Press Release

Forthcoming Exhibitions in Switzerland
​Spring / Summer 2025
​​
​Solo shows by Meret Oppenheim, Ed Clark, Pat Steir and the first joint exhibition of works by Mark Rothko & Robert Ryman.

Meret Oppenheim
​Hauser & Wirth Basel
​5 June – 19 July 2025

An artist of powerful originality and singular vision, German-born, Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim (1913–1985) remains one of the most dynamic figures of 20th Century art. In an upcoming exhibition at Hauser & Wirth in Basel, works from the 1930s until the 1970s will be on view, showcasing Oppenheim’s wide-ranging and boundary-breaking practice across painting, drawing, sculpture and design. Despite being affiliated with some of the most influential art movements of the 20th Century, including Surrealism and Dada, Oppenheim defied categorization. Infused with humor and an attitude of profound intellectual independence, her works critically explored themes of identity and sexuality which still hold relevance today. Curated in close collaboration with Josef Helfenstein, curator and art historian, the exhibition features rarely exhibited works from the artist’s oeuvre.

Ed Clark. Paint is the Subject
​Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse
​13 June – 13 September 2025

This June, Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse presents ‘Ed Clark. Paint is the Subject,’ the first solo exhibition in Switzerland dedicated to this pioneering American abstractionist. Curated by Tanya Barson in close collaboration with the artist’s estate, the exhibition brings together key works spanning seven decades, offering a comprehensive overview of Clark’s groundbreaking practice. The exhibition will feature a broad selection of his signature dynamic large-scale paintings and works on paper, as well as early works and an example of his use of the shaped canvas. The presentation will be complemented by archival photographs and documents that provide biographical and historical context, tracing the evolution of his innovative approach and lasting impact on modern painting.

Pat Steir
​Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse
​13 June – 13 September 2025

Renowned for a pioneering approach to painting that synthesizes conceptual art, figuration and abstraction, celebrated New York-based artist Pat Steir unveils a suite of new paintings for her upcoming exhibition at Hauser & Wirth in Zurich, her first solo exhibition with the gallery in Europe. Opening during Zurich Art Weekend, the exhibition precedes Steir’s solo presentation opening at Hauser & Wirth’s location on Wooster Street in New York on 9 July.

Among the great innovators of contemporary painting, Steir first came to prominence in the late 1970s and early 1980s for her iconographic canvases and immersive wall drawings. By the late 1980s, her inventive approach to painting—the rigorous pouring technique seen in her Waterfall works—attracted substantial critical acclaim. The new works in Zurich extend and expand upon Steir’s ongoing Waterfall series, wherein she intentionally cedes control and allows paint to create its own image via the artist’s signature technique of streaming and layering upon a background of gridded chalk lines. The resulting expressive quality of the paintings, which range in scale and vivid hues, underline Steir’s position as one of the most enduringly original contemporary painters whose conceptual practice transcends the divide between figuration and abstraction.

The exhibition anticipates the release of a new artist monograph from Hauser & Wirth Publishers, ‘Pat Steir: Paintings,’ charting the artist’s work from 2018 to the present. A newly commissioned text by award-winning writer Colm Tóibín further illuminates the artist’s work.

‘Just There’
​Rothko Ryman
​Curated by Dieter Schwarz
​Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Bahnhofstrasse
​12 June – 13 September 2025

For the first time, works by Mark Rothko (1903 – 1970) and Robert Ryman (1930 – 2019) meet directly in a two-person exhibition, opening up new perspectives on the artistic interaction between two American greats of 20th-century painting. On view at Hauser & Wirth’s gallery on Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich, this exhibition brings together important works by Rothko from the 1950s and 1960s and by Ryman from the late 1950s to the 1990s. Rothko and Ryman represent two generations of American abstract painters that briefly coincided around 1960; Rothko was then at the height of his fame, Ryman an aspiring painter. Beyond this brief overlap in time, they are deeply connected by the great visual quality of their paintings, a selection of which can be seen in the exhibition. ​

Press contacts:
​Maddy Martin, maddymartin@hauserwirth.com, +44 7585 979 564
​Kristin Brüggemann, kristinbrueggemann@hauserwirth.com, +41 79 269 34 48

Copyright and Courtesy Credits

Meret Oppenheim in the 1980s in Paris, wearing a paper coat designed in 1967 and a pair of glasses designed in 1976. ​
​Photo: Claude Lê-Anh, Paris
​​
​Meret Oppenheim
​

Meret Oppenheim ​ ​
​Eichhörnchen (Squirrel)
​1970
​Beer mug, plastic foam and fur
​23 x 17 x 12 cm / 9 x 6 3/4 x 4 3/4 in
​© 2025, ProLitteris, Zurich
​Photo: Jon Etter

Ed Clark ​
​Untitled ​ ​
​ca 1990s ​
​Acrylic on canvas ​ ​
​139.1 x 179.1 cm / 54 3/4 x 70 1/2 in ​ ​
​© The Estate of Ed Clark ​
​Courtesy the Estate and Hauser & Wirth
​Photo: Sarah Muehlbauer

Ed Clark in his studio, early 2000s
​© The Estate of Ed Clark
​Courtesy the Estate and Hauser & Wirth

Pat Steir
​Red with Orange, Green, and Purple Brushstrokes
​2024-2025
​Oil on canvas
​182.9 x 121.9 cm / 72 x 48 in
​© Pat Steir
​Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
​Photo: Elisabeth Bernstein

Pat Steir
​Photo by: Grace Roselli, Pandora‘s BoxX Project
​​
​Mark Rothko ​
​No. 14 ​
​1963 ​
​Oil on canvas ​
​175.3 x 127 cm / 69 x 50 in ​
​© 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / 2025, ProLitteris, Zurich ​
​Sammlung Siegfried und Jutta Weishaupt

Robert Ryman ​
​Untitled ​
​1959 ​
​Oil on stretched cotton canvas ​
​88.3 x 112 cm / 34 3/4 x 44 1/8 in
​© 2025, ProLitteris, Zurich ​
​Photo: Jon Etter

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