Louise Nevelson, McCabe Fine Art, Stockholm - Selected Works - Sculptures and Collages

Louise Nevelson: Selected Works

McCabe Fine Art, Stockholm 

October 12 - November 25, 2017

One of the most important and innovative artists of the twentieth century, LOUISE NEVELSON (1899–1988) redefined modern sculpture and influenced artists of subsequent generations with her avant-garde environmental installations. Her best-known works—found objects such as moldings, dowels, spindles, and furniture scraps assembled into wooden or steel box structures and entirely painted black, gold, or white—defied categorization in the 1950s, but undoubtedly paved the way for what would come to be called “installation art” by the 1970s.  Inspired by Mayan ruins in Guatemala and Mexico, Nevelson’s “boxed-in” works eventually reached monumental proportions. Sky Cathedral, 1958, in the collection of MoMA and Sky Gate New York, 1978, installed at the World Trade Center, but destroyed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001, exemplify the impressive outsized installations she designed for indoor and outdoor spaces around the world. Irrespective of scale, Nevelson’s work continues to have a huge impact. Nearly thirty years after the artist’s death, her masterful use of dense weighty materials to create surprisingly airy studies of volume and light appears as strikingly fresh as ever.

Coinciding with Moderna Museet’s exhibition dedicated to Nevelson’s lesser-known collage oeuvre (September 9, 2017–January 14, 2018), McCabe Fine Art presents a diverse selection of the artist’s late career works.  Five black-painted wooden sculptures made between 1975–76 are prime examples of the artist’s mature style. Nailing and gluing salvaged wooden objects into boxy frames, Louise Nevelson privileges form over function in rhythmic asymmetrical compositions. A final coat of black paint obscures her found materials’ useful origins while creating beautiful tonal contrasts as light and shadow play over the monochromatic three-dimensional surfaces. Like a virtuoso marble carving, Nevelson’s sculptures captivate with their subtle and stark shifts in tone and texture.

Also on view are four mounted collages from the 1970s and 1980s. Heavily influenced by Cubism, Louise Nevelson began making collages in the 1950s. These late-career works mounted on board recall classical European abstraction with their combinations of found objects, paint, cardboard and fabric. In stark contrast to her monochrome sculptures, Nevelson’s collages appear delicate and spirited thanks to whimsical gold flourishes and touches of color. 

MCCABE FINE ART

Artillerigatan 40, 11445 Stockholm

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Robert Mapplethorpe: Icon, McCabe Fine Art, Stockholm

Robert Mapplethorpe: Icon 

McCabe Fine Art, Stockholm 

October 14 - December 14, 2016 

Robert Mapplethorpe is a cultural icon. He began his career taking Polaroids in the 1970s and went on to become one of the twentieth century's most important artists. Well known for his provocative nudes, Mapplethorpe also took sensual photographs of artists, celebrities, friends, lovers, and flowers. The artist’s first commercial exhibition in Sweden features a diverse selection of portraits, landscapes, and still lifes from the 1970s and 1980s. All of the works on view, have been provided by the Mapplethorpe Foundation.

Regardless of whether or not Mapplethorpe’s subjects themselves are icons - as many are, including Grace Jones, Iggy Pop, and Patti Smith, whose portraits are included in this exhibition - his photographs are iconic in the way that they portray people, places, and things in an idealized, spiritual, manner. Always searching for perfection in his subjects (while holding himself to equally high artistic standards), Robert Mapplethorpe strived to maximize the splendor and elegance of the human body and the natural world. Carefully controlling light and shadows, he meticulously staged his subjects to enhance sumptuous textures, ranging from smooth skin and frothy water, to hard marble and soft petals. By cropping his photographs in unexpected ways, he created dynamic compositions that highlight idealized forms.

Mapplethorpe’s passionate fascination with the human body evokes Classical sculpture. His cropped nudes, which focus in on muscular thighs and buttocks, sinewy arms, or perfect breasts, are as powerful, idealized, and fetishistic as Greek Gods and Goddesses. By shooting subjects whose bodies are already chiseled works of art, Robert Mapplethorpe celebrates the human form as the epitome of beauty, strength, and goodness. His nudes are erotic, not exploitative; romantic, not raunchy. Bringing the same precision lighting, framing, and composition to still life subjects that he did to his live models, Robert Mapplethorpe likewise improves upon perfection in the natural world. Through his lens, a single delicate Calla Lily or Orchid bud appears robust, majestic, and everlasting. Instead of capturing fleeting moments, Mapplethorpe’s photographs are imbued with a profound sense of timelessness. This is perhaps why his images - so striking, so thoughtful, so perfect, and so iconic - remain deeply etched in our collective memory, nearly thirty years after the artist’s death.

