Lévy Gorvy Dayan at Art Basel 2025
Messe Basel, Booth E12
June 17 – 22, 2025
Pointedness (detail), 1964/66
Acrylic sphere on engraved acrylic pedestal,
sphere diameter: 2⅝ inches (6.6 cm),
pedestal: 56⁵⁄₁₆ × 10½ × 10 inches
(143 × 26.6 × 25.4 cm)
Edition 1 of 3, with 2 AP
Image courtesy of Lévy Gorvy Dayan
Water Piece (Painting to Be Watered) (detail), 1962/66
Sponge, eyedropper, and water in glass vial
on engraved acrylic pedestal, element dimensions variable,
pedestal: 23½ × 23½ × 23½ inches (59.7 × 59.7 × 59.7 cm)
Edition 1 of 3, with 2 AP
Image courtesy of Lévy Gorvy Dayan
Forget It (detail), 1966
Stainless steel needle on engraved acrylic pedestal,
needle height: 3⅛ inches (8 cm),
pedestal: 49¹³⁄₁₆ × 12 × 12 inches
(126.5 × 30.5 × 30.5 cm)
Edition 1 of 3, with 2 AP
Image courtesy of Lévy Gorvy Dayan
Lévy Gorvy Dayan (Booth E12) presents three significant early works by Yoko Ono in its salon installation of singular modern and contemporary painting and sculpture at Art Basel.
Yoko Ono’s Pointedness (1964/66), Forget It (1966), and Water Piece (Painting to Be Watered) (1962/66) each debuted in her critically important solo presentation Yoko at Indica: Unfinished Paintings and Objects, Indica Gallery, London, 1966—the exhibition that also occasioned the artist first meeting John Lennon. Vehicles for ideas, Yoko Ono referred to these sculptures as “conceptual objects.” Incorporating readymades and encouraging physical and mental participation by the viewer, the works demonstrated an evolution of her Instruction Paintings of 1960 and 1961 and later Instructions for Paintings, which began in 1962 and represented the instruction itself as the artwork—divorcing concept from canvas, a development that anticipated conceptual art. Ono further advanced her project in 1964 when she published the influential book of her instructions Grapefruit.
Ono composed her “conceptual objects” utilizing translucent acrylic Plexiglas for pedestals that were engraved with her instruction texts—and presented modified readymade objects that recalled, in part, the work of Duchamp. Featured in the consequential white and transparent installation at Indica Gallery, the present sculptures invite consideration of the nature of absence and presence, visibility and invisibility, language and action. Tracing the evolution of Ono’s practice and object-making, Water Piece (Painting to Be Watered), for example, relates to her earlier Waterdrop Painting (1961) that asked the audience to drip water onto a piece of canvas on the floor. It also connects to her instruction published in Grapefruit: “Painting to be watered / Water every day. / 1962 summer.” The instruction “water every day” is here inscribed on the acrylic pedestal and the viewer is invited to wet the sponge with the eyedropper—an action that is infinitely repeatable as the water will evaporate. The participatory and imaginative sculptures illustrate how Ono’s practices in music, poetry, painting, and performance informed these culminating works.
Peinture 162 × 130 cm, 6 octobre 1963
Oil on canvas,
Work: 63¾ × 51³⁄₁₆ inches (162 × 130 cm)
Framed: 69¾ × 56¹⁵⁄₁₆ inches (177.1 × 144.7 cm)
Image courtesy of Lévy Gorvy Dayan
Doppel Spirale, 2019
Paint and nails on canvas on board
78¹³⁄₁₆ × 63¹⁄₁₆ inches (200.2 × 160.2 cm)
Image courtesy of Lévy Gorvy Dayan
Crystal No. 1, 2025
Bronze
37¹³⁄₁₆ × 18⅛ × 25³⁄₁₆ inches (96 × 46 × 64 cm)
Edition of 3, with 2 AP
Image courtesy of Lévy Gorvy Dayan
The booth will also feature a notable canvas in black, blue, and white oil by Pierre Soulages—Peinture 162 x 130 cm, 6 octobre 1963—that was first exhibited at the eminent Kootz Gallery, New York, in the artist’s 1964 solo presentation. Günther Uecker’s large-scale nail painting Doppel Spirale (2019) portrays two circular clusters of nails rhythmically undulating across the surface of the composition. A new sculptural work by Thomas Houseago, Crystal No. 1 (2025) will present an abstract female form in bronze from the artist’s series of metal plate constructions, which he initiated in 2018. The booth will additionally showcase a selection of Michelangelo Pistoletto’s recent Color and Light (2024) works in a vibrant array of hues, which reflect his lifelong use and exploration of the mirror in his oeuvre.
LÉVY GORVY DAYAN
