. historic rock paintings and bring the image of fos- SENGA NENGUDI MERET OPPENHEIM Paik’s artistic practice in the field of video sculpture sils to mind. Her art is always rooted in the natu- NAM JUNE PAIK influenced a whole generation of artists, from the ral environment of the land of her birth, in partic- SOLANGE PESSOA second half of the 20th century to our own times. ular through her use of soapstone from the local CHARLES RAY quarries to sculpt the biomorphic forms that typ- AUGUSTE RODIN CAMERON ROWLAND ify her work. Maintaining the boundary between BETYE SAAR the natural and the artistic gesture, Pessoa con- LORNA SIMPSON fuses the spectator so that it becomes difficult to SER SERPAS DANIEL STEEGMANN MANGRANÉ distinguish the work from the actual Jurassic fos- ALINA SZAPOCZNIKOW sil. In our confusion, we are no longer sure of the HENRY TAYLOR origin of these organic shapes, nor of how they ap- JAMES “SON FORD” THOMAS peared in the exhibition space, but they invite us to LUC TUYMANS GILBERTO ZORIO contemplate them.

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