For the 50th anniversary of Art Basel this June, Hauser & Wirth has curated a special selection of works by artists who have played a central role in the gallery’s rich history of presentations at the fair. In light of the first ever cancellation of the fair in Basel, the presentation is complemented by a gathering of memories to be on view simultaneously across the website and social media channels. Art Basel is a key moment in the annual art world calendar, cherished as much for the sense of community as its commercial importance. That communal spirit will be at the centre of the online project Celebrating Basel Basel - An Oral History, showcasing voices, personal recollections, and interviews with artists, collectors, curators, and locals to transport audiences to Basel.
Hauser & Wirth’s booth presentation is split between Art Basel’s online viewing rooms and Hauser & Wirth’s own platform, the fair’s five-decade lifespan is marked by a unique work by On Kawara entitled JUNE 5, 1970, the founding year of Art Basel. Louise Bourgeois’ special connection to the city of Basel is honoured by inclusion of her sculpture Couple (2014) and The Fragile, a suite of 36 hand paintings, recalling the artist’s acclaimed 2011–2012 solo exhibition at Fondation Beyeler. Works by Paul McCarthy and Rashid Johnson signal to the artists’ past special projects for Unlimited at Art Basel. Similarly, works by Philip Guston, looking back at his 1984 exhibition at Kunsthalle, Basel, and an important sculpture by Eduardo Chillida, celebrating past exhibitions at the Kunsthalle and Kunstmuseum in Basel.
Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist is represented by a new video installation entitled Peeping Freedom Shutters tbc (2020) that brings us right up to the present day and resonates strongly with the worldwide quarantine that has separated and connected everyone around the world. This same resonance is felt in Luchita Hurtado’s surreal window painting, Distant Gravity of a Day (1977). An early elliptical painting by Ed Clark is also on view, showcasing the artist’s breakthroughs in abstract painting.
Also on display is a grouping of historical works by the great Swiss artists Max Bill, Hans Arp, Georges Vantongerloo, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, all central figures of the 1931 artistic collective Abstraction-Création. One of the most important artists of the 20th-century avant-garde and the newest addition to the gallery’s roster, Taeuber-Arp has three works in the gallery’s Art Basel presentation, including an important circle relief entitled Coquilles et fleurs (Shells and flowers). These works resonate with a concurrent solo exhibition on the gallery’s website, spanning Taeuber-Arp’s influential career.
These works by longstanding and historic artists are rounded out by an outstanding grouping of works by artists who have recently joined the gallery. Distinctly relevant works made in 2020 include the grass-skirt sculpture Las Meninas III by Simone Leigh; a new neon work by Glenn Ligon; and major new paintings by Nicole Eisenman, George Condo, Nicolas Party, and Avery Singer.