International galleries bid high

Two weeks later, at Paris+, it will showcase a panel of its artists. These range from Joël Andrianomearisoa – who just joined the gallery and will also exhibit a sculpture specially created for the fair in the off-site programme of the event at Les Tuileries – to Tom Wesselman. The gallery represents Wesselman’s succession with a magnificent piece from 1999, Still Life with Odalisque and Seascape Painting (between 850,000 and 900,000 dollars, or approximately 850,000 euros). Galleria Continua (San Gimignano, São Paulo, Beijing, La Havane, Boissy-le-Châtel, Paris, Rome and Dubai) will showcase the French artist Eva Jospin this year with an emblematic Forêt in sculpted cardboard (between €65,000 and 80,000). The gallery’s booth is recognisable, as usual, for the spectacular presence of a mural sculpture by Anish Kapoor, and for that of a work by Michelangelo Pistoletto, this time in the form of a diptych with a gilded frame (Color and Light, 2023, available for approximately €315,000).

Gagosian (New York, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Hong Kong, Paris, Athens, Rome, and elsewhere) is involved in the installation of the monumental aluminium sculpture by Urs Fischer on Place Vendôme (Wave, 2018). At its booth within the ephemeral Grand Palais, the dealer will grant a space to Carol Bove for the first time. Hauser & Wirth (Zurich, Gstaad, Saint-Moritz, London, Somerset, Los Angeles, New York City, Hong Kong, Monaco, Menorca and Paris) will inaugurate its Parisian branch at a private townhouse on Rue François 1er on the weekend before the opening of the fair and will show a recent work by George Condo (Female Portrait Composition, 2023), available for more than 2 million euros. The most prominent pieces shown by Thaddaeus Ropac are the works of Yan Pei-Ming, Antony Gormley, and Martha Jungwirth. Two pieces by Robert Rauschenberg are also on display at the booth, including a screen print on copper priced at 1.7 million dollars (Copperhead-Bite IV / ROCI CHILE, 1985). Tornabuoni (Paris, Florence, Crans, Milan, and elsewhere) pursues its exploration of the artistic panorama of post-war Italy by highlighting Alighiero Boetti (1940-1994) with a monumental work that has never been shown in Europe. The piece is called Alternando da uno a cento e viceversa, and was created in situ in 1984 for the exhibition “Il modo Italiano” at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art. It features one hundred squares, of which each is itself divided into one hundred small black-and-white squares. The price proposed for this “mathematical” creation by Boetti is approximately one million euros.

In addition to devoting an exhibition to the Croatian duo Tarwuk at its gallery on Avenue Matignon, White Cube (London, Hong Kong, Paris, New York City, Seoul, West Palm Beach) will showcase a painting from the duo’s very latest series at the fair. The gallery, which is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary, will also present a work by Ilana Savdie, currently on exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, as well as a sculpture by the Colombian Doris Salcedo, whose retrospective at Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland just closed.

Blum & Poe (Los Angeles, New York City, and Tokyo) is one of the seven new international galleries selected for this edition. It will consecrate its booth to a solo show by the multimedia artist Lonnie Holley. His paintings and ready-made sculptures reveal the motif of a manifold profile which is characteristic of the work of this self-taught artist living in Atlanta. This presentation is like an encapsulated sample of Holley’s work, featuring art objects dating from 1989 and others that he has freshly released (between 7,500 and 100,000 dollars). For its first exhibition at Paris+, Bortolami (New York City) juxtaposes the geometric abstractions of Mary Obering (1937-2022) with the colourful textile sculptures of the Brazilian Leda Catunda.

Pace (New York City, Los Angeles, Palm Beach, Hong Kong, Seoul, Geneva, London) presents a most sensational booth. Named “Pace Artists Respond to Rothko”, its project points to the influence of the famous American artist, who is simultaneously being honoured by a retrospective at Fondation Louis Vuitton. The gallery, which exclusively manages Rothko’s entire succession, considers this an opportunity to pay tribute to the painter through a selection of works specifically created by contemporary artists such as Robert Longo, Marina Perez Simão, and Lee Ufan to demonstrate the influence of Rothko on their own art. The booth also includes works by artists who were Rothko’s contemporaries, such as Agnes Martin, Adolph Gottlieb, and others… And, of course, a major work by the artist himself. The Lévy Gorvy Dayan gallery (New York City) also displays a beautiful Rothko at the event: a paper mounted on canvas in tones of blue, black and green (approximately €12.5 M). Landau Fine Art (Montreal) showcases a few masterpieces by artists of the 20th century, namely Jean Arp, Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso. There are also rare pieces by members of the German and Austrian avant-garde of the early 20th century, including Egon Schiele and Otto Dix, on the booth of Richard Nagy Ltd (London).

In addition to these references to Rothko at Fondation Louis Vuitton, there are many other echoes of current events on the Parisian cultural landscape at the fair. For example, the booth of Emanuel Layr (Vienna, Austria) features sculptures by Lili Reynaud-Dewar, whose personal exhibition opens this month at the Palais de Tokyo (priced between €35,000 and 55,000). The Parisian gallery of Chantal Crousel represents two artists, Anri Sala and Jean-Luc Moulène. But Anri Sala also appears at the booth of Alfonso Artiaco (Naples) with a painting from his brand-new series “Al fresco”, available for 180,000 euros, while a bronze by Moulène (Cheval force, 2019, approximately 70,000 dollars) is on display at the booth of Miguel Abreu (New York). Bringing to the forefront the strategic importance of booth location within the fair.