2016.03.10 Thu, by
DOMINIQUE LÉVY
ART BASEL HONG KONG

MARCH 24 – 26, 2016 BOOTH 1C15

Dominique Lévy  is pleased to participate in Art Basel Hong Kong with a booth that bridges parallel movements in Europe, America, and Asia and explores global tendencies in modern and contemporary art. Featuring works by Enrico Castellani, Chung Sang-Hwa, Kazuo Shiraga, Pierre Soulages, Frank Stella, and Cy Twombly, as well as Tsuyoshi Maekawa, Rudolf Stingel, and Lee Ufan, Dominique Lévy’s booth weaves a cross-cultural narrative, placing together a diverse group of artists in dialogue in their sensibility and approach to the language of abstraction. Many of these artists travelled extensively throughout their careers and drew inspiration from the aesthetic and cultural traditions of foreign nations. For others, overseas scholars and curators provided a platform for international recognition. In exhibiting a wide variety of artists working in the mid-twentieth century, Dominique Lévy’s booth will examine the various concerns and tendencies that arose throughout the world, variegated by individual artists’ sociopolitical backgrounds and commitments, in the postwar generation. Korean painter Chung Sang-Hwa,whose Untitled 83-12-15 (1983) is included in the booth, sustained a career-long investigation into the monochrome format. Chung moved to Paris in the 1960s to study Western art and settled in Japan in the 1970s. During that time, he became associated with the Korean Tansaekhwa movement, which incorporated the notion of spiritual and aesthetic ‘oneness’ through the use of the monochrome (Tansaekhwa literally translates as ‘one colour’). During the 1970s, Chung developed his ‘rip and fill’ technique, a repetitive, detailed, and deeply meditative process by which the canvas is covered in kaolin clay, scored with a grid, and individual squares are removed. The artist then fills the exposed areas in acrylic, often with several layers of paint. Chung has continued to employ this highly disciplined artistic method for over forty years, creating a sustained body of work reflecting on the notions of temporality and universality. Dominique Lévy New York is organising a joint exhibition of Chung’s works with Green Naftali from May to August 2016. Also included in the booth will be Lee Ufan, another prominent member of the Tansaekhwa school, whose work focuses on the subtleties of and variations between negative and positive space, exemplified in the work on view, From Line (1979).

Chung Sang-Hwa, Untitled 83-12-15, 1983. Acrylic on canvas. 31 1/2 x 25 5/8 inches (80 x 65 cm). © 2016 Chung Sang-Hwa.

Chung Sang-Hwa, Untitled 83-12-15, 1983. Acrylic on canvas. 31 1/2 x 25 5/8 inches (80 x 65 cm). © 2016 Chung Sang-Hwa.

Enrico Castellani will also be represented in the gallery’s booth with Superficie argento (2008), one of the artist’s iconic monochrome shaped canvases. Comprising geometric patterns of protrusions and depressions created by a framework of nails, Castellani’s Superfici (Surfaces) explore and manipulate the movement of light across the canvas and evoke the infinite. Although Castellani has stressed the importance of the colour silver in his oeuvre, he has created few works in this hue. In the late 1950s, Castellani co- founded the gallery Azimut and related journal Azimuth with Piero Manzoni, and also formed part of the ZERO network with Klein and Günther Uecker among other artists. Concurrent with Art Basel Hong Kong, Dominique Lévy Gallery will present the first solo exhibition by the artist in London (February – March 2016). Castellani is the first Italian artist to win the Praemium Imperiale awarded by the Emperor of Japan.

Enrico Castellani, Superficie argento, 2008. Acrylic on canvas. 47 1/4 x 59 inches (120 x 150 cm). © DACS 2016. Courtesy Fondazione Enrico Castellani.

Enrico Castellani, Superficie argento, 2008. Acrylic on canvas. 47 1/4 x 59 inches (120 x 150 cm). © DACS 2016. Courtesy Fondazione Enrico Castellani.

