ugoscalia, 20 Rockefeller Plz, New York, NY (2026)

11/20/2024

Last night, René Magritte’s painting "L’Empire des lumières" soared past expectations at Christie’s, achieving a staggering $121,16 million during the sale of the Mica Ertegun Collection. The late interior designer and art collector—who died at the age of 97 in December 2023—had acquired the artwork in 1968, adding it to a collection that spanned many of the great names in modern and contemporary art, including Joan Miró, David Hockney, and Ed Ruscha.

Created between 1949 and 1964, the series “L’Empire des Lumières”—comprising 17 variations in oil and gouache—presents a poetic paradox: a quiet nighttime street illuminated by a single streetlamp, crowned with a bright daytime sky filled with fluffy clouds. The setting grounds this fantastical work in the real world while simultaneously making it timelessly enigmatic. This duality lies at the heart of Magritte’s genius: by combining the impossible with the familiar, he challenges our understanding of the world, blending serenity with unease. As such, the series “L’Empire des Lumières” reflects Magritte’s lifelong fascination with opposites: light and shadow, real and surreal, ordinary and extraordinary. As regards the inspiration for it, it might have come from André Breton's surrealist poetry, particularly lines like “If only the sun were to come out tonight” (from the poem “L’aigrette” in his 1923 book Clair de Terre), which capture the same dreamlike contradictions.

It is nothing new that Magritte's influence extends into popular culture. The 1999 movie “The Thomas Crown Affair” had for instance heavily made use of Magritte’s painting “The Son of Man” (1964) to string together themes of art collecting, prestige and anonymity. As for “L’Empire des Lumières”, its hauntingly cinematic qualities had inspired an iconic scene in the 1973 film The Exorcist (1973), which even served as the movie’s poster. With this record-setting sale, the art of René Magritte once more cements its place in the broader cultural imagination. Last night’s sale also confirms the excellent state of the artist’s market, with 4 out of the top 5 historical records for Magritte paintings set since 2023.

08/20/2024

In March and April 1936, the Museum of Modern Art in New York held one of its most famous foundational exhibitions: “Cubism and Abstract Art”. Brought forth by the budding museum’s first director Alfred H. Barr Jr.—the institution was founded in 1929—, the groundbreaking exhibition aimed to give an account of the modernist impulse toward abstraction of the early 20th century. As Barr put it in his introduction to the exhibition catalogue, great artists “had grown bored with painting facts. By a common and powerful impulse they were driven to abandon the imitation of natural appearance.”

To illustrate this impulse, the show garnered a total of nearly 400 works of art: from paintings, drawings and sculptures to photography, furniture, architecture, posters, typography and even films. The artists on display were the likes of Arp, Brancusi, Braque, Calder, Cézanne, Derain, Duchamp, Ernst, Gauguin, Giacometti, Van Gogh, Le Corbusier, Kandinsky, Klee, Kupka, Léger, Malevich, Masson, Matisse, Miró, Mondrian and Picasso, to name a few… The works occupied all four floors of the Museum’s gallery space, which was at the time a five-story town house leased by John D. Rockefeller, the husband of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller—one of the main founders of the Museum.

The curation and the exhibition catalogue mostly stemmed from a course that Alfred H. Barr Jr. had given during his time as an art history teacher at Wellesley College. At the time, this innovative series of lectures on modern art was the first of its kind in an institution of higher education. And for the cover of the catalogue, Barr provided a comprehensive diagram of the links between the main modern art movements.

The impact of this exhibition cannot be overstated. Not only did it help establish the young institution’s reputation, but it also marked a new era in the historiography of modern art. Before then, there was no cohesive interpretation of the movement of modern art, and art critics were almost lost when faced with the plurality of modern artworks. “Cubism and Abstract Art” changed things, by giving a lineage to abstraction through cubism and its descendency.

