This year at Frieze London, Hauser & Wirth proudly presents a solo booth of work by the acclaimed Paris-based, American artist Barbara Chase-Riboud. The presentation features three bronze sculptures from the series Standing Black Woman of Venice (1969-2020), as well as six recent works made from silk pierced on paper in her signature automatic writing.
On view in the center of the booth are three sculptures from Chase-Riboud's Standing Black Woman of Venice series, consisting of four rectangles cast in black bronze stacked vertically with seemingly molten, undulating and shimmering surfaces. Chase-Riboud individually titled each work after the first known female poets: 'Standing Black Woman of Venice X, Vijja (BBBA)' (1969-2020) takes its name from Vijja, an 8th-century Sanskrit poet from present-day India; 'Standing Black Woman of Venice IV, Praxilla (BABA)' (1969- 2020) from Praxilla of Sicyon, a Greek lyric poet from the 5th Century BC; and 'Standing Black Woman of Venice V, Nossis (AABB)' (1969-2020) from Nossis, a Hellenistic Greek poet. Committed to foregrounding diasporic or transcultural narratives, Chase-Riboud memorializes powerful or at times marginalized women in history. These large-scale, abstract sculptures are made using two modules created in 1967, reconstructed mathematically into 16 different configurations that were originally created for Chase-Riboud's horizontal floor work 'Bathers' (1969-72). Reorientating the work vertically, the artist reassembled the resulting bronze plaques into various grid configurations, making 16 unique sculptures from this series in total. The artist employed a sand-casting method to produce a glossy and polished bronze alloy surface, its folds and creases evoking the sense of suspended water.
In addition to the sculptures, six works on paper will be presented in the booth, all made in 2020. Using a technique she has used since the 1970s, Chase-Riboud creates different graphic formations pierced directly onto paper using silk thread, reminiscent of handwriting or hieroglyphics. A celebrated poet and writer, the artist approaches these works similarly to her automatic writings and poems, akin to a visual, surrealist train of thought, also reflected in the titles of the works. This presentation at Frieze is Chase-Riboud's first with the gallery since Hauser & Wirth announced representation of the artist earlier this year and will precede an exhibition inaugurating the gallery's new location in New York on Wooster Street, opening 7 November 2023. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York is now showing 'The Encounter: Barbara Chase-Riboud/ Alberto Giacometti'. On view through 9 October, this landmark exhibition pairs the pioneering work of two international artists whose breakthroughs have shaped the course of modern sculpture.
Date
Wednesday Preview, October 11 (invitation only): 11am – 7pm
Thursday Preview, October 12: (Members and invitation only preview 11am – 1pm). 1pm – 7pm general admission tickets
Friday, October 13: 11am – 7pm
Saturday, October 14: 11am – 7pm
Sunday, October 15: 11am - 6pm
Location
The Regent's Park, London