A three-part transformative exhibition with works by over 60 artists to be unveiled in the course of seven months
This autumn, we will celebrate the 30th anniversary of our Parisian galleries with a transformative exhibition bringing together new and historical works by over 60 artists at our Pantin space. Organized in three parts, the exhibition will be unveiled over the course of seven months. The first part will open on Saturday 14 November, thirty years after we inaugurated our first gallery in Paris in 1990.
At the time, the inaugural exhibition Vertigo curated by Christian Leigh presented to an European audience cutting-edge American art, reflecting the gallery’s focus since its foundation in Salzburg in 1983. Vertigo, a conceptual exhibition comprising works by Peter Halley, Jeff Koons and Sturtevant among others, was described by critic Jerry Saltz as ‘a loss of faith in your own eye, in your own sense of reality’ and charted the course for the gallery’s programme in Paris, which has broadened its scope since.
The last 30 years in Paris have been incredibly inspiring, challenging, rewarding and, most importantly, particularly stimulating for the artists. I feel very privileged to have been working with many great artists, and I am deeply grateful to them for offering us exhibitions that have become legendary. It has been a joy to evolve in a cosmopolitan city that embraces art and culture with an intense and thought-provoking resonance. From the first day in October 1990 when I opened my one-floor gallery in the Marais, I felt embraced and welcomed by a very unique Parisian art world that offered us the ideal ecosystem to present works by a very wide range of artists to a curious, enthusiastic and discerning audience. — Thaddaeus Ropac
Over the last 30 years, the gallery in the Marais has gradually grown to span four floors and was able to introduce many artists such as Adrian Ghenie, Robert Longo, Blinky Palermo, James Rosenquist and Sturtevant to a French audience. In the wake of an increasingly dynamic Parisian art scene, the gallery decided to open a second, large-scale space just outside Paris, in a former boiler factory in Pantin. Inaugurated in 2012 with exhibitions by Anselm Kiefer and Joseph Beuys the space allows for site-specific exhibitions on an expansive scale.
The anniversary exhibition 30 Years in Paris opens a dialogue between artists from different generations, artistic movements and cultural backgrounds, reflecting the development and the diversity of the gallery’s programme.
Historical works by Joseph Beuys, Rosemarie Castoro, VALIE EXPORT, Gilbert & George, Donald Judd, Robert Mapplethorpe, Sigmar Polke, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Sturtevant, Emilio Vedova and Andy Warhol will be shown alongside the most recent paintings, installation and sculptures of Oliver Beer, Jean-Marc Bustamante, Tony Cragg, Jack Pierson and Yan Pei-Ming, among others. Historical installations such as Geburtenbett [Birth Bed] by VALIE EXPORT, first presented in the Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1980, will be installed in dialogue with Lee Bul’s Scale of Tongue, which was presented at the Venice Biennale last year. Both installations will be shown in Paris for the first time.
New works are being created especially for the exhibition – notably by Cory Arcangel, Ali Banisadr, Alvaro Barrington, Georg Baselitz, Adrian Ghenie, Antony Gormley, Alex Katz, Anselm Kiefer, Imi Knoebel, Elizabeth Peyton, Daniel Richter, David Salle, Sean Scully and Erwin Wurm – prefiguring future exhibitions and collaborations.
