Menu

Micro Mania

April 18–May 31, 2012
rue de Ponthieu, Paris

Installation view Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view

Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view  Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Installation view

Photo: Zarko Vijatovic

Works Exhibited

Carl Andre, Untitled, 1965 Concrete, 5 ⅞ × 5 ⅞ × 3 ⅞ inches (15 × 15 × 10 cm)

Carl Andre, Untitled, 1965

Concrete, 5 ⅞ × 5 ⅞ × 3 ⅞ inches (15 × 15 × 10 cm)

Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale, 1959 Pens on perforated silver foil mounted on gold foil backing, 4 ½ × 3 ⅝ inches (11.4 × 9.2 cm)© Fondazione Lucio Fontana/ADAGP, Paris 2012

Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale, 1959

Pens on perforated silver foil mounted on gold foil backing, 4 ½ × 3 ⅝ inches (11.4 × 9.2 cm)
© Fondazione Lucio Fontana/ADAGP, Paris 2012

Alberto Giacometti, Dog, 1965 Bronze, 3 ½ × 9 × 1 ½ inches (9 × 22 × 3.8 cm)© Alberto Giacometti Estate/Licensed by VAGA and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Alberto Giacometti, Dog, 1965

Bronze, 3 ½ × 9 × 1 ½ inches (9 × 22 × 3.8 cm)
© Alberto Giacometti Estate/Licensed by VAGA and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

René Magritte, Sheherazade, 1947 Tempera on paper mounted on mat board, 7 × 5 inches (17.8 × 12.7 cm)© ADAGP, Paris 2012

René Magritte, Sheherazade, 1947

Tempera on paper mounted on mat board, 7 × 5 inches (17.8 × 12.7 cm)
© ADAGP, Paris 2012

About

Where the telescope ends the microscope begins, and who can say which has the wider vision?
—Victor Hugo

Gagosian is pleased to present Micro Mania, an exhibition of the miniature in art featuring nearly sixty small masterpieces by a panorama of modern and contemporary artists including Alexander Calder, Joseph Cornell, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Yves Klein, Jasper Johns, René Magritte, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Cecily Brown and Rachel Whiteread.

Accordingly, the Project Space has been transformed into a modern day cabinet de curiosités. A glass vitrine in the center of the gallery contains diminutive sculptures such as Claes Oldenberg’s Pancakes and Sausages (1962), Alexander Calder’s Untitled (Standing Mobile) (1955), Lucio Fontana’s Concetto Spaziale (1959) and Joseph Cornell’s Untitled (1933) which measures less than 3 centimeters in diameter. Among the intimate works that line the walls are Jasper Johns Map (1960), René Magritte’s Schéhérazade (1947), Marcel Duchamp’s Peasant’s Leg (1904–05), and Richard Prince’s Untitled (Fireman Joke) (1987).

These small-scale works seem to belong to a separate, otherworldly realm where the rules of the physical world may no longer hold. With proportions akin to those of a children’s toy, they may function as the starting point to a private narrative and act as an agent for nostalgia and fantasy. Taking inspiration from artist and poet Joe Brainard’s 1975 exhibition Think Tiny, as well as Voltaire’s science-fiction novella Micromegas—which strives to demonstrate that importance is not equitably reduced with size—Micro Mania explores the aesthetic and imaginative qualities unique to the craft of the miniature and creates a dialogue between artists working in very different time periods, mediums and agendas.

Artists included: Carl Andre, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Hans Bellmer, Dike Blair, Cecily Brown, Alexander Calder, Joseph Cornell, Marcel Duchamp, Hubert Duprat, Max Ernst, Hans Peter Feldmann, Urs Fischer, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Giacometti, John Giorno, Piero Golia, Douglas Gordon, Keith Haring, Jasper Johns, Paul Klee, Yves Klein, Franz Kline, René Magritte, Man Ray, Claes Oldenburg, Steven Parrino, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha, Kurt Schwitters, Charles Simonds, Elaine Sturtevant, Blair Thurman, Cy Twombly, Piotr Uklański, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann, Rachel Whiteread

Où finit le télescope, le microscope commence. Lequel des deux a la vue la plus grande?
—Victor Hugo

Gagosian est heureuse de présenter une exposition d’œuvres miniatures intitulée Micro Mania rassemblant près de soixante petits chefs d’œuvre issus d’un panorama d’artistes modernes et contemporains: Alexander Calder, Joseph Cornell, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Yves Klein, Jasper Johns, René Magritte, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Cecily Brown, et Rachel Whiteread.