Another highlight of the booth is Pierre Soulages’ Peinture 202 x 143 cm, 14 aout 2015. As a young artist in the 1950s, Soulages was close with Zao Wou-Ki, who had just moved from China to Paris. Together they travelled to the United States and to Asia, where Soulages was struck by the grace of traditional calligraphy. From his early paintings composed of black bars on a light ground, Soulages has continued to explore the effect of thick, gestural black paint on its surrounding light. Dominique Lévy held an exhibition of Soulages’ recent work from April to June 2014, which coincided with the opening of the Musée Soulages in Rodez, France. In 2001, Soulages became the first living artist to have an exhibition at the State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg. The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris held a retrospective of the artist’s work from October 2009 to March 2010.

Pierre Soulages, Peinture 202 x 143 cm, 14 aout 2015, 2015. Acrylic on canvas. 79 1/2 x 56 1/4 inches (202 x 143 cm). © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2016.

Pierre Soulages, Peinture 202 x 143 cm, 14 aout 2015, 2015. Acrylic on canvas. 79 1/2 x 56 1/4 inches (202 x 143 cm). © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2016.

Frank Stella, who was recently the subject of a major retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, similarly attempts to pare painting down to its essentials, instigating an exploration of the canvas as an object. Stella is represented in the booth with Study for Princess of Wales Theater, Toronto, III (1992). This monumental work, created through computer technology, depicts a mural design for the Canadian theatre. A trailblazer for Minimalism in the late 1950s, Stella’s career is marked by constant innovation, and the 1990s were a period of increased productivity which saw the artist take on numerous large-scale commissions. An exhibition of Stella’s recent sculpture was on view at Leeahn Gallery in Seoul from November 2015 until January 2016.

Frank Stella, Study for Princess of Wales Theater, Toronto, III, 1992. Mixed medium on canvas. 137 x 60 x 2 1/2 inches (348 x 152.4 x 6.4 cm). © Frank Stella. ARS, NY and DACS, London 2016.

Frank Stella, Study for Princess of Wales Theater, Toronto, III, 1992. Mixed medium on canvas. 137 x 60 x 2 1/2 inches (348 x 152.4 x 6.4 cm). © Frank Stella. ARS, NY and DACS, London 2016.

Another artist who investigates the implications of abstraction is Gerhard Richter, whose seminal Colour Chart painting Fünfzehn Farben (Fifteen Colours) will be exhibited on Dominique Lévy’s stand. This large-scale work originates in the first output of Colour Charts from 1966, which marked a radical break from Richter’s previous photorealistic paintings. The series was inspired by a simple paint sample card from a department store and combined ideas found in three prevalent movements, Pop art, Conceptual art, and Minimalism. Dominique Lévy reunited nine of the original nineteen works from this cycle for the first time in fifty years in an exhibition held in London from October 2015 to January 2016. In February 2016, the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden opened an exhibition of Richter’s abstract paintings.

Gerhard Richter, Fünfzehn Farben (Fifteen Colours), 1966/1996. Enamel on canvas. 78 x 51 1/8 inches (200 x 130 cm). © Gerhard Richter, 2016.

Gerhard Richter, Fünfzehn Farben (Fifteen Colours), 1966/1996. Enamel on canvas. 78 x 51 1/8 inches (200 x 130 cm). © Gerhard Richter, 2016.

Kazuo Shiraga’s vivid foot painting No. 37 (T45) (1962) will also be on display in Dominique Lévy’s booth. Shiraga was a prominent member of Gutai, the Japanese avant-garde collective whose leader, Jiro Yoshihara, encouraged his followers to ‘make something that never existed’ through performative, material-driven work. Shiraga captured the attention of European critics and scholars through the group’s internationally distributed eponymous journal, and his first ever solo exhibition was in fact held not in his native Japan but at Galerie Stadler, Paris, in 1962. From January to April 2015, Dominique Lévy New York held an exhibition of Shiraga’s paintings juxtaposed with ceramic sculptures by Satoru Hoshino (Body and Matter: The Art of Kazuo Shiraga and Satoru Hoshino), and accompanying this exhibition, published a large-scale monograph on Shiraga.

Kazuo Shiraga, No. 37 (T45), 1962. Oil on canvas. 35 x 45 5/8 inches (89 x 116 cm). © Kazuo Shiraga, Courtesy Hisao Shiraga.

Kazuo Shiraga, No. 37 (T45), 1962. Oil on canvas. 35 x 45 5/8 inches (89 x 116 cm). © Kazuo Shiraga, Courtesy Hisao Shiraga.