Francesca Woodman
Ahead of the first exhibition of Francesca Woodman’s photographs at Gagosian, director Putri Tan speaks with historian and curator Corey Keller about new insights into the artist’s work. The two unravel themes of the body, space, architecture, and ambiguity.
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).
Sofia Coppola: Archive
MACK recently published Sofia Coppola: Archive 1999–2023, the first publication to chronicle Coppola’s entire body of work in cinema. Comprised of the filmmaker’s personal photographs, developmental materials, drafted and annotated scripts, collages, and unseen behind-the-scenes photography from all of her films, the monograph offers readers an intimate look into the process behind these films.
Prosperity’s Long Song #1: At Lights-Out Hour
We present the first installment of a four-part short story by Arinze Ifeakandu. Set at the Marian Boys’ Boarding School in Nigeria, “Prosperity’s Long Song” explores the country’s political upheavals through the lens of ancient mythologies and the mystical power of poetry.
Mount Fuji in Satyajit Ray’s Woodblock Art, Part II
In the first installment of this two-part feature, published in our Winter 2023 edition, novelist and critic Amit Chaudhuri traced the global impacts of woodblock printing. Here, in the second installment, he focuses on the films of Satyajit Ray, demonstrating the enduring influence of the woodblock print on the formal composition of these works.
Adaptability
Adam Dalva looks at recent films born from short stories by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami and asks, What makes a great adaptation? He considers how the beloved surrealist’s prose particularly lends itself to cinematic interpretation.
Not Running, Just Going
Robert M. Rubin’s Vanishing Point Forever (RideWithBob/Film Desk Books, 2024) explores the production, reception, and lasting influence of Richard Sarafian’s 1971 film. In this excerpt, Rubin discusses the pseudonymous screenwriter Guillermo Cain (Guillermo Cabrera Infante), the famous Kowalski car, and how a nude hippie biker chick became the Lady Godiva of the internal combustion engine.
On Frederick Wiseman
Carlos Valladares writes on the life and work of the legendary American filmmaker and documentarian.
You Don’t Buy Poetry at the Airport: John Klacsmann and Raymond Foye
Since 2012, John Klacsmann has held the role of archivist at Anthology Film Archives, where he oversees the preservation and restoration of experimental films. Here he speaks with Raymond Foye about the technical necessities, the threats to the craft, and the soul of analogue film.
Whit Stillman
In celebration of the monograph Whit Stillman: Not So Long Ago (Fireflies Press, 2023), Carlos Valladares chats with the filmmaker about his early life and influences.
Lisa Lyon
Fiona Duncan pays homage to the unprecedented, and underappreciated, life and work of Lisa Lyon.
Game Changer: Alexey Brodovitch
Gerry Badger reflects on the persistent influence of the graphic designer and photographer Alexey Brodovitch, the subject of an upcoming exhibition at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia.
Events & Announcements
In Conversation
Rick Lowe, Dieter Roelstraete, Abigail Winograd
Friday, April 19, 2024, 3pm
Museo di Palazzo Grimani, Venice
polomusealeveneto.beniculturali.it
Join Gagosian and Museo di Palazzo Grimani for a conversation between Rick Lowe; Dieter Roelstraete, curator of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago; and Abigail Winograd, commissioner and curator of the United States Pavilion at the 60th Biennale di Venezia. The talk will take place inside The Arch within the Arc, featuring new paintings by Lowe inspired by the Palazzo’s historic chambers, the urban dynamics of Venice, and the arc as a visual motif. The group will discuss the exhibition in the context of Lowe’s overall practice, as well as Gagosian’s recently published monograph on the artist, which was coedited by Roelstraete and features essays by both curators. The event is free with museum admission; reservations are recommended.
Left: Rick Lowe. Photo: Brent Reaney. Middle: Dieter Roelstraete. Photo: Richard Pilnik. Right: Abigail Winograd. Photo: Cara Romero
Book Signing
Setsuko
Into Nature
Thursday, April 25, 2024, 6–8pm
Gagosian, rue de Ponthieu, Paris
To celebrate the publication of her new book, Into Nature, Setsuko will sign copies at Gagosian, Paris, among a special installation of her works. Into Nature commemorates Setsuko’s recent exhibition of the same name at Gagosian, Gstaad, featuring ceramic and bronze sculptures, paintings, and works on paper. In addition to plates, exhibition views, and archival photography, the publication features a foreword by the artist and a text by novelist and poet Shan Sa, who was formerly an assistant to Setsuko. Published by Gagosian, the book will be available for purchase at the event, which is free to attend.
Setsuko: Into Nature (New York: Gagosian, 2024)
Tour
Francesca Woodman
With Lissa McClure and Katarina Jerinic
Friday, April 26, 2024, 10am
Gagosian, 555 West 24th Street, New York
Join Gagosian for a tour of the exhibition Francesca Woodman at Gagosian, New York, led by Lissa McClure and Katarina Jerinic, executive director and collections curator, respectively, at the Woodman Family Foundation. The pair will guide visitors through the presentation of over fifty prints from approximately 1975 through 1980, in which Woodman situated herself and others within dilapidated interiors and ancient architecture to compose her tableaux. Using objects such as chairs and plinths along with architectural elements including doorways, walls, and windows, she staged contrasts with the performative presence of the figures, presenting the body itself as sculpture.
