Ernesto Neto
23 Feb - 13 Apr 2013
ERNESTO NETO
notes, stones and dots
23 February - 13 April 2013
Galerie Max Hetzler is pleased to announce the exhibition notes, stones and dots featuring recent sculptures and photographs by Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto.
"My works are about dancing, and a dance for me is a sculpture in motion; I think we should be living in a state of dance, because it could bring some kind of fluid ability to our movements in time. We are so compressed in our daily routine of living, and if we could feel our body in a state of dance, we might gain a better balance."
This statement of the artist could be applied primarily to Neto's impressive and interactive sculptures made of soft fabric, such as the hanging shapes filled with spices, or the large-scale sensory environments created by Neto in the past years.
Furthermore, human beings in relation to their senses represent the recurrent point of origin throughout Neto's oeuvre. While Neto often relies and toys with the idea that our body naturally serves us as a reference to scale, his interest in the human need to interact and communicate is reflected in sculptures, installations and objects commonly used in private as well as public meeting places.
Some of the sculptures in this exhibition are indeed reminiscent of furniture. Steel elements, assembled to objects in the shape of tree branches or stems, might be taken as resting places. For the large-scale steel flowers and the new plexiglas sculptures, Neto uses one of his characteristic construction method. His sculptures stick together like toys made of prefabricated components, sometimes screwed together visibly, at other times they simply cling together through statics, challenging gravity. These large scale steel sculptures will oxidize partly over time, thus turning into a deep reddish-brown, in contrast with the previous works and their white or pastel colours.
Sebastian Preuss wrote about Neto: "The reductionism of minimal art, the material aesthetics of Arte Povera, Aktionskunst and performance art, art-opening up towards social concerns in the 1960s and 1970s, the idea of an expanded work of art, and the participation of the viewer - all this plays a part in the development of his oeuvre."
Another reference to the human body is featured in the large series of colour photographs. During a stay in Texas, Neto photographed in close-up body parts of several sculptures from the Nasher Sculpture Center collection that struck him, including the wooden Tahitian Girl by Gauguin, The Age of Bronze made in plaster by Rodin, The Flesh of Others, a wax sculpture by Medardo Rosso, The Kiss by Brancusi and Animal Woman, a bronze by Joseph Beuys. Though most of the photographed details show genital areas, its representation could seem neutral.
"By taking pictures of sculptures we can get very close to them, and show details and scratches as well as other particularities. These images had began to dance with one another, showing their sex and libido, but at the same time remaining innocent and ambiguous", the artist says.
The tiny plants, which are presented on shelves attached to the framed photographs, literally complete the chain of thought, introducing "the growing life, the vital life" - purpose of the sculptor.
notes, stones and dots is Ernesto Neto's third solo exhibition at Galerie Max Hetzler.
Ernesto Neto was born in 1964 in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), where he lives and works.
He has exhibited internationally with solo shows at the Espace Louis Vuitton, Tokyo; Estação Leopoldina, Rio de Janeiro; Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (all 2012); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey MARCO, Monterrey; Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City (both 2011); Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo; Hayward Gallery, London; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (all 2010); Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes (2009); MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome (both 2008); MIMOCA – Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (all 2007); Malmö Konsthall; CMOA - Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Panthéon, Paris (all 2006); Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis; Sigmund-Freud-Museum, Vienna; Chapelle Saint Louis de la Salpêtrière, Paris (all 2005); Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte; Projeto Respiração, Fundação Eva Klabin, Rio de Janeiro; Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo; The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia (all 2004); MOCA Los Angeles (2003); Hirshhorn Museum Washington DC; Kunsthalle Basel (both 2002); Kölnischer Kunstverein Cologne; Centro Galego de Arte Contemporaneo Santiago de Compostela; Brazilian pavilion of the Venice Biennale (all 2001); ICA London; Magasin 3, Stockholm (both 2000) amongst others.
