Hauser & Wirth at Art Cologne 2016

HAUSER & WIRTH AT ART COLOGNE HIGHWA C I F I C Y PA 14 – 17 APRIL

2016

RICHARD JACKSON PAUL McCARTHY JASON RHOADES HALL 11.2, BOOTH A18, KOELNMESSE, MESSEPLATZ, COLOGNE, GERMANY

Installation view, ‘Richard Jackson. New Paintings’, Hauser & Wirth London, 2014 Photo: Alex Delfanne

IFIC HIGHWAY C A P 14 – 17 APRIL

2016

RICHARD JACKSON PAUL McCARTHY JASON RHOADES HAUSER & WIRTH AT ART COLOGNE HALL 11.2, BOOTH A18, KOELNMESSE, MESSEPLATZ, COLOGNE, GERMANY ‘There from the beginning, Jackson, McCarthy and Rhoades represent the essence of Hauser & Wirth’s programme; they have pushed the boundaries of what art is and can be. These three artists truly promoted cross-pollination, generously sharing their ideas and teaching younger artists, it is something really quite rare. They are part of our family and are in our DNA.’ – Iwan Wirth To coincide with the recent launch of Hauser Wirth & Schimmel in Los Angeles, Hauser & Wirth’s presentation for Art Cologne 2016 highlights three artists who are at the heart of LA’s cultural history and who helped define the gallery’s identity in its early years. Richard Jackson, Paul McCarthy and Jason Rhoades were each others’ friends, students, mentors, collaborators, agitators, and at times, meaningful rivals. They were the likely insiders as well as the willing outsiders to the local and international art scene, and they remain at the core of the Hauser & Wirth narrative.

Since the early 1970s, Richard Jackson has been a pre-eminent figure in American contemporary art, expanding the definition of painting to include new performative dimensions, merging it with sculpture, and repositioning it as an art of everyday. Influenced by both Abstract Expressionism and action painting, Jackson explores a performative painting process through his room-size ‘environments’, monumental stacked canvases and ‘activated’ machine sculptures. For Jackson, paint is not merely a tool used to create a representational image, but is used as a ubiquitous liquid which is smeared, splattered and sprayed over the surface of his installations and sculptures. Between 1970 and the latter half of the 1980s, Jackson created only site-specific work – each piece realised within the gallery or museum space and then destroyed when the exhibition closed. For Art Cologne 2016, Jackson is returning to this approach, producing two ‘wall paintings’ within the confines of the Hauser & Wirth booth. Created by smearing painted, still-wet canvases across a wall space, the bright, graphic abstractions are an exercise of chance.

Paul McCarthy / Jason Rhoades Preparatory sketch for ‘Propposition’ (1999)

Jackson was an influential mentor to Jason Rhoades whilst teaching at UCLA in the early 1990s and Rhoades was often found working at Jackson’s studio, earning him the nickname of ‘Jason the Mason’.

They maintained a close friendship until Rhoades’ death in 2006. Rhoades carried out a continuous assault on aesthetic conventions and the rules governing the art world: these conditions, in fact, were used as materials or tools for his work. His conceptual vigour and his attempts to redefine and expand the space in which works are both made and exhibited earned him a reputation as an artists’ artist, not only as someone who commands the respect of his peers, but as an artist who redefined the arena in which art is possible. The conditions under which art is made, shown, and consumed were sources of enormous interest for Rhoades. His work could be dangerous, overwhelming, politically incorrect, obnoxious, or utterly sublime – for Rhoades, creative process demanded ultimate freedom.

Among his work presented at Art Cologne 2016 is ‘Pussy Table (after Gerhard Richter’s ‘Kleiner Akt’) (2001), a low-set leather and aluminium table, inspired by the underwear worn by the female figure in Gerhard Richter’s painting ‘Kleiner Act’ (1967). Sculptures from his Idol series, ‘Junk (Idol 36)’ (2005) and ‘Kit Kat (Idol 52)’ (2005) – formed from scrawled neon words and an assemblage of everyday items – will also be on view. The Idols belong to one of his final creations ‘The Black Pussy... and the Pagan Idol Workshop’: 360 lonely sculptures and idols that Rhoades brought together to create a monumental installation in London in 2005. Rhoades’ exhibition questioned ideas of idolatry within a materialist, celebrity-obsessed American culture.

Rhoades also studied under McCarthy at UCLA. From their mutual admiration grew a collaborative relationship, which led them to pursue many projects together in the coming years. Through intensive phases of working collectively, they transported ideas into their own personal cosmos, yet each artist remained recognisable as individual. McCarthy’s constantly evolving oeuvre is characterised by wildly dark humour, Bacchanalian chaos, and tragicomic narratives. He has mined his preoccupying themes across media and decades. McCarthy unleashes debauchery and desire with extreme technical daring, charting a territory where our fundamental impulses collide with our most cherished myths and hypocritical societal norms. His work locates the traumas lurking behind the gleaming stage set of the American Dream and identifies their place in accepted art history. At Art Cologne 2016, Hauser & Wirth will show a large-scale silicone bust, ‘White Snow Head’ (2012). The work is part of the artist’s ongoing White Snow project inspired by the famous 19th-century German folk tale, ‘Snow White’, or ‘Schneewittchen’, and the modern interpretation of that story in Disney’s beloved 1937 animated adaptation, ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’.

