Picasso - Gorky - Warhol
Sculptures and Works on Paper. Hubert Looser Collection
photo: Ludwig Schedl
The Swiss collection Hubert Looser is amongst the most outstanding private collections of modern and contemporary art in Europe. Its foci lie in Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Minimal Art and Arte Povera. Ranging from Modernism to the present day, the exhibition at the Kunsthalle Krems conveys an exciting overview of graphic and sculptural forms of expression with over 150 works of art by more than 40 artists that are featured in the collection. The exhibition will subsequently be shown at Kunsthaus Zürich.
A large, varied compilation of work on paper makes up the so-called “chamber music” part that supports the “orchestral” paintings and sculptures of the Hubert Looser Collection. These include pieces by Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Agnes Martin, Roni Horn and Richard Serra. Especially the line, and with it the drawing, are a visually aesthetic manifesto of the collector to deal intuitively and sensitively with art. In a sense, this collection of drawings epitomizes the immediate, graphic expression of the artistic idea. The works of Henri Matisse and Andy Warhol are seismographic linearisms of human figuration. Arshile Gorky's work manifests the epochal switch from Surrealism to Abstract Expressionism, from figuration to abstraction. This is followed by gestural procedural pieces by David Smith, Philip Guston and Brice Marden. Painterly work on paper that emphasizes the plane can be enjoyed in Sean Scully's monumental pastel, as well as in the minimalist stripe structures of Agnes Martin’s subtle watercolour paintings. Richard Serra conceives of drawing as a sculptural form of expression and paper as the carrier of oil paint’s weighty materiality.
Dialogue is an elemental character of the Looser Collection - the exchange between works of art, which in turn creates constellations beyond the isms and medial boundaries. This is exemplified in the way in which drawings by David Smith, Willem de Kooning and Al Taylor bridge the gap to their sculptural work. They also show a vital interplay between surface and space. Pablo Picasso's 1954 folding sculpture Sylvette manages to unite drawing and sculpture.
Hubert Looser started collecting art in the 1960s. To begin with, the collection mainly acquired Swiss examples of Surrealism and Informel. These also mark the beginning of the exhibition at the Kunsthalle Krems. From the 1990s onward, international art was increasingly collected, ranging from Pablo Picasso to Willem de Kooning. Hubert Looser lives with his art. It adorns the private rooms of his Zürichberg residence in a museum-like fashion. He plans to share his passion for art with the public in future. His collecting activities having come to an end, he now makes his collection available to museums and displays his art at different exhibition venues in the context of specific topics with different emphases.
curator: Florian Steininger
With pieces by
Magdalena Abakanowicz, Jean-Charles Blais, Serge Brignoni, Antony Caro, Lawrence Carroll, Eduardo Chillida, Le Corbusier, Martin Disler, Arshile Gorky, Philip Guston, Roni Horn, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Yves Klein, Lenz Klotz, Willem de Kooning, Catherine Lee, Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Henri Matisse, Meret Oppenheim, A.R. Penck, Giuseppe Penone, Pablo Picasso, Walter Pichler, Arnulf Rainer, Mimmo Rotella, Dieter Roth, Sean Scully, Kurt Seligmann, Richard Serra, David Smith, Louis Soutter, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Al Taylor, André Thomkins, Richard Tuttle, Cy Twombly, Bernar Venet, Fabienne Verdier, Andy Warhol und Hugo Weber
