Menu

Living, Looking, Making

Sculpture by Giacometti, Fontana, Twombly, Serra

March 26–May 19, 2007
Britannia Street, London

Alberto Giacometti, Femme Debout, 1957 Bronze, 51 13/16 × 7 ½ × 12 13/16 inches (131.5 × 19 × 32.5cm)Courtesy Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti, Femme Debout, 1957

Bronze, 51 13/16 × 7 ½ × 12 13/16 inches (131.5 × 19 × 32.5cm)
Courtesy Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti, Buste d'homme assis (Lotar III), 1965 Bronze, 25 11/16 × 11 ⅛ × 13 ⅞ inches (65.5 × 28.2 × 35.5 cm)Courtesy Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti, Buste d'homme assis (Lotar III), 1965

Bronze, 25 11/16 × 11 ⅛ × 13 ⅞ inches (65.5 × 28.2 × 35.5 cm)
Courtesy Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti

Richard Serra, Sign Board, 1969 Lead antimony, 48 × 48 × 31 inches (121.9 × 121.9 × 78.7 cm)

Richard Serra, Sign Board, 1969

Lead antimony, 48 × 48 × 31 inches (121.9 × 121.9 × 78.7 cm)

Richard Serra, Back to Back, 1987 Hot rolled steel, 134 × 85 ¼ × 15 ½ inches (340.4 × 216.5 × 39.4 cm)

Richard Serra, Back to Back, 1987

Hot rolled steel, 134 × 85 ¼ × 15 ½ inches (340.4 × 216.5 × 39.4 cm)

Cy Twombly, Untitled, Rome, 1959–99 Bronze, 26 ⅜ × 13 ⅜ × 10 ⅜ inches (67 × 34 × 26.5 cm), edition of 3

Cy Twombly, Untitled, Rome, 1959–99

Bronze, 26 ⅜ × 13 ⅜ × 10 ⅜ inches (67 × 34 × 26.5 cm), edition of 3

Cy Twombly, Untitled, Rome, 1983 Bronze, 55 ⅞ × 9 ⅜ × 12 ⅝ inches (142 × 24 × 32 cm), edition of 6

Cy Twombly, Untitled, Rome, 1983

Bronze, 55 ⅞ × 9 ⅜ × 12 ⅝ inches (142 × 24 × 32 cm), edition of 6

Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale, 1958 Iron, Height: 95 ⅝ inches (243 cm)

Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale, 1958

Iron, Height: 95 ⅝ inches (243 cm)

Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale, Natura, 1959–60 Bronze, 29 ½ inches diameter (75 cm)

Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale, Natura, 1959–60

Bronze, 29 ½ inches diameter (75 cm)

About

Gagosian is pleased to present an important exhibition at the Britannia Street gallery bringing together works by Alberto Giacometti, Lucio Fontana, Richard Serra, and Cy Twombly for the first time.

Collaborating directly with the Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti in Paris, a number of outstanding works by Giacometti have been selected for the exhibition, including Femme de Venise III and three Têtes d’homme (Lotar I, II, and III), which depict the avant-garde photographer Eli Lotar. These works have been chosen for their interaction with space and light; the bronze retains the mutating fragility of the human models as captured in clay or plaster while displaying intense strength and materiality.

The Giacometti works will be shown with a series of sculptures by Lucio Fontana from the late 1950s, entitled Natura, which combine natural and human forms so that the simplicity of the materials accumulates layers of meaning. A small group of ethereal sculptures, made in 1957–58, resembling butterflies or flowers on a thin, elongated stem will also be shown. These works reserve something of Giacometti’s emaciated human figures, although the path that brought Fontana to produce them is an investigation of the materials themselves.

Richard Serra has made works in steel since the 1960s, which are about movement and equilibrium, stasis and balance. The emphasis of the pieces is on the process of creation, raw physicality combined with a self-conscious awareness of material and an engagement with the space in which it is placed. The works shown include the early lead piece Sign Board (1969) and a number of “corner props,” in which massive plates of steel are propped up through the force of gravity.

Read more

Anna Weyant’s Two Eileens (2022) on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Winter 2022

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Winter 2022

The Winter 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Anna Weyant’s Two Eileens (2022) on its cover.

Richard Serra: Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Alina Ibragimova

Richard Serra: Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Alina Ibragimova

Violinist Alina Ibragimova performs Bach’s Sonata for Solo Violin No. 1 in G Major: Adagio (BWV 1001, c. 1720) from within Richard Serra’s sculpture Transmitter (2020) at Gagosian, Le Bourget. Organized by Bold Tendencies, a nonprofit organization that commissions artists to produce site-specific projects and present performances, in collaboration with Gagosian, this recorded performance took place on May 8, 2022 before a live concert of Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time, 1941).

Richard Serra: Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Mario Brunello

Richard Serra: Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Mario Brunello

Cellist Mario Brunello performs Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major: Prelude (BWV 1007, c. 1717–23) within Richard Serra’s sculpture Transmitter (2020) at Gagosian, Le Bourget. Organized by Bold Tendencies—a nonprofit that commissions artists to produce site-specific projects and present performances—in collaboration with Gagosian, this recorded performance took place on May 8, 2022, before a live concert of Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time, 1941).

Image of Cy Twombly's Treatise on the Veil (Second Version), 1970

Cy Twombly: Imperfect Paradise

Eleonora Di Erasmo, cocurator of Un/veiled: Cy Twombly, Music, Inspirations, a program of concerts, video screenings, and works by Cy Twombly at the Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio, Rome, reflects on the resonances and networks of inspiration between the artist and music. The program was the result of an extensive three-year study, done at the behest of Nicola Del Roscio in the Rome and Gaeta offices of the Cy Twombly Foundation, intended to collect, document, and preserve compositions by musicians around the world who have been inspired by Twombly’s work, or to establish an artistic dialogue with them.

Black and white image of the interior of Cy Twombly’s apartment in Rome

Cy Twombly: Making Past Present

In 2020, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, announced their plan for a survey of Cy Twombly’s artwork alongside selections from their permanent ancient Greek and Roman collection. The survey was postponed due to the lockdowns necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic, but was revived in 2022 with a presentation at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles from August 2 through October 30. In 2023, the exhibition will arrive at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The curator for the exhibition, Christine Kondoleon, and Kate Nesin, author of Cy Twombly’s Things (2014) and advisor for the show, speak with Gagosian director Mark Francis about the origin of the exhibition and the aesthetic and poetic resonances that give the show its title: Making Past Present.

Cy Twombly, Untitled (Say Goodbye, Catallus, to the Shores of Asia Minor), 1994, oil, acrylic, oil stick, crayon, and graphite on three canvases,

Say Goodbye, Catullus, to the Shores of Asia Minor

Thierry Greub tracks the literary references in Cy Twomblys epic painting of 1994.