En conséquence, le Project Space a été transformé en un «cabinet de curiosités», au centre de la galerie une vitrine en verre contient ces toutes petites sculptures Pancakes and Sausages de Claes Oldenburg (1962), Untitled (Standing Mobile) d’Alexander Calder (1955), Concetto Spaziale de Lucio Fontana (1959) et Untitled de Joseph Cornell (1933)—qui mesure moins de 3 centimètres de diamètre-produisent un effet intégral. Parmi les œuvres intimes qui tapissent le mur, on peut admirer le Map de Jasper Johns (1960), Shéhérazade de René Magritte (1947), Peasant’s Leg de Marcel Duchamp (1904–05) et Untitled (Fireman Joke) de Richard Prince (1987).

Ces petites œuvres d’art semblent appartenir à un royaume à part, séparé, dans lequel les règles du monde physique n’ont plus lieu d’être. Leurs proportions sont semblables à celles d’un jouet d’enfant ou d’un bibelot—l’œuvre pouvant fonctionner comme le point de départ d’un récit confidentiel, et agir comme le représentant de la nostalgie et de la fantaisie. Puisant son inspiration dans l’exposition Think Tiny de l’artiste et poète Joe Brainard en 1975, ainsi que dans la nouvelle de science-fiction de Voltaire Micromegas—qui s’efforce de démontrer que l’importance ne doit pas se réduire à la taille—Micro Mania célèbre les qualités esthétiques et imaginatives inhérentes à l’art de la miniature dessinant des parallèles et des dialogues entre des artistes présentant des intérêts, des moyens d’expressions et des époques très différents.

Artistes inclus : Carl Andre, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Hans Bellmer, Dike Blair, Cecily Brown, Alexander Calder, Joseph Cornell, Marcel Duchamp, Hubert Duprat, Max Ernst, Hans Peter Feldmann, Urs Fischer, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Giacometti, John Giorno, Piero Golia, Douglas Gordon, Keith Haring, Jasper Johns, Paul Klee, Yves Klein, Franz Kline, René Magritte, Man Ray, Claes Oldenburg, Steven Parrino, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha, Kurt Schwitters, Charles Simonds, Elaine Sturtevant, Blair Thurman, Cy Twombly, Piotr Uklański, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann, Rachel Whiteread

Cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Spring 2024, featuring Jean-Michel Basquiat Cover

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2024

The Spring 2024 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available with a fresh cover design featuring Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Lead Plate with Hole (1984).

Portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat sitting inside his studio and in front of his paintings

Jean-Michel Basquiat: Los Angeles

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s sisters, Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, met with filmmaker Tamra Davis, art dealer Larry Gagosian, and author and curator Fred Hoffman to reflect on their experiences with the artist during the 1980s in Los Angeles.

A Foreigner Called Picasso

Behind the Art
A Foreigner Called Picasso

Join president of the Picasso Museum, Paris, Cécile Debray; curator, writer, biographer, and historian Annie Cohen-Solal; art historian Vérane Tasseau; and Gagosian director Serena Cattaneo Adorno as they discuss A Foreigner Called Picasso. Organized in association with the Musée national Picasso–Paris and the Palais de la Porte Dorée–Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration, Paris, the exhibition reframes our perception of Picasso and focuses on his status as a permanent foreigner in France.

Dora Maar, Portrait de Picasso, Paris, studio du 29, rue d’Astorg, winter 1935–36

A Foreigner Called Picasso

Cocurator of the exhibition A Foreigner Called Picasso, at Gagosian, New York, Annie Cohen-Solal writes about the genesis of the project, her commitment to the figure of the outsider, and Picasso’s enduring relevance to matters geopolitical and sociological.

Installation view of Rachel Whiteread's ...And the Animals Were Sold exhibition in Italy

Rachel Whiteread: … And the Animals Were Sold

An installation by Rachel Whiteread in the Palazzo della Ragione, Bergamo, Italy, commissioned by Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo and cocurated by Lorenzo Giusti and Sara Fumagalli, opened in June of 2023 and ran into the fall. Conceived in relation to the city, the architecture of the site, and the history of the region, it comprised sixty sculptures made with local types of stone. Fumagalli writes on the exhibition and architect Luca Cipelletti speaks with Whiteread.

Urs Fischer: Wave

Urs Fischer: Wave

In this video, Urs Fischer elaborates on the creative process behind his public installation Wave, at Place Vendôme, Paris.