Neto's work is represented in several museum collections, among them the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Tate Modern, London; MOCA, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh and the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.
notes, stones and dots
23 February - 13 April 2013
Galerie Max Hetzler is pleased to announce the exhibition notes, stones and dots featuring recent sculptures and photographs by Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto.
"My works are about dancing, and a dance for me is a sculpture in motion; I think we should be living in a state of dance, because it could bring some kind of fluid ability to our movements in time. We are so compressed in our daily routine of living, and if we could feel our body in a state of dance, we might gain a better balance."
This statement of the artist could be applied primarily to Neto's impressive and interactive sculptures made of soft fabric, such as the hanging shapes filled with spices, or the large-scale sensory environments created by Neto in the past years.
Furthermore, human beings in relation to their senses represent the recurrent point of origin throughout Neto's oeuvre. While Neto often relies and toys with the idea that our body naturally serves us as a reference to scale, his interest in the human need to interact and communicate is reflected in sculptures, installations and objects commonly used in private as well as public meeting places.
Some of the sculptures in this exhibition are indeed reminiscent of furniture. Steel elements, assembled to objects in the shape of tree branches or stems, might be taken as resting places. For the large-scale steel flowers and the new plexiglas sculptures, Neto uses one of his characteristic construction method. His sculptures stick together like toys made of prefabricated components, sometimes screwed together visibly, at other times they simply cling together through statics, challenging gravity. These large scale steel sculptures will oxidize partly over time, thus turning into a deep reddish-brown, in contrast with the previous works and their white or pastel colours.
Sebastian Preuss wrote about Neto: "The reductionism of minimal art, the material aesthetics of Arte Povera, Aktionskunst and performance art, art-opening up towards social concerns in the 1960s and 1970s, the idea of an expanded work of art, and the participation of the viewer - all this plays a part in the development of his oeuvre."
Another reference to the human body is featured in the large series of colour photographs. During a stay in Texas, Neto photographed in close-up body parts of several sculptures from the Nasher Sculpture Center collection that struck him, including the wooden Tahitian Girl by Gauguin, The Age of Bronze made in plaster by Rodin, The Flesh of Others, a wax sculpture by Medardo Rosso, The Kiss by Brancusi and Animal Woman, a bronze by Joseph Beuys. Though most of the photographed details show genital areas, its representation could seem neutral.
"By taking pictures of sculptures we can get very close to them, and show details and scratches as well as other particularities. These images had began to dance with one another, showing their sex and libido, but at the same time remaining innocent and ambiguous", the artist says.
The tiny plants, which are presented on shelves attached to the framed photographs, literally complete the chain of thought, introducing "the growing life, the vital life" - purpose of the sculptor.
notes, stones and dots is Ernesto Neto's third solo exhibition at Galerie Max Hetzler.
Ernesto Neto was born in 1964 in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), where he lives and works.
He has exhibited internationally with solo shows at the Espace Louis Vuitton, Tokyo; Estação Leopoldina, Rio de Janeiro; Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (all 2012); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey MARCO, Monterrey; Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City (both 2011); Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo; Hayward Gallery, London; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (all 2010); Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes (2009); MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome (both 2008); MIMOCA – Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (all 2007); Malmö Konsthall; CMOA - Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Panthéon, Paris (all 2006); Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis; Sigmund-Freud-Museum, Vienna; Chapelle Saint Louis de la Salpêtrière, Paris (all 2005); Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte; Projeto Respiração, Fundação Eva Klabin, Rio de Janeiro; Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo; The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia (all 2004); MOCA Los Angeles (2003); Hirshhorn Museum Washington DC; Kunsthalle Basel (both 2002); Kölnischer Kunstverein Cologne; Centro Galego de Arte Contemporaneo Santiago de Compostela; Brazilian pavilion of the Venice Biennale (all 2001); ICA London; Magasin 3, Stockholm (both 2000) amongst others.
Neto's work is represented in several museum collections, among them the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Tate Modern, London; MOCA, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh and the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.