06/07/2023

Until July 30, 2023, the Philharmonie de Paris presents the first exhibition devoted to Jean-Michel Basquiat and his link with music, which is in fact threefold: music influences him, inspires him, and he produces it. Some one hundred works are presented, including rare archives and audiovisual documents.

Indeed, musical influences abound in the artist's work. Constantly listening to music as he painted, he owned over 3,000 records in a wide variety of styles, from classical to zydeco, soul, new-wave and jazz. His paintings are full of references to what he listens to, and are often accompanied by captions or musical phrases. Music is thus a key to interpreting the artist's work.

The artist is also greatly inspired by black musicians. "Basquiat Soundtracks" shows Basquiat's interest in the heritage of the African diaspora (which shines through music with jazz, soul, be-pop, etc.) and his awareness of the political issues surrounding racial questions in the United States. The music thus appears as a celebration of black artistic creativity, but the artist does not forget the complexities linked to the musical influence of this diaspora, and the cruelties it suffers. Basquiat is for example deeply moved by the story of saxophonist Charlie Parker, who is often featured in his paintings. Hence, Jean-Michel Basquiat does not simply refer to the music of this diaspora as a mere form of quotation, but to actually assert his African-American roots. In its final rooms, the exhibition visits the places that shaped Basquiat's work and career: the Mississippi Delta (birthplace of the blues), the Caribbean (his ancestors were Haitian and Puerto Rican), etc.

Finally, the exhibition reveals Basquiat as a musician. The late 1970s were a time when the first urban music was invented. The Downton clubs Basquiat frequented saw the birth of punk culture and hip-hop. The exhibition immerses the viewer in this atmosphere. These new genres also inspired Basquiat, who himself became a musician. In fact, he was the unofficial leader of a noise-rock band called Gray. He even produced a rap single in 1983, and collaborated with Blondie.

12/07/2022

Shara Hughes has presented Time Lapsed at the Kunstmuseum of Lucerne—her first institutional exhibition in Switzerland.

The Swiss museum exhibited the artist's characteristically dense and luminous landscapes, which take on their full depth when seen in person. Devoid of figures, Shara Hughes' scenes are never based on existing landscapes: they are drawn from the nebulous terrains of her imagination, memory, sensations and experiences, but also from the passing of time. Many of the paintings which were on display at the Kunstmuseum were painted in 2020, during the successive lockdowns due to the pandemic—a period which also coincides with her reconnection with nature.

With an exuberant range of colors, Shara Hughes depicts cliffs, river valleys, sunsets or night skies, and lush gardens. Nature seems irrepressible, sometimes even threatening, in its overflowing fullness. The artist never has a set idea when she begins her paintings: starting with lines and dots on a blank canvas, she develops her landscapes instinctively, spreading oil paint with brushes, spatulas and spray cans to create complex and unique psychological canvases.

While still being figurative overall, with obvious references to Odilon Redon or Vincent Van Gogh, her paintings also include gestural brushwork—a discreet yet incontestable sign of her abstract inclinations. Indeed, the artist frequently cites the work of abstract expressionist masters such as Arshile Gorky and Jackson Po***ck. Drawing from all these influences, Time Lapsed is a great display of Shara Hugues’ innovative approach to painting.

07/14/2022

🥂To the best day of my life, one year ago when I married my soulmate 🎉

07/07/2022

From June 30, 2022, through August 12, 2022, David Zwirner is exhibiting the artist Barbara Kruger in his premises of West 19th Street, New York.

For the past forty years, Barbara Kruger has been observing and critiquing the way images—especially advertising iconography, the visual language of the tabloids and mass media—circulate in our culture. She combines images with provocative texts in an immediately recognisable style. In doing so, she wishes to challenge established power structures and social constructs.

This new show at Zwirner follows her much talked-about exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, which later moved to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It spanned the four decades of her career, from her early "collages" to her recent immersive installations.

For David Zwirner, the artist worked on nine large installations, some with video and sound as well as vinyl wallpaper displaying her well-known slogans. Throughout these installations, the artist reworked her most emblematic works digitally to create new meanings and go deeper into her analysis of contemporary society. One of her new works called “Pledge, Will, Vow” is also currently included in the 59th Venice Biennale.

