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The Shape of Time

In Collaboration with Gisèle Croës

November 26, 2015–January 9, 2016
Hong Kong

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Works Exhibited

Sterling Ruby, Basin Theology/DOPR, 2014 Ceramic, 12 ½ × 26 × 51 inches (31.8 × 67.3 × 129.5 cm)© Sterling Ruby. Photo: Robert Wedemeyer

Sterling Ruby, Basin Theology/DOPR, 2014

Ceramic, 12 ½ × 26 × 51 inches (31.8 × 67.3 × 129.5 cm)
© Sterling Ruby. Photo: Robert Wedemeyer

Bell (nao), late Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1050 BCE) Bronze with green and blue patina and malachite and azurite encrustation, height: 22 ⅝ inches (57.4 cm), width: 14 ½ inches (37 cm)Provenance: Private Collection, SwitzerlandPhoto: Frédéric Dehaen, Studio Roger Asselberghs

Bell (nao), late Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1050 BCE)

Bronze with green and blue patina and malachite and azurite encrustation, height: 22 ⅝ inches (57.4 cm), width: 14 ½ inches (37 cm)
Provenance: Private Collection, Switzerland
Photo: Frédéric Dehaen, Studio Roger Asselberghs

About

In collaboration with Gisèle Croës Arts d’Extrême-Orient, Gagosian Hong Kong is pleased to present The Shape of Time, an exhibition of exceptional Asian antiques and modern and contemporary works by Georg Baselitz, Cai Guo-Qiang, Chu Teh-Chun, Alberto Giacometti, Andreas Gursky, Liu Dan, Takashi Murakami, Nam June Paik, Sterling Ruby, Richard Serra, and Zao Wou-Ki.

Among the exquisite objects that Gisèle Croës has selected for the exhibition are Longshan culture black pottery (third millennium BC), a crown headdress with glass ornaments from the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD), a gilt bronze mask from the Liao dynasty (916–1125 AD), and a carved wooden Bodhisattva figure (twelfth or thirteenth century AD). Of special interest to Croës are bronze vessels—symbols of dynastic power that for centuries played an essential role in ceremonies connecting the living and the dead—and the exhibition includes key examples from the Shang, Zhou, and Han dynasties.

These rare artifacts are presented alongside modern and contemporary paintings, drawings, sculptures, and photographs that revisit historically persistent subjects and common formal concerns. A bronze Ding vessel (770–481 BC) is shown beside Cai Guo-Qiang’s A Certain Lunar Eclipse: Project for Humankind No. 2 (1991), made by exploding gunpowder to produce epic celestial forms across a seven-panel screen measuring six meters in width. In new two-part ink and wash drawings, Georg Baselitz pairs reconsidered motifs from his own oeuvre with iterations of a nineteenth-century self-portrait by ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai.

In Untitled (1958), Chu Teh-Chun conflates the Chinese landscape painting tradition with the free spirit of Art Informel and Western abstraction, while in Bangkok III (2013), Andreas Gursky depicts the Chao Phraya River as a dark, reflective flow, conjuring a lineage of painterly depictions of water, from the cascading riverbanks of Song dynasty landscape paintings to Claude Monet’s Nymphéas. Upon closer observation, man-made pollution in the water suggests that Gursky’s sublime image is very much in and of its time.

The title of the exhibition alludes to George Kubler’s groundbreaking 1962 book, which challenged the notion of style by placing the history of objects and images in a larger continuum whereby processes of innovation, replication, and mutation are in continuous dialogue. Spanning millennia, the works are integrated without chronological mandate so that the viewer can discover fresh and unexpected correspondences between past and present.

香港高古軒畫廊欣然與比利時古董商吉賽爾·克勞斯 (Gisèle Croës)的畫廊攜手呈獻「時間的形 狀」展覽,展出品相俱佳的亞洲古董精品及現代與當代佳作,當中包括喬治.巴塞利茲(Georg Baselitz)、蔡國強、朱德群、阿爾伯托·賈克梅蒂 (Alberto Giacometti)、安德烈亞斯·古爾斯基(Andreas Gursky)、劉丹、村上隆、白南準、理查 德·塞拉(Richard Serra)及趙無極的力作。

吉賽爾·克勞斯為展覽精心挑選的古董藝術品精品薈萃,包括龍山文化的黑陶(公元前 3 千 年);唐朝鑲嵌玻璃鳳冠(公元 618–907 年);遼朝的鎏金青銅面具(公元 916–1125年);以 及一尊木雕觀音像(公元十二或十三世紀)。另外亦有一批源於商朝、周朝和漢朝的珍貴青銅 器,這些世紀以來皆代表皇權的器皿,於聯繫生者與亡靈的儀式中擔當重要的角色。

除了難得一見的工藝精品,展覽也匯聚大量現代及當代油畫、繪畫、雕塑和照片,重新探索穿越 時代的主題及世代關注的事物。高古軒畫廊將一尊青銅鼎(公元前 770-481 年)與蔡國強的《某 些月食:人類計畫 2》(A Certain Lunar Eclipse: Project for Humankind No. 2)(1991)一同擺放,後者 運用火藥爆炸的方式創作,形成一幅寬 6 米的七摺屏風。在喬治.巴塞利茲的水墨及水彩畫作 中,他巧妙結合常用的主題,以及經重新演繹的十九世紀日本浮世繪畫家葛飾北齋(Katsushika Hokusai)的自畫像。

在《無題》(1958)中,朱德群把中國傳統山水畫與法國不定形藝術運動(Art Informel)的自由風格和 西方的抽象元素融合,而在《曼谷 III》(2013)中,安德烈亞斯·古爾斯基則把昭披耶河(Chao Phraya)化成一條深沉、引人反思的河流,令人想起宋代山水畫裡的川流及克勞德·莫內的《睡 蓮》等有關水的作品。細看之下更能看到流水被人為污染,可見安德烈亞斯·古爾斯基的優美作 品與時代息息相關。

是次展覽的標題暗中呼應喬治·庫布勒(George Kubler)於 1962 年的鉅作《時間的形狀》,作者從 更宏觀的時間角度審視物體和影像的歷史,剖析創新、重複和變異之間從不間斷的對話,從而挑 戰風格的定義。展出的作品跨越千年,組合的方式不受時序限制,讓觀賞者發掘過去與現在之間 意想不到的互動。