Pace Gallery is pleased to reveal its presentation for the 2021 edition of Art Basel, which will bring together work by leading international artists and estates, anchored by those with significant upcoming institutional projects. In addition to participating in the fair, Pace will present two monumental works in the Unlimited programme: Elmgreen & Dragset's The Outsiders (2020) and Roberto Matta's L'homme descend du signe from 1975.
Artists who have recently joined the gallery will form a central component of the presentation, with major works by Jeff Koons, Robert Longo and Latifa Echakhch on view alongside other significant artists and estates from the gallery's roster. Additional highlights include a recent painting by Julian Schnabel and a remarkable sculpture by Barbara Hepworth, which coincides with the artist's largest exhibition to date Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life at The Hepworth Wakefield, Yorkshire, UK.
In addition, significant historical and contemporary painting will be exhibited, including luminous microsphere work by Light and Space artist Mary Corse and a drape painting by Sam Gilliam, both of whom continue to challenge conventions of painting. Seminal twentieth-century painting highlights include a 1945 oil on canvas by Wifredo Lam and signature work by abstract painter Richard Pousette-Dart.
Pace's booth will also include a 2013 painting by the late Chuck Close of fellow painter Cecily Brown. Presented in loving memory of the artist, who passed away last month, and as a tribute to Close's longstanding relationship with the gallery and close friendship with Pace's founder, Arne Glimcher.
This presentation comes at an important moment in many of these artists careers as their work is celebrated across the world. Notable current and forthcoming projects include:
Jeff Koons will be the subject of a major solo exhibition titled Jeff Koons: Shine at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy, opening October 2, 2021.
• The largest exhibition of work by Barabara Hepworth to date, Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life, continues through February 2022 at The Hepworth Wakefield in Yorkshire before travelling to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, and Tate, St. Ives in 2022.
• Latifa Echakhch is preparing to represent the Swiss Pavillion at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022.
• In July 2021, Mary Corse: Painting with Light opened at the Long Museum West Bund in Shanghai, China, the artist's first comprehensive museum survey in Asia.
• An exhibition of work by Robert Longo titled Robert Longo: A History of the Present is currently on view at the Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton ahead of the forthcoming exhibition at Pace New York, opening September 10, 2021.
• Elmgreen & Dragset's installation Short Story continues until October 2021 at the Copenhagen Contemporary in Denmark. The artist collective will also have their first exhibition with Pace in New York, opening November 10, 2021.
• A solo exhibition of new paintings by Julian Schnabel titled Self-Portraits of Others opens at The Brant Foundation in September 2021.
Unlimited
Pace is delighted to also be participating in Unlimited, Art Basel'sdedicated space for monumental work. An outstanding painting by Matta and a major installation by Elmgreen & Dragset will be on view.
Elmgreen & Dragset's The Outsiders (2020) was originally supposed to be exhibited at Art Basel 2020. The installation consists of a Mercedes W123 with two highly realistic silicon sculptures of sleeping men lying in the back surrounded by personal belongings such as clothing, food wrappers and an Art Basel installer's identity card. The artwork's title, coupled with the Russian numberplate, speaks to the ongoing discrimination faced by LGBTQ+ communities and subverts convention by shining a light on the typically unseen individuals responsible for installing artworks at fairs.
Matta's extraordinary painting, L'homme descend du signe from 1975, which measures more than eight meters in width, draws on Surrealist visual language to create a complex, dynamic composition.
Pace's participation in Art Basel and Unlimited comes at an important moment for the gallery in Europe with the new London space at 5 Hanover Square opening on October 8, 2021 with Mark Rothko 1968: Clearing Away and Torkwase Dyson: Liquid a Place.