Forthcoming Exhibitions in Zurich, Autumn 2022
Press Release
EVA HESSE. Forms & Figures
Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Bahnhofstrasse 1
16 September – 19 November 2022
An icon of American art, Eva Hesse (1936 – 1970) produced a prodigious body of work in the 1960s that collapsed disciplinary boundaries and forged innovative approaches to materials, forms and processes. She cultivated mistakes and surprises, precariousness and enigma, in an effort to make works that could transcend literal associations. From 16 September, Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Bahnhofstrasse 1 will present two distinct bodies of work from Hesse’s oeuvre: a selection of semi-figurative ‘Spectre’ paintings from 1960 and a series of ‘Studioworks’ – small, experimental sculptural works from 1969. Trained in American abstract painting, Hesse increasingly experimented with industrial materials and everyday found objects. After a residency in Germany from 1964 – 1965, she returned to the United States and began making sculptural works. Through the two bodies of work on view, the exhibition reveals the artist’s intense studio practice and her transition from painting to sculpture. The exhibition at Hauser & Wirth coincides with ‘Eva Hesse: Expanded Expansion’ at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, closing on 17 October 2022.
Erna Rosenstein
Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse
2 September – 19 November 2022
Beginning 2 September, Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse will present an exhibition of works by one of the foremost figures of the Polish avant-garde, Erna Rosenstein (1913 – 2004). The exhibition will mark the first solo presentation of the artist’s work in Switzerland and her second outside of Poland. This insightful introduction to Rosenstein aims to present an overview of her practice from the 1950s until the 1990s across painting, assemblage, sculpture and drawings. Since 2019, Hauser & Wirth has represented the Estate of Erna Rosenstein in collaboration with Foksal Gallery Foundation in Warsaw, Poland.
Rosenstein’s wartime survival, commitment to Surrealism and lifelong adherence to leftist ideologies course through a remarkable array of artistic mediums, as well as poems, diaristic writings and deceptively whimsical children’s stories. Steeped in an extraordinary personal history and responding to traumas suffered in the Holocaust and the postwar sociopolitical upheaval of her native country, the art of Erna Rosenstein defies simple classification. Her six-decade long career was fuelled by the formation of pre-war artistic, intellectual and political affiliations, and is expressed through her continued oscillation between autobiographical figuration and biomorphic abstraction. Grappling with themes of memory, trauma, longing and loss, she used paint, ink and found materials to suggest a world tinged with allegory, enchantment and fairy tale.
Richard Jackson
Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse
2 September – 23 December 2022
A pre-eminent figure in American contemporary art since the 1970s, Richard Jackson is influenced by both abstract expressionism and action painting. His work explores a performative painting process that extends the potential of his chosen medium by upending its technical conventions. Returning to Hauser & Wirth Zurich’s gallery on Limmatstrasse this September, Jackson will debut an interactive ‘Shooting Gallery’ (2020), the most recent example of his ‘painting machines’ which will be activated by the artist in the ground floor space. In addition, the exhibition presents a survey of Jackson’s Neon works from the past 30 years, works on paper and a new installation titled ‘1000 Stacked Paintings’ from the artist’s seminal Stacked Paintings series, consisting of one thousand painted canvases that the artist made by hand.
Throughout his career, Richard Jackson (born in Sacramento, California in 1939) has produced site- specific installations that relay a preoccupation with the painting process. The structural aspect of his installations involves a high level of craftsmanship and engineering; however, the final application of paint is generated through an automated process which Jackson calls ‘activation.’ He often equips his ‘painting machines’ with a network of pipes and hoses which, when deployed, cause eruptions of paint that immerse the work and often the surrounding area. Jackson’s aim has always been to stretch the limits of the medium of painting and to challenge its conditions and working methods: ‘It is my idea to try to expand painting, not just in size but to see how far it could be extended or pushed. I don’t feel my work as a criticism of painting but an optimistic view of what it could be. I felt then and I still feel that painting doesn’t need to be an area of art described by the materials that are used (...).’
For additional information, please contact:
Anna-Maria Pfab, Hauser & Wirth, annamariapfab@hauserwirth.com
Maddy Martin, Hauser & Wirth, maddymartin@hauserwirth.com