ZURICH.- Häusler Contemporary Zurich opened the solo exhibition Gary Kuehn «Box Piece». Kuehn, whose conceptual approach has contributed significantly to the renewal of the concept of sculpture, has been one of the most important representatives of Post Minimalism and Process Art since the 1960s.

«The Box Piece started when I made ten small-scale paintings based on what I thought were the essential gestural approaches to a rectangular form. (…). All these, the paintings and drawings, were part of the gesture project – and I thought, okay, I’m done with this project. I’ll conclude the whole thing by making a very well-made crate for it (…). I’ll put everything in there and then I’ll screw the top on, and that’ll be it. I thought it’s a nice way to end the whole thing because now you don’t have to look at it.» Gary Kuehn

The object «Box Piece» was created as part of the Gesture Project that began in the mid-1960s and is understood as the artist's manifesto, which he archives in the especially made «Box». Kuehn was interested in the way the «Gestures» of the works could be confined in a certain format and undermine the freedom of the gesture. He refers about the connection to the limits and the restriction of the format as well as the spontaneous aspect of the gesture, which is slowed down by the repetitive character of the process.

The contents of the box, last shown publicly in 1971 at Rutgers State University of New Jersey, are a total of 43 works on canvas and paper. Kuehn had just begun his teaching career there when he created this piece and installed it for an exhibition.
Accompanying the presentation of the extensive interior of the Box Piece» are works by the artist on paper from the 1960s, sculptures from the «Eternal Figures» of 1974 and works from the «Black Paintings» of the 1970s, previously unseen in Zurich.

An artist's book will be published in collaboration with Peter Zimmermann to accompany the exhibition.

Gary Kuehn is an important representative of «Process Art» that radically altered the notion of art again in the 1960s. In his sculptures, Kuehn questions the authority of material and fathoms the relation of limitation and freedom. Since the beginnings, his artistic career is based in the use of simple forms, such as circle, square or triangle, in conjunction with his interest in mechanical and industrial materials. The geometrical forms made of metal, fiberglass or wood are often exposed to the masses’ distorting forces or to a kinetic energy, they are pushed aside, knotted, jerked. Kuehn thus always achieves an emotional value within his formally abstract works.