Hans Haacke Exhibition
Paula Cooper Gallery "521 W 21 St."
This event has ended.
The most recent work on view will be the maquette for Gift Horse, 2013, Haacke’s winning proposal for the Fourth Plinth at London’s Trafalgar Square. The bronze sculpture depicts the skeleton of a horse, derived from an engraving by George Stubbs, whose equine portraits reflected the equestrian culture of the British upper class. An electronic ticker tape—tied to the horse’s foreleg like a bow on a gift—displays the live feed of the London Stock Exchange. Here, the artist makes an oblique nod to Adam Smith whose 1776 book The Wealth of Nations marked the birth of modern capitalism and introduced the commonly cited yet often misunderstood idea of “the invisible hand of the market” as the source of common welfare. According to the artist, “Some 250 years later, followers of Smith’s ‘mythical hand’ flock to the City of London, to Wall Street and other market places around the world, while the less fortunate look to the bare bones of the horseplay of today’s gentry.” The final sculpture, which will measure over 13 feet in height, will be unveiled in Trafalgar Square on March 5, 2015 and on view for eighteen months.
In Together, 2013, Haacke revisits his seminal 1969 installation, Circulation, examples of which are now in the collection of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid and the Generali Foundation in Austria. In this work, water is pumped from two sources through a continuous and interconnected network of transparent tubing. Haacke’s interest in the circuitous flow of elements laid the groundwork for his other systems, which explore interaction and interdependence within physical, biological and social structures.
Condensation Floor is one of the original works of Haacke’s canonical Condensation series, which he initiated in 1963. Water evaporates and condenses in a sealed Plexiglas box responding to changes of light and temperature in its environment. In this floor-bound work from that period, the reflective properties of light and water are dramatically displayed along a six-foot-square surface.
Media
Schedule
from October 25, 2014 to December 13, 2014
Opening Reception on 2014-10-25 from 18:00 to 20:00