Paul Thek Estate Represented by Pace Gallery
The American artist was most known for his hyperrealistic 'meat pieces' of the 1960s.
Peter Hujar, Paul Thek (II) (1975). Courtesy © The Peter Hujar Archives / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
On 23 January, Pace Gallery announced the global representation of the estate of Paul Thek, who came to recognition for his sculptures in the 60s New York art scene.
Among Thek's most famous works are 'Technological Reliquaries', a series of wax meat pieces encased in transparent vitrines. They were shown in his second solo exhibition, which took place at Pace Gallery in 1966.
Arne Glimcher, founder and chairman of Pace, saw the reliquaries for the first time in Thek's studio in the early 1960s. 'I was totally transported and thought the meat was real, and I actually thought I smelled it,' he said in a statement.
Glimcher is one of the three curators, alongside Oliver Shultz, chief curator at Pace, and Noah Kohshbin, managing director of the Estate of Paul Thek, of Thek's upcoming major exhibition at Pace New York in 2025. This presentation will revolve around the artist's notebooks—he left around 100 behind when he died of AIDS-related complications in 1988—that have been rarely exhibited until now.
