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Extended through June 15, 2017

Giuseppe Penone

Equivalenze

January 27–June 15, 2017
Rome

Installation view Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Matteo D'Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view

Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Matteo D'Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Matteo D'Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view

Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Matteo D'Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Matteo D'Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view

Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Matteo D'Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Matteo D'Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view

Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Matteo D'Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Matteo D'Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view

Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Matteo D'Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Matteo D'Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view

Artwork © Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Matteo D'Eletto, M3 Studio

Works Exhibited

Giuseppe Penone, Equivalenze, 2016 Bronze, 113 ¾ × 93 ¼ × 66 ⅞ inches (289 × 237 × 170 cm)© Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Matteo D'Eletto, M3 Studio

Giuseppe Penone, Equivalenze, 2016

Bronze, 113 ¾ × 93 ¼ × 66 ⅞ inches (289 × 237 × 170 cm)
© Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Matteo D'Eletto, M3 Studio

Giuseppe Penone, Equivalenze, 2016 Bronze, 115 ⅜ × 157 ½ × 54 ⅜ inches (293 × 400 × 138 cm)© Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Matteo D'Eletto, M3 Studio

Giuseppe Penone, Equivalenze, 2016

Bronze, 115 ⅜ × 157 ½ × 54 ⅜ inches (293 × 400 × 138 cm)
© Giuseppe Penone. Photo: Matteo D'Eletto, M3 Studio

About

The veins of water that pour from the earth flow in trickles that merge, like the branches in the trunk, like the fingers in the palm of a hand, like the bronze in the matrix of a tree.
—Giuseppe Penone

Gagosian Rome is pleased to present Equivalenze / Equivalences, an exhibition of new sculptures by renowned Italian artist Giuseppe Penone.

A protagonist of the Arte Povera movement, Penone has evolved his distinctive oeuvre through a deeply poetic, active engagement with nature and time, as well as a belief in the revelatory, transformative powers of art. Beginning with the idea that sculpture originates in primal impulses—filling one’s mouth with water, or making direct impressions with the hands—Penone elaborates and enriches his initial gestures through philosophical inquiry and intensive aesthetic process.

In Equivalenze, Penone uses sculptural attitude and artifice to reveal corresponding systems in organic materials and bodies. Fist-sized terracotta moldings bear the precise imprint of his forceful grip. The terracottas are appended to iron plates, which he has oxidized in areas with repeated strokes. The repetition of blots and arcs yields a lively abstraction that resembles the flickering shadows of a leafy plant or the staccato marks of a Fauvist landscape—the ambiguous zone between nature and art.

Penone’s works are bodily memories, materialized. They speak to his belief that we, like rocks, trees, and water, are constantly molding, and being molded by, our environments. Our gestures mirror the twisting and stretching of trees, which contain concentric records of time in their wood. For a new sculpture, Equivalenze (2016), Penone made plaster molds of tree parts and cast them in bronze, erecting an artificial tree, piece by piece. From the roots, an anthropomorphic helix of bark emerges, becoming a figure in contrapposto, facing its botanical counterpart. Penone thinks of such convergences as gesti vegetali (plantlike gestures). In his hands, the human form is freed from the tree, and the tree, in turn, reveals the visceral qualities of the human body. Using sculptural media and techniques, he releases the animas of things, thus uniting the essence of nature with the sensations of direct human action.

Le vene d’acqua che sgorgano dal terreno scorrono in rivoli che confluiscono, come i rami nel tronco, come le dita nel palmo di una mano, come il bronzo nella matrice di un albero.
—Giuseppe Penone

Gagosian Roma è lieta di presentare Equivalenze, una mostra di nuove sculture di Giuseppe Penone.

Fin dagli esordi nel movimento dell’Arte Povera, il lavoro di Penone si è contraddistinto per il coinvolgimento attivo con la natura e il tempo attraverso la consapevolezza del potere rivelatore dell’arte. Partendo dall’idea che la scultura abbia origine da impulsi primari—come riempirsi la bocca con dell’acqua, imprimere un segno sull’argilla con le mani, e così via, l’artista elabora e arricchisce le sue intenzioni attraverso una ricerca filosofica e un intenso processo estetico.

In Equivalenze Penone utilizza il processo scultoreo per rivelare le corrispondenze tra il corpo e la natura. Forme di terracotta modellate nel pugno dell’artista contengono l’impronta della sua energica presa. Penone le ha fissate su piastre di metallo dove l’ossidazione riproduce il contatto della pelle con la superficie dando vita ad una vivace astrazione che richiama le ombre tremolanti di una pianta rigogliosa o le macchie intermittenti di un paesaggio fauve: una zona di confine tra natura e arte.

Le opere di Penone sono memorie corporee, materializzate, testimoni della sua idea che anche noi, come le rocce, gli alberi, e l’acqua, siamo costantemente in trasformazione, e trasformati dall’ambiente circostante. I nostri gesti rispecchiano la tortuosità e la verticalità degli alberi che contengono testimonianze concentriche del tempo nel loro legno. Per l’opera Equivalenze (2016), Penone ha realizzato il calco in gesso di alcune parti di un albero, facendone poi una fusione in bronzo. Dalle radici emerge una spirale antropomorfa di corteccia che si trasforma in figura di fronte alla sua controparte vegetale, in un’equivalenza di forme tra il negativo dell’albero e il negativo della persona. Penone considera questi incontri come gesti vegetali. Nelle sue mani la forma umana viene liberata dall’albero e l’albero, a sua volta, rivela i tratti viscerali del corpo. Attraverso la scultura, Penone svela l’anima delle cose, creando un legame tra l’essenza della natura e la percezione del gesto umano.

Giuseppe Penone: Ephemeris

Giuseppe Penone: Ephemeris

In Giuseppe Penone: ephemeris we get a glimpse of his process as he explores some of the ideas behind Equivalenze.

Jordan Wolfson’s House with Face (2017) on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Fall 2022

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Fall 2022

The Fall 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Jordan Wolfson’s House with Face (2017) on its cover.

Photograph of the execution of Giuseppe Penone’s frottages in La Tourette, Éveux, France. Giuseppe Penone, Le Bois Sacré (The Sacred Forest), 2022, prepared canvas oil and wax pastel

Giuseppe Penone À La Tourette

Le Couvent Sainte-Marie de La Tourette, in Éveux, France, is both an active Dominican priory and the last building designed by Le Corbusier. As a result, the priory, completed in 1961, is a center both religious and architectural, a site of spiritual significance and a magnetic draw for artists, writers, architects, and others. This fall, at the invitation of Frère Marc Chauveau, Giuseppe Penone will be exhibiting a selection of existing sculptures at La Tourette alongside new work directly inspired by the context and materials of the building. Here, Penone and Frère Chauveau discuss the power and peculiarities of the space, as well as the artwork that will be exhibited there.

Augurs of Spring

Augurs of Spring

As spring approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, Sydney Stutterheim reflects on the iconography and symbolism of the season in art both past and present.

Giuseppe Penone, Idee di pietra (Ideas of Stone), 2004, installation view, Fort Mason, San Francisco, 2019–2021.

Giuseppe Penone: By the Bay

Elizabeth Mangini writes on Giuseppe Penone’s installation of two sculptures at San Francisco’s Fort Mason.

The cover of the Spring 2020 edition of the Gagosian Quarterly magazine. A Cindy Sherman photograph of herself dressed as a clown against a rainbow background.

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2020

The Spring 2020 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #412 (2003) on its cover.