Events

Barbara Mathes Gallery is pleased to present Ed Clark and Joan Mitchell. Lifelong friends, Clark and Mitchell first met in Paris where they had both moved in the 1950s. In subsequent years Clark often visited Mitchell’s home in Vétheuil where, in 1968-69, he made the first of his ground-breaking ovoid canvases. In pairing Clark and Mitchell, this booth explores their mutual influence and their common ground – their interests in bold color and the powerful brushstrokes that define their oeuvres– while comparing their distinct approaches to abstract painting.The gallery will also present a selection of works by Frank Bowling, Alexander Calder, Lucio Fontana, and Yayoi Kusama

Barbara Mathes Gallery is pleased to present Alexander Calder and Fausto Melotti. Both artists revolutionized metal sculpture in the 20th century, but their work has rarely been seen together. Although divided by geography, Calder and Melotti shared central aesthetic concerns: they had both trained as engineers and were interested in balance, harmony, and an unorthodox use of materials. Their innovative sculptures, described by Melotti as “drawing in space,” reject traditional solidity in favor of open forms and lyrical motion. In pairing Calder and Melotti, this booth will highlight their common ground – the movement and linearity that defines their oeuvres – while comparing their distinct approaches to abstract metal sculpture.

Barbara Mathes Gallery is pleased to present Beyond the Brush for Art Basel OVR: Miami Beach. This Viewing Room will present a selection of works by artists who rethink the tools of painting and drawing. Whether applying color with their hands, pouring and soaking paint into their canvases, or sweeping it on with brooms, the artists presented here radically reimagined traditional techniques. Beyond the Brush includes works by Frank Bowling, Alexander Calder, John Chamberlain, Ed Clark, Manuel Espinosa, Joe Goode, Fausto Melotti, Joan Mitchell, Ad Reinhardt, Mira Schendel, and Richard Serra.

In Flying Footy (2018) by Frank Bowling, fluid leaflike green shapes are overlaid with silver, pink and a striking passage of raised gold. As in many of his works, Bowling begins by applying a thin stain or wash of paint to an unprimed cotton canvas placed horizontally. He then pours, drips, dusts, and brushes paint onto its surface. Bowling creates impasto and texture with acrylic gel, as seen in Flying Footy’s thick gold details.

John Chamberlain—arguably the preeminent Abstract Expressionist sculptor—was, in the words of Donald Judd, “the first to use automobile metal and to use color successfully in sculpture.” Panamapattie (2007) possesses many of the qualities that characterize the best of Chamberlain’s late work. The artist embellishes the already lively palette of the automotive industry with a boisterous application of paint, enriching the work’s chromatic possibilities and animating a complex circulation of painted and welded forms. Chamberlain takes full advantage of sculpture’s demand to be seen in the round, creating a work that presents a different formal configuration to each new vantage point taken by the viewer.

In the 1950s Ed Clark began using a push broom to apply paint to canvases that he laid on the floor, a technique he termed “the big sweep.” The resulting physicality and movement became a hallmark of Clark’s later paintings. Untitled (2002) exhibits Clark’s signature broad gestures and luminous color. Horizontal strokes of yellow, green, white, orange and black streak across the canvas. The brushstrokes are amplified by the neon brilliance of Clark’s palette and his thick, textured application of paint.

Ed Clark’s technical experimentation was not confined to his works on canvas: Untitled (1996) is an example of his works on paper using dry pigment, a technique inspired by Pueblo sand paintings of the American Southwest. Here he reinterprets the oval forms that had preoccupied him in the 1960s—both as composition and in his pioneering series of shaped canvases—presenting curved shapes as glowing clouds of atmospheric color.

Joan Mitchell worked in pastels throughout her career. In her hands, a medium often associated with delicate sketches became a tool for Abstract Expressionist bravura.  Pastel’s versatility—it can be used for drawing or smudged to create painterly effects—was ideally suited to Mitchell’s innovations. Pastel (1991) dates from a year-long period of concentrated work in pastel towards the end of Mitchell’s life. Here, fierce red, blue, yellow and green lines are overworked and blend into a crush of vivid pigment. Pastel exemplifies the rhythmic control of Mitchell's approach to composition as well as her rich and unexpected layering of vivid color.

Taking its title from a series by Italian sculptor Fausto Melotti, Theme and Variations will present a selection of work by artists who experiment with imperfect seriality and eccentric repetition.

Barbara Mathes Gallery is pleased to present Fausto Melotti: Line and Color. A leading artist of Italian modernism, Fausto Melotti rose to prominence in the years prior to the Second World War. Experimenting with media and materials, he synthesized the technical precision of the Constructivists and the fantastical language of Surrealism. This viewing room features a selection of Melotti’s iconic metal sculptures which harmonize modern architectural form with spiraling musical structure. As a contrast to his large brass sculpture, the booth also examines Melotti’s ceramic works that are characterized by their multiple layers of glaze, radiant color palettes, and bold curves. Alongside Melotti this viewing room will feature works by Agostino Bonalumi, Enrico Castellani, Frank Bowling, Alexander Calder, Ed Clark, Jan Dibbets, Manuel Espinosa, Sam Francis, Joe Goode, Bernhard Hildebrandt, Yayoi Kusama, Joan Mitchell, and Ad Reinhardt.  

Frieze Viewing Room will run from May 8-15, 2020 with a Preview from May 6-7, 2020.

This exhibition explores the collages and boxes of Joseph Cornell and Yayoi Kusama. Kusama and Cornell met in 1963, and an eccentric, albeit deeply felt, romance ensued. Despite their age and cultural differences, Kusama and Cornell were kindred spirits. Both possessed an artistic vision haunted by obsession, voyeurism, and unconsummated erotic longing. Over the course of their nine year relationship, he became a mentor to her, and she served as an inspiration to him. This exchange of influence remains relatively unexplored. For example, it is seldom acknowledged that Kusama began making her own boxes shortly after meeting Cornell in 1963. After his death, she began making collages that directly echo his work in the medium. For his part, Cornell reciprocated with more direct artistic displays of his affection, dedicating to her several collages and poems.

Cornell and Kusama were two of the great dreamers of modern art. Both felt like outsiders who found solace in their imaginary worlds. Cornell considered art to be a means for creating wistful fantasy worlds tinged with romance and nostalgia. Kusama's work was also born out of fantasy, though of a more intimately psychological nature than Cornell's. Her art was a means of expressing her obsessions and fears. Cornell's boxes showed her how art could open a view onto another world, and she has used this format as a window onto the deepest recesses of her psyche.