This is the Kruger’s first exhibition at David Zwirner since the announcement of her representation in 2019. This show of the artist's highly engaged work is particularly relevant to the recent decision by the US Supreme Court to remove constitutional protection for abortion rights. Indeed, Kruger has long been a supporter of women’s rights, a subject that is very much present in her old and newer works alike.

06/28/2022

Sam Gilliam, a leading figure in lyrical abstraction and color field painting, has passed away at the age of 88. He made his name in the mid-1960s in Washington, D.C., in a context of political and social unrest.

Interested in the physical nature of painting, he created three-dimensional works that broke free from wooden frames. Instead, he started hanging or pinning sheets covered with shimmering colours, which formed large curves guided by gravity within exhibition spaces. Unlike Frank Stella and his wall-hung canvases, Sam Gilliam created works that are both aggressive and lyrical, encroaching on the viewer's space and denying him a purely self-centered viewpoint.

Somewhere between painting and sculpture, his abstract canvases challenged the painting ethics of the colour school. He became the first black artist to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1972. Sam Gilliam was not only known for his colourful “Drape“ canvases: the seven decades of his career were a relentless exploration of abstract painting in all its forms. He influenced artists across generations, including David Hammons, Jessica Stockholder and Rashid Johnson.

Three of his works are currently on display at the Louis Vuitton Foundation as part of the 'Fugues in Color' exhibition. Gilliam was represented by Pace and David Kordansky.

05/12/2022

Ulala Imai is a Japanese artist born in 1982. Hearing-impaired from birth, she developed a passion for the visual arts at a very young age with a particular taste for the great masters of Western painting.

Ulala Imai's paintings are revisited still lives, where objects from the past are replaced by their modern versions. The artist enjoys representing food and artefacts from pop culture while adopting the laughing and innocent look of a child in relation to her subjects.

Passionate about Paris, Imai’s parents brought her to the French capital as a child where she discovered the paintings of Manet, Velasquez and Van Eyck. The latter would later have a great influence on her work and help her develop impressive technical skills. But unlike these examples from the past, Ulala Imai conveys a very modern vision of painting in her canvases. Indeed, the artist paints everyday objects with many references to the world of childhood through figurines inspired by well-known cartoons or films (Peanuts, Star Wars...).

From a technical point of view, the artist compares oil painting—her favourite medium—to spreading butter on bread. She prefers to paint quickly with thin layers of paint, simplifying details while maintaining her trademark delicate, realistic style.

The artist has been exhibited in various galleries such as Nonaka Hill in Los Angeles, Union Pacific in London, and more recently Karma in New York, which now represents the artist. The latter exhibited Imai’s latest works at the Independent Art Fair in New York last week.

05/06/2022

Marlène Dumas is a binational Dutch and South African painter. Fascinated by the question of identity, she creates works that depict human diversity in a characteristic neo-expressionist style. The Pinault Collection, through the Palazzo Grassi of Venice, has dedicated one of the largest retrospective exhibitions of her career with "Open-end". The exhibition brings together around one hundred paintings and drawings on the themes of love stories and the diversity of couples. The exhibition includes works dating from 1984 to the present day, belonging to the Pinault Collection, or on loan from international museums and private collections.

The artist became known for the translucent aspect of her paintings and drawings, whose texture is reminiscent of watercolour—a medium she favours along with—despite the use of oil paint in many of her works on canvas. In addition to love stories, the artist's career has explored a wide range of themes, from racism to art history, sexuality, violence, the female body and religion.

The artist is also known for her feminist commitment. She is particularly known for her depictions of n**e bodies—mostly women, although men are also depicted—represented without pomp and circumstance. This subversive n**e painting contributed to her international fame. The subversion in Dumas' work serves a progressive purpose without going beyond the limits of excess. Her paintings and drawings are even characterised by a form of modesty, despite the controversial nature of the themes they deal with, as is the case at Palazzo Grassi with her numerous erotic works.

