Palazzo Grassi exhibits Sequence 1: of the François Pinault Collection

Saturday, 12 May 2007 00:11

Venice, Italy - Palazzo Grassi presents Sequence 1:- Painting and Sculpture in the François Pinault Collection, the first exhibition in a succession of shows highlighting the particularities and strengths of the contemporary art holdings of the François Pinault Collection.  Curated by Alison M. Gingeras, the newlyappointed chief curator at Palazzo Grassi, Sequence 1 features a diverse range of work by fifteen artists from the Collection, as well as new commissions and special projects.  The exhibition is on view from May 5th to November 11th, 2007 International and multi-generational, the artists in Sequence 1 all engage in the practice of painting or sculpture to varying degrees. Eschewing theme or narrative, Sequence 1 will remind us that contemporary artists have never abandoned these supposedly “traditional” disciplines—choosing instead to modify them with constant conceptual revisions and ever-evolving techniques.

According to curator Alison M. Gingeras, “the artists selected for Sequence 1 are all resolute producers. While the practice of contemporary art has been irreversibly shaped by the twin legacies of the Duchampian ready-made and the Minimalist insistence on industrial fabrication, the works in this show spotlight the presence of the artist’s hand. And to do so by presenting a diverse range of artists who still rely on various expressions of craft while expanding the traditional practices of painting and sculpture with new twists and inventions”.

The painters included in Sequence 1 manifest a wide range of approaches from the traditional oil and/or acrylic on canvas to experimental revisions of the “painterly.” Representing a more traditional camp, several galleries will be devoted to iconic paintings by Martial Raysse, Laura Owens, Marlene Dumas, Takashi Murakami, and Richard Prince. Despite their more conventional techniques, each of these artists self-reflexively revisits various touchstones in the history of painting while illustrating how rich the possibilities of painterly representation still remain.

On the more experimental side, artists such as Rudolf Stingel explore the idea of painting through a synthesis of environmental installation, process art, and conventional paintings.  A younger generation of artists, represented here by Kristin Baker and Roberto Cuoghi, employs highly unorthodox techniques and an innovative use of materials to create pictorial works that oscillate between abstraction and figuration.  Finally, while better known for their sculptural works, both Urs Fischer and Anselm Reyle use a range of three-dimensional assemblage and collage methods in their paintings, furthering the formal and conceptual concerns central to both their two- and three-dimensional practices.

As with its selection of paintings, Sequence 1 will spotlight the multivalent approaches to contemporary sculpture contained in the François Pinault Collection.  The found-object assemblages of David Hammons straddle numerous art-historical borders, combing sociological references and a poetic vision of urban life with the legacies of Dada, Arte Povera, and Pop.  Similarly, the coinage “Pop Povera” could be used to describe the object-based works of Urs Fischer, who blends humble, hand-made materials, occasional found objects, and a keen mastery of scale to produce astonishing sculptures. Artists like Mike Kelley and Robert Gober use banal, everyday objects—whether found or meticulously fabricated—to mine the depths of our collective unconscious, as well as their individual psyches.  While painstakingly handmade, Gober’s sculptures are crafted to look as “real” as possible—his insistence on remaking objects connected to his past intensifies the emotional, psyche charge of his sculptures and haunting environmental installations.

The sculptural inheritance of European formalism and high Modernism can be seen in the work of both Franz West and Anselm Reyle. One of the exhibition’s senior artists, West approaches sculpture in reaction to Viennese Actionism and European post-war abstraction.  His signature papier-mâché sculptures perched on bases, plinths, or tables marry anthropomorphic three-dimensional forms with colorful, gestural abstract painting.  In addition to these “autonomous” sculptures, West is equally known for his furniturepieces, which are intended to provide the public with a space to sit, contemplate, or simply lounge.  Indebted to West, as well as to an eclectic canon of twentieth-century abstractionists such as Blinky Palermo, Ellsworth Kelly, Richard Tuttle, and Otto Freundlich, Anselm Reyle seeks to resuscitate a whole repertoire of styles associated with high Modernism.

New Commissions and Special Projects:

To supplement works from the François Pinault Collection, several artists have been commissioned to make new works especially for Sequence 1 at Palazzo Grassi.  In the first gallery of the exhibition, a new body of work by conceptual photographer Louise Lawler will be on view.  Documenting the manipulation, handling, and placement of various artworks, Lawler made these witty, improbable behind-the-scenes photographs at Palazzo Grassi during the installation of the inaugural exhibition Where Are We Going? in spring 2006.

Franz West will exhibit a new ensemble of seating sculptures entitled Oasis, 2007 especially conceived for Palazzo Grassi.  Positioned in a gallery overlooking the Grand Canal, this interactive piece will feature furniture crafted from intricate metal lattice work and topped with air mattresses.  In collaboration with Tamuna Sirbilaze, Oasis will also include a specially commissioned wall painting that will transform the gallery’s white cube into a more inviting space for the visitor to linger.

The two youngest artists presented in Sequence 1—Kristin Baker from New York and Roberto Cuoghi from Milan—will each debut a new body of work in Venice.  Cuoghi will show a new series entitled The Axis of Evil, 2006–7. This pictorial work, rendered with Cuoghi’s unique chiaroscuro painting/drawing technique, is composed of nine “maps”—of North Korea, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Myanmar, Cuba, Syria, Sudan, Libya, and Iran.  Combining pencil, ink, charcoal, pastel, marker, spray-paint, and varnish, each of Cuoghi’s geographic images “emerges” from the layering of numerous semitransparent sheets of acetate and tracing paper, which are then framed behind glass. Fragments of the “map” of each country progressively build up to form the whole.  The interplay of opaque and transparent materials creates an eerie optical effect, recalling the spectral qualities of Daguerreotypes.

Baker will show her most recent work, Flying Curve, 2007. Inspired by Duchamp’s Large Glass and the aesthetic manifestos of the Italian Futurists, Baker created a semiabstract painting on transparent Plexiglas that is mounted on a curving free-standing armature measuring more than nine meters long.  Adding to the Collection’s extensive holdings of Rudolf Stingel, Urs Fischer, and Anselm Reyle, Sequence 1 will also feature new works by these three artists made especially for the exhibition. 

The Palazzo Grassi is located on Campo San Samuele, 3231, Venice, Italy.  The Palazzo Grassi will be open everyday from May 5 th to July 2nd, and will then be closed on Tuesdays from July 3 rd to November 11th. For more information on the Palazzo Grassi, please visit www.palazzograssi.it