Alexandre Carel is working with Natalie Seroussi at Art Basel next week to offer a booth that surveys postwar abstraction from a global perspective under the title, Lands of Abstraction. Their booth will hold works by Francois Morellet, Hans Hartung, Salvatore Scarpitta, Enrico Castellani, Jean Fautrier, Chung Sang-Hwa, Atsuko Tanaka, Nicolas de Staël, Zao Wou-ki and Sadamasa Motonaga.
Motonaga is represented by the massive almost 9-ft. Work 145, a 1964 painting last shown at the Guggenheim’s Gutai retrospective in New York in 2013. The work carries an asking price at $5m:
One of the most celebrated members of the Gutai Art Group along with Kazuo Shiraga, Motonaga emphasized the performative aspect of artistic production by utilizing his own body and its physicality as a creative agent and unfiltered expressive tool. A remarkable example of the artist’s early output and style – which would shift after his departure for New York in 1966 – Work 145 was produced during a period of intense artistic innovation and experimentation.
Lands of Abstraction, Carel/Seroussi (Downloadable Art Basel Catalogue)