PARIS.- Gagosian announced its participation in Art Basel Paris, at the Grand Palais, with a display of exceptional historic paintings, sculptures, and photographs extending into the gallery’s nearby location at 4 rue de Ponthieu. The twofold presentation showcases works by defining figures of modern and contemporary abstraction and representational art, in dialogue with new works by gallery artists.
Pablo Picasso’s Femme nue sur fond bleu (1949) is a key painting from his postwar years in the South of France with artist Françoise Gilot. Here, layered oil washes abstract Gilot’s figure into gray biomorphic shapes before a Mediterranean blue sky and green landscape. Crucifixion (1939–40), a painting that Jackson Pollock gifted to Dr. Joseph Henderson, his Jungian psychoanalyst, epitomizes the archetypal imagery and dynamism of his early work currently exhibited in Jackson Pollock: Les premières années (1934–1947) at the Musée national Picasso–Paris.
Helen Frankenthaler composed Shatter (1953) in thinned oils poured and dripped directly on unprimed canvas in layers of amorphous pastel color. Painted a year after she developed her breakthrough soak-stain process, this abstraction exemplifies her adventurous approach surveyed in Painting Without Rules, her retrospective now on view at Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy. Yves Klein made Untitled Fire Color Painting (FC 28) (1962) with flame, water, and gestural strokes of his signature IKB pigment, expressing elemental transformation and transcendence. Simon Hantaï’s Meun (1968), a rarely available painting from this series, emerged from his automatist technique of painting the surface of a canvas that he had folded at its four corners and center, producing a colorful, approximately bilateral composition.
Coinciding with the exhibition Pop Forever, Tom Wesselmann &… at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Gagosian’s presentation features works by Wesselmann, including Smoker #20 (1975), a shaped canvas rendered in a rare black-and-white palette that explores fragmentation of the body with a partially open mouth, painted nails, and veil of smoke. Other Pop works include Andy Warhol’s Marella Agnelli (1982), which depicts the iconic Italian philanthropist and tastemaker.
A 1965 galvanized iron piece by Donald Judd is an early foray into his iconic wall-mounted sculptures, embodying precision and industrial aesthetics. Roy Lichtenstein’s Modern Sculpture with Glass Wave (1967) playfully investigates the relationship between movement and material, juxtaposing the fluidity of the glass wave with sleek industrial forms. To create Albero di 15 rami (1977), Giuseppe Penone hand-carved a larch beam, excavating its grain and knots to form a sapling in relief. Several works by this artist are currently on view at Bourse de Commerce’s Arte Povera exhibition.
Abstraktes Bild (1991) is an outstanding example of Gerhard Richter’s abstraction. Working with a squeegee, he blurred and blended layers of paint into veils of vibrant crimson and teal. Bruce Nauman’s Hand Pair (1996) is a unique cast of the artist’s hands conjoined and reaching in opposite directions. Richard Serra’s Triptych #9 (2019) captivates with its intense textural interplay of black oil stick on paper across three panels, echoing the raw, physical presence of his sculptures.
Rudolf Stingel’s painting Untitled (Der Kranke) (2023) interprets a 1918/30 self-portrait by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, recapitulating the composition with elements of Stingel’s own. John Currin's The Favorite (2024) masterfully blends beauty and unease, using his signature dreamlike style to explore the complex interplay of desire and discomfort. A new TURBINE painting by Sterling Ruby channels mechanical energy, fire, and conflict with abstraction that evokes Futurism and Russian Constructivism, while the vibrant purple hues in Jadé Fadojutimi’s painting Untitled (2024) ripple like emotions on canvas in a harmonious dance of color. Jonas Wood portrays two Picasso pots filled with flowers and an ornamented bowl of fruit, bringing a modern twist to a classic still life. Finally, Amoako Boafo’s White Opera Gloves (2024) channels the ornate, expressionistic essence of Vienna Secession artists like Gustav Klimt, depicting a figure adorned in an opulent white gown and intricate necklace, emphasizing rich textures and tonal contrasts.
The gallery’s presentation will also feature works by Georg Baselitz, Louise Bonnet, Christo, Julie Curtiss, Willem de Kooning, Edmund de Waal, Roe Ethridge, Urs Fischer, Lucio Fontana, Frank Gehry, Alberto Giacometti, Nan Goldin, Mark Grotjahn, Romuald Hazoumè, Damien Hirst, Carsten Höller, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Ewa Juszkiewicz, Y.Z. Kami, Deana Lawson, Peter Lindbergh, Man Ray, Brice Marden, Helen Marden, Joan Miró, Joan Mitchell, Takashi Murakami, Oscar Murillo, Albert Oehlen, Rudolf Polanszky, Richard Prince, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Sterling Ruby, Ed Ruscha, Setsuko, Sarah Sze, Tatiana Trouvé, Cy Twombly, Stanley Whitney, and Richard Wright.
As part of Art Basel Paris’s public programming, Carsten Höller’s monumental sculpture Giant Triple Mushroom (2024) will be installed at Place Vendôme from October 15 through November 24, 2024. Jordan Wolfson’s Red Sculpture (2017–24) will be presented in the street-facing vitrine at Gagosian, rue de Ponthieu, from October 14 to December 20, 2024.
Exhibitions at Gagosian galleries in the Paris area that are open during Art Basel Paris include Maison Ancart, featuring new paintings by Harold Ancart, at rue de Ponthieu (October 14–December 20, 2024); Venus, a pairing of an early painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat and an ancient Roman sculpture from the Torlonia Collection (October 17–December 20, 2024); and At One, with works by James Turrell at Le Bourget (October 14, 2024–Summer 2025).