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ARD J A C K S O H C I R

RICHARD JACKSON Rennie 101 2010 Wall painting, acrylic paint, wood, canvas 304.8 x 1005.8 cm / 120 x 396 in Š Richard Jackson Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

RICHARD JACKSON The Men’s Room / The Trophy Room 2004 2 parts, acrylic on mylar 107 x 107 cm / 42 1/8 x 42 1/8 in © Richard Jackson Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth Photo: Barbora Gerny

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RICHARD JACKSON Untitled 1972 Acrylic and pencil on paper 85.1 x 109.2 cm / 33 1/2 x 43 in Š Richard Jackson Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

RICHARD JACKSON Untitled 1973 Acrylic and pencil on paper 83.8 x 105.4 cm / 33 x 41 1/2 in Š Richard Jackson Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

RICHARD JACKSON Untitled (SMAK) 2013 Pencil and oil on mylar 79.1 x 106.7 cm / 31 1/8 x 42 in Š Richard Jackson Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth Photo: Genevieve Hanson

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RICHARD JACKSON Ain’t Painting A Pain 2012 Neon, paint cans, paint, funnel, plastic tubes, cables 25.4 x 395 x 6.4 cm / 10 x 155 1/2 x 2 1/2 in © Richard Jackson Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth Photo: Christopher Bliss

RICHARD JACKSON Who Painted My Horse Yellow? (Model) 2013 – 2014 Wood, fibreglass, neon, steel, acrylic paint, air tanks 202 x 120 x 120 cm / 79 1/2 x 47 1/4 x 47 1/4 in © Richard Jackson Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth Photo: Alex Delfanne

Richard Jackson, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago IL, 1979

McCARTHY PAUL

PAUL McCARTHY White Snow Head 2012 Silicone (flesh), fibreglass, steel 140 x 160 x 185 cm / 55 1/8 x 63 x 72 7/8 in Š Paul McCarthy Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Installation view, ‘Paul McCarthy. Spin Offs: White Snow WS, Caribbean Pirates CP’, Hauser & Wirth Zürich, 2015

McCARTHY PAUL

PAUL McCARTHY / JASON RHOADES A Few Free Years (detail) 1997 Felt-tip pen, vellum paper, colour photographs, xerox prints on paper 101.1 x 80.9 cm / 39 3/4 x 31 7/8 in 5 parts (c) Paul McCarthy / The Estate of Jason Rhoades Courtesy the artists and Hauser & Wirth Photo: Peter Hunkeler

PAUL McCARTHY / JASON RHOADES A Few Free Years 1997 Felt-tip pen, vellum paper, colour photographs, xerox prints on paper 101.1 x 80.9 cm / 39 3/4 x 31 7/8 in 5 parts (c) Paul McCarthy / The Estate of Jason Rhoades Courtesy the artists and Hauser & Wirth Photo: Peter Hunkeler

JASON RHOADES Shelf (Mutton Chops) with Unpainted Donkey (detail) 2003 Seville Ultra Durable chrome shelving system with 9 shelves, 13 neon panels (glass, plexi, wire, transformers), 31 ceramic donkey carts, 1 can tuna Shelf: 104.1 x 360.7 x 152.4 cm / 41 x 142 x 60 in Donkey: 127 x 147.3 x 40.6 cm / 50 x 58 x 16 in Š The Estate of Jason Rhoades Courtesy the Estate and Hauser & Wirth

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O N RH O A D E S

JASON RHOADES Shelf (Mutton Chops) with Unpainted Donkey 2003 Seville Ultra Durable chrome shelving system with 9 shelves, 13 neon panels (glass, plexi, wire, transformers), 31 ceramic donkey carts, 1 can tuna Shelf: 104.1 x 360.7 x 152.4 cm / 41 x 142 x 60 in Donkey: 127 x 147.3 x 40.6 cm / 50 x 58 x 16 in Š The Estate of Jason Rhoades Courtesy the Estate and Hauser & Wirth

JASON RHOADES Pussy Table (after Gerhard Richter’s ‘Kleiner Akt’) 2001 fibreglass, polished aluminium tubes from perfect world, leather pad, underwear 80 x 402 x 150 cm / 31 1/2 x 158 1/4 x 59 in © The Estate of Jason Rhoades Courtesy the Estate and Hauser & Wirth

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Jason Rhoades, Pussy Table (after Gerhard Richter’s ‘Kleiner Akt’), 2001

ON RHOADES

JASON RHOADES Junk (Idol 36) 2005 Neon-glass, transformer 110V, armature wire, print, hot glue, white fabric, glass-fruit, ribbon, hookah tube, pipe cleaner, various materials 89 x 76 x 29 cm / 35 x 29 7/8 x 11 3/8 in Š The Estate of Jason Rhoades Courtesy the Estate and Hauser & Wirth

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O N RH O A D E S

JASON RHOADES Kit Kat (Idol 52) 2005 neon phrase, hookah pipe, transformer 86 x 30 x 40 cm / 33 7/8 x 11 3/4 x 15 3/4 in Š The Estate of Jason Rhoades Courtesy the Estate and Hauser & Wirth

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Jason Rhoades ‘Shelf (Mutton Chops) with Unpainted Donkey’ (detail), 2003