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Edmund de Waal

Atemwende

September 12–October 19, 2013
980 Madison Avenue, New York

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Installation video

Installation view, photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view, photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Installation view Photo by Rob McKeever

Works Exhibited

Edmund de Waal, Atemwende, 2013 302 porcelain vessels, aluminium and plexiglass cabinet, 87 ⅜ × 118 ⅛ × 5 ⅛ inches (222 × 300 × 13 cm)© Edmund de Waal, photo by Mike Bruce

Edmund de Waal, Atemwende, 2013

302 porcelain vessels, aluminium and plexiglass cabinet, 87 ⅜ × 118 ⅛ × 5 ⅛ inches (222 × 300 × 13 cm)
© Edmund de Waal, photo by Mike Bruce

Edmund de Waal, Atemwende, 2013 (detail) 302 porcelain vessels, aluminium and plexiglass cabinet, 87 ⅜ × 118 ⅛ × 5 ⅛ inches (222 × 300 × 13 cm)© Edmund de Waal, photo by Mike Bruce

Edmund de Waal, Atemwende, 2013 (detail)

302 porcelain vessels, aluminium and plexiglass cabinet, 87 ⅜ × 118 ⅛ × 5 ⅛ inches (222 × 300 × 13 cm)
© Edmund de Waal, photo by Mike Bruce

Edmund de Waal, breathturn, I, 2013 476 porcelain vessels, aluminium and plexiglass cabinet, 90 ⅜ × 118 ⅛ × 3 15/16 inches (229.6 × 300 × 10 cm)© Edmund de Waal, photo by Mike Bruce

Edmund de Waal, breathturn, I, 2013

476 porcelain vessels, aluminium and plexiglass cabinet, 90 ⅜ × 118 ⅛ × 3 15/16 inches (229.6 × 300 × 10 cm)
© Edmund de Waal, photo by Mike Bruce

Edmund de Waal, your hand full of hours, 2013 23 porcelain vessels, in wood, aluminum, and plexiglass vitrine, 17 ¾ × 75 × 10 ¼ inches (45 × 190 × 25.5 cm)© Edmund de Waal, photo by Mike Bruce

Edmund de Waal, your hand full of hours, 2013

23 porcelain vessels, in wood, aluminum, and plexiglass vitrine, 17 ¾ × 75 × 10 ¼ inches (45 × 190 × 25.5 cm)
© Edmund de Waal, photo by Mike Bruce

Edmund de Waal, the white road, I–III, 2013 19 porcelain vessels, in wood and plexiglass cabinet, Each: 22 ¼ × 22 ¼ × 11 inches (56 × 56 × 27.5 cm)© Edmund de Waal, photo by Mike Bruce

Edmund de Waal, the white road, I–III, 2013

19 porcelain vessels, in wood and plexiglass cabinet, Each: 22 ¼ × 22 ¼ × 11 inches (56 × 56 × 27.5 cm)
© Edmund de Waal, photo by Mike Bruce

About

I've been thinking about new ways to make pauses, spaces and silences, where breath is held inside and between each vessel, between the objects and the vitrines, the vitrines and the room. In working with the vessel, working with porcelain, and with colors that express the great history of Oriental ceramics, but also the colors of modernism and minimalism; this seems to be enough material to be getting on with.
—Edmund de Waal

Gagosian Gallery is pleased to announce new work by Edmund de Waal. This is his first exhibition with the gallery.

Atemwende comprises a series of vitrines containing thrown porcelain vessels arranged in specific groupings. From simple pairs of pots to complex multitudes in their hundreds, these minimalist dichotomies in black and white suggest the sequences and patterns of a musical score, while titles cite the poetry of Paul Celan, Wallace Stevens and others.

De Waal's art speaks to his enduring fascination with the nature of objects and the attendant history of their collection and display. His poignant memoir The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010) is a family biography whose recurring motif through five generations is a large collection of netsuke. A potter since childhood and an acclaimed writer, de Waal’s studies of the history of ceramics have taken him from ancient Japan to late modernism. Confronting European and Asian traditions of intimate craftsmanship with the scale and sequence of minimalist art and music, his new ensembles evoke at once the delicate measure of Agnes Martin's sublime abstract paintings, and the rhythmic pulses of the music of Philip Glass and Steve Reich.

Read more

Elisa Gonzalez and Terrance Hayes

to light, and then return—: A Night of Poetry with Edmund de Waal, Elisa Gonzalez, Terrance Hayes, and Sally Mann

Gagosian presented an evening of poetry inside to light, and then return—, an exhibition of new works by Edmund de Waal and Sally Mann, inspired by each other’s practices, at Gagosian, New York. In this video—taking the artists’ shared love of poetry, fragments, and metamorphosis as a point of departure—poets Elisa Gonzalez and Terrance Hayes read a selection of their recent works that resonate with the themes of elegy and historical reckoning in the show. The evening was moderated by Jonathan Galassi, chairman and executive editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Axel Salto looking at the sculpture The Core of Power in the kiln, 1956

Axel Salto: Playing with Fire

On the occasion of the forthcoming exhibition Playing with Fire: Edmund de Waal and Axel Salto, Edmund de Waal composed a series of reflections on the Danish ceramicist Axel Salto and his own practice.

Five white objects lined up on a white shelf

to light, and then return—Edmund de Waal and Sally Mann

This fall, artists and friends Edmund de Waal and Sally Mann will exhibit new works together in New York. Inspired by their shared love of poetry, fragments, and metamorphosis, the works included will form a dialogue between their respective practices. Here they meet to speak about the origins and developments of the project.

Edmund de Waal, stone for two hands and water, 2021, Hornton stone, bamboo, and water, 27 ⅜ × 56 ¾ × 23 ⅝ inches (69.5 × 144 × 60 cm), installation view, Henry Moore Studios & Gardens, Perry Green, England

The Thinking Hand

Edmund de Waal speaks with Richard Calvocoressi about touch in relation to art and our understanding of the world, and discusses the new stone sculptures he created for the exhibition This Living Hand: Edmund de Waal Presents Henry Moore, at the Henry Moore Studios & Gardens. Their conversation took place at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, in the context of the exhibition The Human Touch.

Edmund de Waal and Theaster Gates

Artist to Artist: Edmund de Waal and Theaster Gates

Join the artists for an extended conversation about their most recent exhibitions, their forebears in the world of ceramics, and the key role that history plays in their practices.

Installation view, Edmund de Waal: some winter pots, Gagosian, Davies Street

Edmund de Waal: some winter pots

Join the artist in his ceramics studio as he describes the impetus behind his exhibition in London and the importance of touch in the creation of these new works.

News

Photo: Tom Jamieson

Artist Spotlight

Edmund de Waal

October 27–November 2, 2021

In his visual art and literary works, Edmund de Waal uses objects as vehicles for human narrative, emotion, and history. His installations of handmade porcelain vessels, often contained in minimalist structures, investigate themes of diaspora, memory, and materiality. Much of his practice is concerned with collecting and collections—how objects are brought together and dispersed—and with the application of craft and placement to the physical and conceptual transformation of interior space. Manifest across his work is a distinct aesthetic philosophy that puts the hand, touch, and thus the human above all else.

Photo: Tom Jamieson