MCCABE FINE ART

Artillerigatan 40, 11445 Stockholm

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Georg Baselitz: Black Out Paintings at McCabe Fine Art, Stockholm

Georg Baselitz

Black Out Paintings

McCabe Fine Art, Stockholm

September 2 - November 28, 2015

McCabe Fine Art presents its first exhibition of work by German artist GEORG BASELITZ. Having gained notoriety and critical attention in the 1960s, Georg Baselitz (b. 1938) is among the most successful artists to come out of Germany. Influenced by folk art as well as German Expressionism, Georg Baselitz incorporates elements of both styles into a unique blend of figuration and abstraction. His Neo-Expressionist paintings, which often depict discombobulated or upside down figures, reflect complex and disorienting themes surrounding German identity in the post-World War II era. In particular, Baselitz himself is concerned with what it means to be a contemporary German artist.

The paintings  on view at McCabe Fine Art are from Baselitz’s “Collusion” series (“Verdunkelung,” in German), which the artist began in 2008. The title of this series refers to the wartime practice of blacking out windows as a means of protection against enemy airstrikes. In each painting a sketchy white figure appears frail and ghostlike against a dark murky background. Drips and splatters of runny white paint erupt from these male nudes, recalling one of Baselitz’s earliest and most well-known paintings: The Big Night Down the Drain (1962/63.) When exhibited as part of the artist’s first solo show, this seminal work depicting a topless man holding his disproportionately large penis in his hand was deemed obscene. The painting was confiscated by the authorities, and Georg Baselitz and his two dealers were fined. Typical of Baselitz’s oeuvre, which includes paintings, sculptures and prints, the “Collusion” paintings conflate history (most often, as in this case, the darkness, despair, and vileness of World War II) with a reference to his own personal history.

Given Baselitz’s strong connections to Nordic art and artists, it is important that a solo exhibition of his work is being held in Stockholm. Baselitz’s subject matter, which features soldiers, forests, woodsman and animals, relates directly to traditional Nordic painting. Specifically, several late 19th century/early 20th century Nordic painters have had a great influence on the German artist. Foremost is Edvard Munch (1863–1944), Baselitz’s great appreciation for whom is evidenced in his expressionistic style and haunting treatment of psychological themes. Baselitz’s deep fascination with Munch has even manifested itself in the form of several portraits. In addition, Swedish artists from the same generation such as Carl Fredrik Hill (1849– 1911), Ernst Josephson (1851–1906), and August Strindberg (1849–1912) are important references for Georg Baselitz. Since the beginning of his career Georg Baselitz has returned again and again to paintings by Scandinavian artists for inspiration.

GEORG BASELITZ

Georg Baselitz lives and work in Germany. Major retrospectives of his work have been held worldwide, including at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (1983; traveled to Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and Kunsthalle Basel); Centre Pompidou, Paris (1993); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1995; traveled to Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, and Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin); Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1996); and Royal Academy of Arts, London (2007). Georg Baselitz has represented Germany at the Venice Biennale (1980) and participated in Documenta 7 in Kassel, Germany (1982). Eight new large-scale works by Georg Baselitz, which comprise his series titled Fällt von der Wand nicht (Doesn't Fall From the Wall), are exhibited at the Arsenale at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015). He is also a professor at the Hochschule der Kunste art academy in Berlin.

MCCABE FINE ART

Artillerigatan 40, 11445 Stockholm

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Damien Hirst: The Psalms, McCabe Fine Art, Stockholm

Damien Hirst: The Psalms

McCabe Fine Art, Stockholm 

August 29 - October 22, 2014

McCabe Fine Art presents the British artist DAMIEN HIRST’s first solo exhibition in Sweden. Known for producing art that breaks boundaries and explores the relationships between art, science, religion, death and beauty, Hirst has developed a wide-ranging artistic practice that includes installation, sculpture, painting and drawing. In the twenty-six years since he emerged as a leading member of the Young British Artists (YBA) movement with ‘Freeze’, the seminal exhibition curated by Damien Hirst in 1988, the artist has risen to international fame with iconic works that include the shark suspended in formaldehyde (The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991) and the diamond-encrusted skull (For the Love of God, 2007). Painting has also remained an important aspect of Hirst’s practice with prolific series including the ‘Spot Paintings’, ‘Spin Paintings’ and the ‘Kaleidoscopes’; in which vibrantly colored butterfly wings are arranged in intricate patterns and stuck into household gloss paint.

