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. The exhibition will be on view through November 11th, 2007. Curated by Alison M. Gingeras, the newly-appointed chief curator of the François Pinault Collection, Sequence 1 will feature focused selections from the François Pinault Collection, showcasing a diverse range of work by sixteen artists: Kristin Baker, Roberto Cuoghi, Marlene Dumas, Urs Fischer, Robert Gober, Subodh Gupta, David Hammons, Mike Kelley, Louise Lawler, Laura Owens, Richard Prince, Martial Raysse, Anselm Reyle, Tamuna Sirbiladze, Rudolf Stingel and Franz West.

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.

The Sequence exhibitions will regularly punctuate Palazzo Grassi’s programs, presenting unrivaled monographic ensembles typical of the François Pinault collection, thus demonstrating François Pinault’s unique commitment to collecting contemporary artists in depth.

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 like his monumental Jet Set Lady, 2000–5, which will dominate Palazzo Grassi’s atrium.

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. Like Gober, Kelley enlists objects to tell a story, though he often extends his highly-charged sculptural works into the realm of performance, as in his seminal Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #1 (Domestic Scene), 2000.

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 furniture pieces, 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. Whether using monochromatic fields of paint, gestural drips, highly lacquered colored bronze, neon tubing, or florescent pigments, Reyle’s futuristic, post-punk sculptures and paintings unabashedly embrace the legacy of formalism. Sequence 1 will present a succinct overview of Reyle’s diverse artistic practice.

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. The only exception to the painting/sculpture focus of the exhibition is in the introductory gallery, where a new body of work by conceptual photographer Louise Lawler will premier. 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. Images like Adolf, Install 8 inches above the floor, 2006—a photograph depicting Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous miniature wax figure of a praying Hitler while still in its shipping crate—provide a self-reflexive prologue for this second public installment of the François Pinault Collection.