Marking Lorna Simpson’s first exhibition with the gallery in Switzerland, the artist will exhibit new work from her ongoing Special Character series at Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse. Also on view is ‘Fabio Mauri. Amore Mio’, the first solo presentation in Switzerland of this ground-breaking Italian artist. For the opening, there will be a guided tour with Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, director of the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, on Saturday 30 September at 5 pm. The exhibition precedes the online catalogue raisonné of Mauri’s work to be published at the end of the year,as well as a solo presentation of works on paper at Castello di Rivoli, Italy, opening in December 2023. Mauri’s iconic installation ‘Luna’ (1968) will also be part of the major group exhibition 'Immersion: The Origins: 1949–1969' at the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts Lausanne from October 27, 2023.
Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse will present Fabio Mauri’s first solo presentation in Switzerland, spanning works from the early 1950s to the mid 1970s that explore topics pertinent to pop art, alongside a solo exhibition on Lorna Simpson’s new work from her ongoing Special Character series. In conjunction with the release of the second volume of Angela Thomas’ biography about Max Bill, ‘von konstruktiver klarheit. max bill und seine zeit 1940-1952,’ Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Bahnhofstrasse will present a Book Lab from 5 October to 18 November featuring various works by the artist from the 1940s and 1950s.
Fabio Mauri. Amore Mio Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse 30 September – 22 December 2023 'Fabio Mauri. Amore Mio' was put together by Olivier Renaud-Clément in association with Studio Fabio Mauri and focuses on a time in the artist's career when he experimented with pop art-related aesthetic tactics. It is the first solo exhibition of the influential Italian artist (1926-2009) to be held in Switzerland. The installation "AmoreMio" (1970), which is on display for the first time in more than 50 years, is included in the show together with paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s.
The first solo exhibition of the influential Italian artist (1926-2009) to be held in Switzerland, will also display for the first time in more than five decades the installation "AmoreMio" (1970), along with paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s.
The Biennale of 1964 and Fabio Mauri
Fabio Mauri experimented with pop art years before this movement became established in Europe following US artist Robert Rauschenberg’s Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale in 1964. “Amore Mio" highlights Mauri’s early preoccupation with themes became part of pop art.
Mauri was born in Rome, where during his early youth he found himself in the center of the events of WW2 and Fascism. Raised among writers and painters, it was natural that Mauri would befriend intellectuals in both artistic and cultural circles of Italy’s new avant-garde, among them: philosopher and semiotician Umberto Eco, film director and aficionado Pier Paolo Pasolini (the artist’s close childhood friend), visual artist Jannis Kounellis, art historian Maurizio Calvesi, the writer Edoardo Sanguineti and art critic and curator Achille Bonito Oliva.
Above: Fabio Mauri L'Isola (The Island) 1960–1966 Canvas, tempera, and acetate on wood, 59 x 78 cm. All images ©Estate Fabio Mauri Courtesy, the Estate of Fabio Mauri and Hauser & Wirth.
Silkscreen on canvas, 3 colors, 85x59cm
Fabio Mauri Marilyn 1964 Photograph and Mixed Media on Canvas 100.3x68.9x10.2cm/391/2x271/8x4in. Photo: Genevieve Hanson.
Mauri has not only referenced some of the great names from Italian cinema (see Mauri’s installation ‘Intellettuale. ll Vangelo secondo Matteo di/su Pier Paolo Pasolini’ (1975)), originally conceived with the participation of Pier Paolo Pasolini as a living screen for his film ‘The Gospel According to St. Matthew,’ but also infamous figure Al Capone, thus demonstrating his involvement with the global pop art trend. The displayed silkscreens from his 'Gangster' (1974) series depict this. Mauri seeks to grasp society through an almost phenomenological approach, stating that "From the start, I saw the world as a large, only partially decipherable projection [...]" when describing how the projected picture became a key motif that defined his body of work. We observe those areas of the world that our civilization enables us to recognize and observe. This concept is explored in the 1970 piece "Amore Mio," which consists of 18 silkscreened canvas components that together form an immersive and interactive setting. It requires spectators to move a fixed light to show the surrounding artwork in order to navigate the gloomy space. 'L'isola (The Island)' (1960–1966), which elevates the comic strip to an art form, serves as a maquette for the set design of Mauri's 1960 stage play 'L'Isola. "L'Isola" is an early masterpiece that perfectly exemplifies Mauri's involvement with the performing arts and his relentless pursuit of reality. Mauri proposes through his works a questioning of the real' by commenting on the proliferation of screens in modern society—an observation that holds even more relevance today. ‘Fabio Mauri. Amore Mio’ will open on September 30 with a walkthrough of the exhibition at 5 p.m. led by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Director of Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea.
About the artist: Fabio Mauri (1926–2009) was born in Rome, Italy; his early youth was marked by the events of war and fascism—traumas and horrors that would profoundly impact and influence the artist’s life and work. Raised among writers and painters, it was natural that Mauri would befriend intellectuals in both artistic and cultural circles of Italy’s new avant-garde, among them: philosopher and semiotician Umberto Eco, film director and aficionado Pier Paolo Pasolini (the artist’s close childhood friend), visual artist Jannis Kounellis, art historian Maurizio Calvesi, the writer Edoardo Sanguineti, and art critic and curator Achille Bonito Oliva. First emerging in the late 1950s, Fabio Mauri developed the ideas for his work in the context of television and cinema, which, from 1954, became a part of everyday cultural life. Throughout the 1960s, Mauri proved his deep understanding of modern media by reworking the conventional space of easel painting into the conceptual space of the screen, a surface upon which reality and fiction turn into consumable images. Connecting themes and ideas of the past to the present, his work injects within itself a notion of ethical or social responsibility that causes the spectator to critically examine his experience of ‘the real’. Mauri’s artistic career remains as varied and diverse as the activities in which he engaged. An artist, playwright, publisher, critic, and professor for over 20 years, Fabio Mauri’s wide-ranging oeuvre cannot be easily defined. Highly innovative and active in Italy's avant-garde, much of his work, however, remained on the periphery of the parallel artistic movements of the time, such as arte povera and pop art.
Lorna Simpson Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse 30 September – 22 December 2023 This autumn, the renowned US artist Lorna Simpson debuts new work from her ongoing Special Character series at Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse, marking the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery in Switzerland. First unveiled in 2019, the Special Character series superimposes women’s faces from fashion and wig ads found in the pages of Ebony magazine, revealing through repetition the reinforcement of stereotypes in the everyday imagery we consume.
In these works, silkscreened images of isolated figures emerge from layered washes of paint, highlighting Simpson’s continual investigation of the relationship between parts and wholes, and the nature of representation, identity, gender and race. The exhibition in Zurich will coincide with ‘Lorna Simpson x Gaelle Choisne’ at Reiffers Art Initiative, Paris, part of their 2023 mentorship exhibition programme. Born in Brooklyn, Lorna Simpson came to prominence in the 1980s with her pioneering approach to conceptual photography. Simpson’s early work—particularly her striking juxtapositions of text and staged images—raise questions about the nature of representation, identity, gender, race and history that continue to drive the artist’s expanding and multi-disciplinary practice today. She deftly explores the medium’s umbilical relation to memory and history, both central themes within her work.
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