calendario eventi  :: 

X

10/9/2010

Richard Deacon / Andy Warhol

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac - Marais, Paris

Richard Deacon
Twist and Shout

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac is pleased to announce an exhibition of seven new sculptures in wood, aluminum, stainless steel and ceramic by British sculptor Richard Deacon. TWIST AND SHOUT, his second solo exhibition in the gallery follows on the success of his major retrospective at the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain in Strasbourg (from 5 June to 19 September 2010).

Deacon will present two new wooden sculptures that elevate to a new height his continuing exploration of twisted, steamed wood, bracketed by steel strips and screws. Over the years, the artist has developed a personal vocabulary of curled and spiraled shapes taking wood out of its static role, insinuating a lithe and sensuous aspect, little-seen in contemporary sculpture.

The two new wooden works will suggest quite opposite characters. In the first, a box-like structure will be slotted inside a more solid, upright form that is almost like a formalist, architectural construction; while the second, will suggest a more spontaneous, free and lyrical combination of five paired and twisted columns, connected at the top and appearing as if to hang in space.

Surrounding these two sculptures, on the walls of the main gallery, will be three typological works in aluminum and stainless steel, measuring over three meters high. They are part of an ongoing discussion of forms that Deacon has called “Alphabets”. They lean against the wall, while touching the floor and exist somewhere between a wall drawing, a relief and a freestanding sculpture. Alphabet A, for example, in brushed stainless steel is made up of three interlocking structures that fall into each other in an organic and geometrical way with skewed angulations; whereas, Alphabet B, in aluminum, portrays a more pentagram-like nature. Its overall structure is formed around a central seven-sided void space where interlocking triangles form a pattern that evolves into a much larger seven-sided rosace. Within this matrix, the viewer can read other forms like trapezoids, stars and hexagons.

We will also be showing two new sculptures from Deacon’s very recent experimentation, casting clay in water resistant cardboard, which disappears when it is fired, revealing an object whose inside surface is yet to be discovered. These sculptures are abstract in appearance but their titles suggest the real material used to prepare the object. About the sculptures, Deacon writes, “I like their exploratory character and the combination of the simplicity of means with a sophistication in the material.”

On the occasion of this exhibition, we will publish a book of Richard Deacon’s Louvre lecture, In the Garden, delivered in April 2007 on the occasion of his participation in the Counterpoint III exhibition at the museum, curated by Marie-Laure Bernadac.

After many years on the faculty of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Deacon was invited in 2009 to join the faculty of the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie where he is now teaching. Additionally, two of Deacon’s new sculptures, More free Assembly and Two By Two, are currently on display at the Musée Bourdelle in Paris in a group show titled En mai, fais ce qu’il te plaît !, curated by Juliette Laffon, Director of the museum, until 19 September 2010.
His retrospective exhibition, The Missing Part, which closes at the museum in Strasbourg in September, will travel to the Sprengel Museum in Hanover, opening in January 2011.

Richard Deacon lives and works in London.

--------------------------

Andy Warhol
Warhol and Dance
curated by Jill Silverman van Coenegrachts and Bénédicte Burrus

In collaboration with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac is pleased to announce an exhibition of drawings never before shown by Andy Warhol. These 60 drawings date from the early 1950s when he first came to New York and was spending a great deal of time in the dance world.

Warhol and Dance explores the cultural milieu that welcomed the artist and provided him with his first “scene” to record with what has become as his individualistic style of portraiture, ink drawings on Manila paper.
Among these works, we have figures from both the worlds of emerging modern dance like Charles Weidman, John Butler, Paul Draper, as well as ballet personalities like Jacques d’Amboise, Karel Shook and Alexandra Danilova. Clearly, Warhol was interested in all forms of dance including ethnic performance styles as the cast of characters also included Nala Najan, Mesita, Mara and the Cambodian Dancers.

It is very likely that he saw the first performances of the Royal Cambodian Ballet in New York, held in the early 1950s and was undeniably hungry for the subtle distinctions between one dancer’s profile and another, as evidenced by the simple, determined line drawings with which he could inscribe both the look and personality of his subject. Indisputably, Warhol was a clinical observer of the exotic as well as the classical qualities that he saw in this highly specialized sub-culture.
Quite wonderfully, there are several drawings of bodies moving in space, where Warhol’s quick ability to catch the gesture and the body position simultaneously offers a more rounded perspective on his level of interest at that time.

One of the most illuminating of these is Three Dancers (c. 1954) where he has used ink to color in the leotard and tights of the dancers performing highly stylized dance movements, all of which would become many years later choreographic elements in Merce Cunningham’s mature style.

To accompany the exhibition we have commissioned Anna Kisselgoff, former Chief Dance Critic of the New York Times, to provide an insight into the dance world of this time, the characters and personalities that Warhol drew.

We are also grateful for the help of the New York Public Library Dance Collection and the Opera Garnier who have helped us find photographic material to accompany the catalogue.

For further information regarding the exhibition, please contact Jill Silverman Van Coenegrachts, jill.silvermanvc@ropac.net.
For press inquiries, please contact Alessandra Bellavita, alessandra@ropac.net.

Image: Richard Deacon, Alphabet A, 2009
Stainless steel, appr. 100kg
250 x 344 x 5 cm

Opening in the presence of the artist on Saturday, September 11th from 6pm to 8:30pm.

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
7, rue Debelleyme - Paris
Hours: Tue-Sat 10-19
free admision

stampa

permanent link