Installation view, Francesca Woodman, Gagosian, 555 West 24th Street, New York, March 13–April 27, 2024. Artwork © Woodman Family Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Owen Conway
In Conversation
How High the Moon
With Stanley Whitney and Cathleen Chaffee
Sunday, April 28, 2024, 2–3pm
Dia Chelsea, New York
printedmatterartbookfairs.org
Join Stanley Whitney and curator Cathleen Chaffee in conversation to celebrate the artist’s new monograph, Stanley Whitney: How High the Moon, published in conjunction with his traveling retrospective, currently on view at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York, through May 26. The pair will discuss the breadth of Whitney’s practice since the early 1970s, his work in relation to his artistic community, and his influences—from the history of art and architecture to quilting, textiles, and jazz. The talk is presented by DelMonico Books as part of Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair 2024 and is free to attend.
Stanley Whitney: How High the Moon (New York: DelMonico Books; Buffalo, New York: Buffalo AKG Art Museum, 2024)
Museum Exhibitions
Opening Today
Janus
April 19–November 24, 2024
Palazzo Diedo, Venice
berggruenarts.org
Janus, appropriately titled after the Roman god of beginnings, is the inaugural exhibition at Palazzo Diedo, a new contemporary arts space in Venice established by Berggruen Arts & Culture. For the exhibition, curated by Mario Codognato, eleven international artists—Urs Fischer, Piero Golia, Carsten Höller, Liu We, Ibrahim Mahama, Mariko Mori, Sterling Ruby, Jim Shaw, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Aya Takano, and Lee Ufan—have conceived site-specific interventions in response to the architecture and original features of the eighteenth-century building designed by the acclaimed Venetian architect Andrea Tirali. The Polaroid Foundation has also contributed a special project that invites the participating artists to create an original work using the Polaroid 20×24, the world’s largest instant camera.
Jim Shaw, The Alexander Romances, 2024 (detail) © Jim Shaw. Photo: Jeff McLane
Opening this Week
Maurizio Cattelan in
With My Eyes
April 20–November 24, 2024
Casa di reclusione femminile Giudecca, Venice
www.labiennale.org
With My Eyes, the Vatican’s exhibition for the Holy See Pavilion in the 60th Biennale di Venezia, is sited within the women’s prison on the island of Giudecca and is dedicated to the theme of human rights and people living on the margins of society. The works on view incorporate the inmates’ participation in a variety of ways: some have provided photographs of themselves as children; some contribute poems for an installation; and others accompany visitors on a tour of the pavilion, alongside guards. Maurizio Cattelan’s contribution consists of a large outdoor artwork on the façade of the prison’s chapel, as well as an editorial feature, created in collaboration with the prisoners, which will be published in a special Biennale-focused issue of L’Osservatore di Strada, a monthly newspaper published by the Vatican.
Maurizio Cattelan, Mother, 1999, performance at the 48th Biennale di Venezia, 1999 © Maurizio Cattelan. Photo: Attilio Maranzano
Opening this Week
Lauren Halsey in
60th Biennale di Venezia: Stranieri Ovunque—Foreigners Everywhere
April 20–November 24, 2024
Giardini and Arsenale, Venice
www.labiennale.org
Stranieri Ovunque—Foreigners Everywhere, curated by Adriano Pedrosa for the 60th Biennale di Venezia, takes its title from a series of neon sculptures by the artist collective Claire Fontaine that depict the words “Foreigners Everywhere” in different colors and languages. The phrase comes from the Turin collective Stranieri Ovunque, which fought racism and xenophobia in Italy in the early 2000s. Stranieri Ovunque—Foreigners Everywhere focuses on artists who are themselves “foreigners” and on the production of other related subjects: the queer artist, who has moved within sexualities and genders; the outsider artist, located at the margins of the art world; as well as the indigenous artist, frequently treated as a foreigner in their own land. Work by Lauren Halsey is included.
Lauren Halsey, keepers of the krown, 2024, installation view, Gaggiandre, Arsenale, 60th Biennale di Venezia, Venice © Lauren Halsey. Photo: Andrea Avezzù
Opening this Week
Ewa Juszkiewicz
Locks with Leaves and Swelling Buds
April 20–September 1, 2024
Palazzo Cavanis, Venice
www.palazzocavanis.com
Locks with Leaves and Swelling Buds includes fifteen paintings that Ewa Juszkiewicz produced between 2019 and 2024. Juszkiewicz’s oil portraits of women turn conventions of the genre inside out. Beginning by producing a likeness of a historical European painting—her sources date from the Renaissance through the nineteenth century—she expertly imitates the original’s technique and style but replaces the subject’s face with a surreal or grotesque distortion. Curated by Guillermo Solana Díez, artistic director of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, this exhibition is a Collateral Event of the 60th Biennale di Venezia and is organized by Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso.
Ewa Juszkiewicz, In a Shady Valley, Near a Running Water (after François Gérard), 2023 © Ewa Juszkiewicz