If there’s one thing abstract art is not, it’s straightforward. Packed with meaning, often beguilingly simple in design, the style has the power to simultaneously inspire and bewilder.
Some may think a series of seemingly arbitrary curves and lines are empty or over-simplified. But Daniella Luxembourg, art dealer and one half of New York gallery Luxembourg & Dayan, would argue the devil doesn’t always lie in the details — but sometimes in the lack thereof. ‘Abstract art was once one of the most radical and thought-provoking movements,’ says Luxembourg.
This month, she joined forces with friend and famed architect Daniel Libeskind (of Manchester’s Imperial War Museum) to release ‘Figures Toward Abstraction: Sculpture 1910 – 1940’ at Luxembourg’s gallery.
Nu assis bras autour de la ambe droite, by Henri Matisse, conceived 1918, cast 1930. Courtesy of Luxembourg & Dayan
Inspired by a letter artist Alberto Giacometti wrote to Henri Matisse in 1947, which explained his unintentional decision to create abstract sculptures, the exhibition breathes life into an ongoing conversation between Luxembourg and Libeskind about abstraction in art, architecture, history, and life.
‘I think abstraction at the beginning of the century has to do with the pure essence of sculpture,’ Luxembourg explains. ‘You didn’t need the image to create the movement. You could make an abstract movement without putting details into where are the legs, or where is the head.’
Though Luxembourg credits Giacometti and Matisse as pillars of the exhibition, ‘Figures Toward Abstraction’ features an array of artists like Julio González, Henri Laurens, Jacques Lipchitz, and Jean Tinguely. Additionally, Rudolf Belling’s groundbreaking Dreiklang (1919) is on display for the first time in the US.
The show’s levels of abstraction range from Lauren’s tangible Femme accouchée (1927) to Lauren’s hard-to-decipher cubism and Gonzalez’s interpretable bronze works. In total, the exhibition features 13 sculptures surrounded by an installation designed by Libeskind, who's clean, minimalist aesthetic lets the sculptures do all the talking.
Objet désagréable a jeter, by Alberto Giacometti, conceived 1931, cast 1979. Right, Figure, dite cubiste I, by Alberto Giacometti, conceived c1926, cast 1962-3
Figure, dite cubiste I, by Alberto Giacometti, conceived c1926, cast 1962-3. Courtesy of Luxembourg & Dayan
Le Tiaré, by Henri Matisse, conceived 1930, cast 1954 . Right, Le rêve (Le baiser), by Julio González, conceived 1934, cast 1980
Le rêve (Le baiser), by Julio González, conceived 1934, cast 1980. Courtesy of Luxembourg & Dayan
Dreiklang, by Rudolf Belling, conceived 1919 (cast at a later date). Courtesy of Luxembourg & Dayan
INFORMATION
‘Figures Toward Abstraction: Sculpture 1910 – 1940’ is on view until 1 July. For more information, visit the Luxembourg & Dayan website
ADDRESS
Luxembourg & Dayan
64 East 77th Street
New York, NY 10075
-
A Xingfa cement factory’s reimagining breathes new life into an abandoned industrial siteWe tour the Xingfa cement factory in China, where a redesign by landscape specialist SWA Group completely transforms an old industrial site into a lush park
-
Put these emerging artists on your radarThis crop of six new talents is poised to shake up the art world. Get to know them now
-
Dining at Pyrá feels like a Mediterranean kiss on both cheeksDesigned by House of Dré, this Lonsdale Road addition dishes up an enticing fusion of Greek and Spanish cooking
-
Leonard Baby's paintings reflect on his fundamentalist upbringing, a decade after he left the churchThe American artist considers depression and the suppressed queerness of his childhood in a series of intensely personal paintings, on show at Half Gallery, New York
-
Desert X 2025 review: a new American dream grows in the Coachella ValleyWill Jennings reports from the epic California art festival. Here are the highlights
-
This rainbow-coloured flower show was inspired by Luis Barragán's architectureModernism shows off its flowery side at the New York Botanical Garden's annual orchid show.
-
‘Psychedelic art palace’ Meow Wolf is coming to New YorkThe ultimate immersive exhibition, which combines art and theatre in its surreal shows, is opening a seventh outpost in The Seaport neighbourhood
-
Wim Wenders’ photographs of moody Americana capture the themes in the director’s iconic films'Driving without a destination is my greatest passion,' says Wenders. whose new exhibition has opened in New York’s Howard Greenberg Gallery
-
20 years on, ‘The Gates’ makes a digital return to Central ParkThe 2005 installation ‘The Gates’ by Christo and Jeanne-Claude marks its 20th anniversary with a digital comeback, relived through the lens of your phone
-
In ‘The Last Showgirl’, nostalgia is a drug like any otherGia Coppola takes us to Las Vegas after the party has ended in new film starring Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl
-
‘American Photography’: centuries-spanning show reveals timely truthsAt the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Europe’s first major survey of American photography reveals the contradictions and complexities that have long defined this world superpower
