Hauser + Wirth Returns to FIAC with Bourgeois & Bellmer Exhibition

Louise Bourgeois, Untitled (2005) © The Easton Foundation/ Licensed by VAGA, New York, and DACS, London Courtesy the Foundation and Hauser & Wirth

Hauser + Wirth is showing at the Grand Palais in Paris next week for FIAC bringing the gallery back to the fair. Hauser has works by Philip Guston and Günther Förg at the booth but the main emphasis is a themed exhibition called Le Coeur est Là which is meant to be a dialogue between Louise Bougeois (above) and Hans Bellmer. He gallery’s press release explains:

Hauser & Wirth returns to FIAC this October with a selection of works on the theme of notions of desire and sexual ambiguity. Built around an intriguing dialogue between the works of Louise Bourgeois and Hans Bellmer, the concept of the booth takes as a point of departure the title, Le Cœur est Là, referencing a series of works which Louise Bourgeois returned to over the course of her career.

While Bourgeois and Bellmer lived in Paris in 1938, it is believed they never met. Their approaches have marked differences as well as shared themes – of the body as expressive material, a source of creativity and fertility, ambiguity and eroticism. The concept pays homage to the landmark exhibition ‘Double Sexus’ which was held in Berlin at the Nationalgalerie – Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg in 2010, the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus Ohio in 2011.

With the participation of Ubu Gallery – who loaned significant works by Hans Bellmer to ‘Double Sexus’ – the booth expands on the topic by creating compelling narratives. The presentation features important works by Franz West, Lee Lozano, Zoe Leonard and others. In two works by Paul McCarthy and Alina Szapocznikow, the human form suggests a trajectory from Hans Bellmer’s illustrated book, ‘Les Jeux de la Poupée’, a collaboration with Paul Éluard for the Surrealist journal Le Minotaure.