Richard Artschwager

The exhibition presents 15 works by Richard Artschwager made between 1964 and 1987, that is belonging to a key period in the career and experimentation of the American painter and sculptor born in 1923, one of the few protagonists of the contemporary scene to whom retrospectives have already been dedicated in life.

Often considered a master of minimalist Pop Art although he didn’t conform to any genre, Artschwager forged a unique path in 20th century art with his sculptures and paintings. The works on display demonstrates his ability to rearrange the structures of perception, bringing the deceptive pictorial world of images into direct confrontation with the concretely human world of everyday objects. Shifts in scale and transpositions of form and material prompt an ongoing reassessment of space and time, suggesting compound narratives and compositional complexities, often at once quotidian and surreal.

The use of synthetic, commercial and industrial materials contributes to making the familiar “strange”: in the 1969s he began experimenting with Formica, whose high-shine, typically marbled finish bears an abstract resemblance to expressionist painting; and Celotex, whose glossy and marbled finish has an abstract resemblance to Expressionist painting; or Celotex, a heavily textured compound board made from compressed sugarcane fiber, which he used as a ground for his singular grisaille paintings, the waywardness of the industrial material blurring and obscuring his hand-drawn lines.

The exhibition takes place throughout the gallery space: from the angular sculpture in formica and wood placed at the entrance, the path continues in an alternation of works that include for example skylines and skyscrapers outlined on Celotex, rural landscapes such as in Tract Home or sculptures such as Sliding Door, both from 1964. A fully illustrated bilingual catalogue will be published on the occasion of the exhibition, with an essay by curator Dieter Schwarz.To ensure maximum safety, visitors are invited to consult the new guidelines drawn up by the gallery.