Thaddaeus Ropac presents a constellation of masters at West Bund
The gallery returns to Shanghai's premier art fair with a carefully considered presentation spanning painting, sculpture and works on paper, from post war pioneers to emerging voices reshaping contemporary practice.
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Thaddaeus Ropac has assembled a presentation of uncommon breadth for West Bund Art & Design this November, one that moves with purpose through decades and sensibilities, anchored by the gallery’s established commitment to rigorous artistic practice. The booth brings together established voices whose reputations have deepened over generations alongside artists whose work is still finding its full amplitude in the world.
Georg Baselitz’s gestural abstraction, rendered in the artist’s signature inverted compositions, sits beside works by Robert Rauschenberg, whose layered surfaces speak to the possibilities of collage and assemblage as philosophical proposition rather than mere technique. Robert Longo’s muscular drawing practice and the lyrical abstractions of Martha Jungwirth, who continues to explore colour and form with undiminished intensity, occupy the same thoughtful conversation as the meticulous painting of Alex Katz and the sculptural intelligence of Hans Josephsohn.
Erwin Wurm’s conceptual wit appears alongside works by Daniel Richter and Adrian Ghenie, whose expressive canvases investigate the possibilities of figuration in contemporary painting. The presentation extends to Mandy El Sayegh’s layered, textually complex compositions and the disciplined abstraction of Oliver Beer, whose investigations into colour and material continue to yield works of considerable quiet authority. Emerging voices including Heemin Chung, Han Bing, Lee Kang So, Megan Rooney, Joan Snyder and Yan Pei Ming complete a roster that speaks to the gallery’s eye for both established mastery and the promise of younger practitioners.
Elizabeth Peyton’s intimate portraiture and Jules de Balincourt’s luminous landscapes offer further counterpoint. Miquel Barceló and David Salle round out a selection that demonstrates the gallery’s abiding engagement with painting across its many registers, from the gestural to the representational, the intimate to the monumental.
The presentation opens to the public from 10 to 15 November at West Bund Art & Design, booth 1C03.
Imagery courtesy of Thaddaeus Ropac (@thaddaeusropac).
