This presentation celebrates Hauser & Wirth's newly announced presence in Paris with a new space occupying an entire hôtel particulier dating from 1877 at 26 bis rue François 1er, opening in 2023. Concurrent institutional solo shows in the city from our artists include Anri Sala's exhibition at Bourse de Commerce from 14 October 2022 – 3 January 2023 alongside Zoe Leonard's solo exhibition at Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris from 15 October 2022 – 29 January 2023, whose work will feature on the Hauser & Wirth booth.
Marc Payot, President of Hauser & Wirth says: 'In the run up to our new Paris space, we're excited to celebrate the city by participating in the highly anticipated first edition of Paris+ par Art Basel with outstanding works by artists that are central to our DNA. Paris has been a world cultural capital for centuries; that scene has taken on a palpably fresh vibrancy with the arrival of a new generation of talent at the museums and foundations, as well as with the arrival of Paris+.'
Exceptional new works on the booth include a 2022 painting by Rashid Johnson from the artist's Bruise Paintings, a series that is currently on display in the exhibition 'Rashid Johnson. Sodade' at Hauser & Wirth Menorca and evolved from the iconography of his long-established Anxious Men series. A new large-scale painting by George Condo is also on show, an arresting example of George Condo's unmatched ability to powerfully capture the paradoxes and contradictions of the human condition through an eye-catching blend of abstraction and figuration. Straight from the studio of New York-based artist Avery Singer, on display is a work which employs her signature technique of digital illustration using computer programs and is overlayed with airbrush painting.
Modern highlights on the booth include a protuberant aluminium sculpture made by Louise Bourgeois in 2004 which is delicately suspended, continually morphing as it gently rotates and revolves, as well as a bright green oval painting made by Lucio Fontana in 1963 – part of his 'Fine di Dio' series, it is considered one of the most important works within the artist's oeuvre.
Other contemporary highlights include a piece made with gold foil by Roni Horn, complementing her recent exhibition with Felix Gonzalez-Torres at Bourse de Commerce in Paris and her current exhibition Roni Horn, SWEET IS THE SWAMP WITH ITS SECRETS at Hauser & Wirth Monaco; Angel Otero's tapestry-like painting At Five in the Afternoon (2017), created using oil paint layered onto glass which is peeled off and recomposed as a 'skin' onto canvas to make an entirely new image; and a photographic work by Zoe Leonard in celebration of her solo exhibition at Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris. The booth also includes a sculpture by David Hammons made in 1989, an ingenious, irreverent, contemporary take on Marcel Duchamp's canonical 'ready-made' that embodies the artist's radical upending of art history; a painting by celebrated artist Zeng Fanzhi; and Paul McCarthy's _WS, White Snow Flower Girl #2 _(2016), which is exemplary of the artist's carved wood sculptures.
In the run up to the fair, Hauser & Wirth partnered with HiSCA (Histoire Culturelle et Sociale de l'Art) to host a symposium entitled 'In-Between: Louise Bourgeois et Alina Szapoczinkow 1965 – 1973' from 7 – 8 October 2022.