The works in the "Open-end" exhibition are displayed on both floors. They are mostly made from existing images, which the artist 'reactivates' when she paints them. The first floor of the exhibition is devoted to works from her "Myths and Mortals" series started in 2018. Monumental n**e figures sit alongside small canvases of fragmented body parts. On the second floor, more recent works by the artist are on display. They were seen notably in exhibitions at the Musée d'Orsay in 2021 or at Zeno X in 2020.

The exhibition will run until 8 January 2023.

03/16/2022

Our article about the last London auction sales in March is out (link in bio):

No one could have predicted that the auction sales in London this Spring would be held in such a troubled context. Given the return of war in Europe with the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, some were concerned about its effect on the art market. And yet, the latter once again proved its solidity. Christie’s even recorded its highest-grossing London sales ever, while Sotheby’s surpassed its 2019 pre-crisis level. Together with Phillips—which had a more contrasted month—the auction houses returned with a series of new hybrid sales combining contemporary and post-war artworks with modern pieces, which proved beneficial for both segments of the market.

01/20/2022

In September 2021, we had the great privilege to see the exhibition Natureculture at the Beyeler Foundation during Art Basel. It will certainly remain as a landmark show for its exquisite curation and installation by the director of the institution Samuel Keller.

The exhibition revolved around 100 masterpieces from the impressionnist period to the contemporary era. But rather than proposing a chronological sequence for the works on display, Keller chose to hang them side by side in a single room. This uncanny juxtaposition brought different pieces together on the theme of “Natureculture”. Coined by the feminist scientist and author Donna J. Haraway, this neologism refers to the immediate and inseparable link between nature and culture. It restores unity between these once separated concepts. Indeed, according to Samuel Keller, “there is no culture without nature, both are part of the same whole”.

The art curator wanted to demonstrate the unity between the exhibited works by creating “one of the highest concentrations of art in one room”, with “combinations that we have never shown before”. For instace, Picasso's masterpiece Rescue of a Drowning Woman was hung below a large scale work by Peter Doig while a delicate swan by Marlene Dumas stood above one of Le Douanier Rousseau's famous jungle paintings.

“Natureculture” also included works by Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti, Louise Bourgeois, Mark Rothko, Paul Gauguin, Camille Pissarro, Max Ernst and Marc Chagall. The latter were displayed alongside more recent acquisitions by contemporary artists such as Tacita Dean, Lucas Arruda, Harold Ancart...

12/13/2021

The Prada Foundation in Milan is currently hosting Italian figurative painter Domenico Gnoli's latest retrospective to date until February 22, 2022. More than a hundred paintings and drawings produced between 1949 and 1969 are on display on two floors of the Italian Foundation.

Domenico Gnoli is known for his fascination with enlarged details. Armchairs, shoes, beds, tables, hair, or even clothes, treated with the utmost precision, occupy the entirety of his large paintings. The artist plays with material effects to give an artificial and unreal dimension to his subjects. His remarkably visionary style is enhanced by the modern scenography of the exhibition, with paintings hung without a frame on metal fences.

Arranged in thematic series on the first floor, his enigmatic and silent paintings are at the crossroads of minimalism, hyperrealism and pop art. They allow us to imagine the people who are hidden behind these details, without them ever being represented as a portrait in the artist's work. The second floor of the Foundation is a chronological and documentary section that helps trace Gnoli's life and artistic development.

This retrospective is part of a series of exhibitions at the Prada Foundation focused on artists who chose different paths from the successful art trends of their time such as William Copley, Edward Kienholz and Leon Golub. As a matter of fact, Alberto Gnoli's innovative figurative paintings were clashing with the abstract and minimalist establishment in the 1950s and 1960s. And yet, he influenced generations of artists, the last of which are young stars from the emerging scene such as Issy Wood or Julie Curtiss, whose works are directly inspired by Gnoli.

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