In 2008 Damien Hirst created a series of one hundred and fifty ‘Psalm’ paintings, each named after an Old Testament psalm. The works on display at McCabe Fine Art are the most significant selection of ‘Psalms’ ever to have been exhibited together. As part of Hirst’s ‘Kaleidoscope’ series, these striking pieces touch on all religions and offer a variety of readings that range from the specific to the universal. The symbolism referenced in the ‘Psalms’ evokes both spirituality and the butterfly’s natural metamorphosis. They allude to both Christian iconography, and stained glass church windows, whilst also seeming to possess the meditative abstract patterns of Hindu and Buddhist mandalas.

Damien Hirst attributes his long-term fascination with the butterfly to their universal appeal, once stating: “I think rather than be personal you have to find universal triggers: everyone’s frightened of glass, everyone’s frightened of sharks, everyone loves butterflies.” The patterns of wings can’t help but celebrate the aesthetic and lyrical splendor of life. As with much of Hirst’s work, the ‘Psalms’ also have a darker, more complex meaning. Deceptively hopeful and bright, these paintings hover between life and death. Although undeniably dazzling manifestations of the natural world, each also constitutes a somber memento mori. Damien Hirst thus raises the question of whether his chosen imagery should be considered to represent that which is beautiful, poignant and uplifting or perhaps merely acts as a reminder that all existence, while it may be beautiful, is ultimately fleeting and fragile.

A fully-illustrated book of the complete ‘Psalm’ paintings is to be published by Other Criteria.

DAMIEN HIRST - BIOGRAPHY

Damien Hirst was born in 1965 in Bristol and grew up in Leeds. In 1984 he moved to London, where he worked in construction before studying for a BA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths college from 1986 to 1989. Whilst in his second year, he conceived and curated a group exhibition entitled ‘Freeze’. The show is commonly acknowledged to have been the launching point not only for Hirst, but for a generation of British artists.

Since the late 1980s, Damien Hirst has used a varied practice of installation, sculpture, painting and drawing to explore the complex relationship between art, life and death, explaining: “Art’s about life and it can’t really be about anything else … there isn’t anything else.” Through his work, he investigates and challenges contemporary belief systems, and dissects the uncertainties at the heart of human experience.

Since 1987, over 80 solo Damien Hirst exhibitions have taken place worldwide and his work has been included in over 260 group shows. Hirst’s solo exhibitions include Qatar Museums Authority, ALRIWAQ Doha (2013–2014); Tate Modern, London (2012); Palazzo Vecchio, Florence (2010); Oceanographic Museum, Monaco (2010); The Wallace Collection, London (2009–2010); Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague (2009); Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (2008); Astrup Fearnley Museet fur Moderne Kunst, Oslo (2005); and Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples (2004). He was awarded the Turner Prize in 1995. The artist currently lives and works in Gloucester, Devon and London.

MCCABE FINE ART

Artillerigatan 40, 11445 Stockholm

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Alighiero Boetti at McCabe Fine Art, Stockholm

Alighiero Boetti: Selected Works

McCabe Fine Art, Stockholm 

April 3 - May 21, 2014

Born in Turin, ALIGHIERO BOETTI (1940–1994) was introduced to the art world in the mid-1960s as part of the Italian Arte Povera movement. However, his artistic legacy extends far beyond this early association. Deliberately distancing himself from the group that helped establish his reputation, Alighiero Boetti began to explore various ways of working collaboratively in the 1970s. Realizing artworks in association with collaborators - ranging from artisan embroiderers in Afghanistan for his well-known “Mappa” series (1971 - 1994) to the Italian postal system (Postal Dossier, 1970 - 1974) - Alighiero Boetti came into his own by cultivating diverse creative activities that challenged the notion of the artist as a lone creator working in a singular style. Further complicating notions of authorship concerning artworks that bare Boetti’s signature, the artist also devised complex systems whose rules and restrictions would predetermine, to a certain extent, the outcome of his work. Relishing the uncontrollable results - or felici coincidenze (happy accidents), as the artist himself referred to them - that resulted from outsourcing production or imposing a strict systematic structure, Alighiero Boetti developed a visually varied oeuvre that is unified by the coexistence of logic and randomness. Bringing together four works from the 1980s, the current exhibition at McCabe Fine Art highlights examples from some of Boetti’s most important collaborative series.

As early as the 1960s, Alighiero Boetti began making works using fabric printed with a mimetico (camouflage) motif, notably pre-dating Warhol’s famous “Camouflage” self-portrait series of the mid-1980s by two decades. Strongly influenced by Marcel Duchamp, Boetti took this ready-made abstraction and presented it as a painting, mounting the fabric on a stretcher-like canvas. Looking at Mimetico, 1981, with its orderly and repetitive all-over green and brown patterning, it is easy to see why the mass-produced methodical design would have interested Boetti both conceptually and aesthetically.

From the mid-1970s onward, Boetti’s colorful mosaic-like “word squares” would expand into one of the artist’s most iconic system-based series. Organizing uppercase block letters into gridded squares, Alighiero Boetti spells out words, typically idiomatic expressions like “Silence is golden” or “Give time to time” in Italian. Three examples of such works are included in the present exhibition. Gian Tomaso Liverani, 1980, a delicate mixed-media work on paper is the loosest of the three and is titled for the owner of Rome’s La Salita gallery. Here the gallerist’s name is written twice across a 6 x 6 grid, legible reading downward from the upper left corner and again reading upwards (and backwards) from the lower right corner. A group of monkeys, whose whimsical presence and random configuration contrasts with the strict orderliness of Boetti’s word square, exemplifies the artist’s interest in the coexistence of order and disorder. The monkeys also foreshadow the site-specific installation Boetti made for the 1990 Venice Biennale, which featured a variety of animals (including monkeys) in frieze form. An untitled embroidered work from 1988 features Boetti’s typical square grid of rainbow block letter. An example of the artist’s “Arazzi Grandi” (large tapestries), whose format is based on a grid of 25 x 25 square-bound letters, the artist here plays with his own conventions by breaking down the main square into smaller square sections using a black and white cross (comprised of black and white block letters) to divide the otherwise colorful composition into four equal 10 x 10 word squares. Alternandosi e Dividendosi, 1989, another embroidered work, mixes the Roman alphabet and Farsi script in a nod to the Afghan craftswomen who made this and many other arrazi according to Boetti’s designs. The words “alternandosi” (alternating) and “dividendosi” (dividing) are legible starting from the upper left corner. As the title suggests, each Roman block letter alternates with a Farsi character therefore dividing the grid between Italian and Farsi.

Similar to the spirit of collectivity behind Warhol’s factory, Boetti’s practices of appropriating ready-made materials, employing artisanal expertise, and imposing a systematic structure to create his works all served to integrate the artist’s creativity with the skills and means of others. What sets Boetti’s works apart, however, is that each one calls upon the viewer to assume the role of a final collaborator. Assuming his audience’s active participation, Alighiero Boetti relies on us to play his games and decipher his codes.

MCCABE FINE ART

Artillerigatan 40, 11445 Stockholm

www.mccabefineart.com

Yoshitomo Nara, McCabe Fine Art, Stockholm - A Selection of 90’s Paintings and Works on Paper

Yoshitomo Nara 

A Selection of 90’s Paintings and Works on Paper 

McCabe Fine Art, Stockholm 

February 20 - March 29, 2014

McCabe Fine Art  presents a selection of early works by YOSHITOMO NARA. Influenced by both Japanese manga and American comic books, Yoshitomo Nara is best known for his cartoonish paintings and sculptures of children and dogs. In addition to revealing primitive versions of several of these now-iconic characters—including devilish babies, floppy-eared puppies, and lonely children—the eleven drawings and two paintings brought together here, show Nara working in a surprising loose and raw style. Dating primarily from student days at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf (1989-1993), these works describe an important nascent stage in Nara’s artistic development.

More energetic and spontaneous than his mature work, Yoshitomo Nara's early drawings are also more overtly narrative. Featuring colorful combinations of acrylic, pen, and colored pencil, the drawings often combine multiple figures, text, and scenic elements within a single composition.  Scenes such as a man swimming, airplanes flying above a city, and a boy visiting several dogs, are annotated with roughly scrawled captions or thought bubbles. Rendered unceremoniously and economically (frequently on sheets of lined notebook paper), these deceptively childlike renderings represent the unfiltered reflections of an artist on the brink of establishing his mature style. As proof, two paintings made just a few years after the drawings (There Is No Place Like Home, 1995, and Links Rum, 1999), show Yoshitomo  Nara already moving towards the stark compositions focused on individual characters with few or no narrative clues that characterize his later, much celebrated, works. The sleepy-eyed white dog in Links Rum is a particularly important harbinger of what has become one of Nara’s most important signature characters.

MCCABE FINE ART

Artillerigatan 40, 11445 Stockholm

www.mccabefineart.com