Ron Gorchov
Curated by Vito Schnabel
5 February-27 March 2015
Ron Gorchov
Samba
2005
Ron Gorchov
Joseph Brandt
1993
Ron Gorchov
Agron
2012
"A revolutionary figure in Post-War American art, Ron Gorchov helped defy the
New York School in the mid-1960s by pushing painting to its extreme."
Ugo Rondinone
Sotheby’s S|2, in collaboration with curator Vito Schnabel, will show paintings by the
American artist Ron Gorchov (b. 1930, Chicago) to the UK public for the first time. For the
artist’s inaugural London solo-show, Schnabel has selected works spanning the full scope of
the artist’s career, from the 1970s to today.
Gorchov emerged in the 1960s and 70s as part of a group of Manhattan-based abstract
artists, such as Frank Stella, Richard Tuttle, Blinky Palermo and Ellsworth Kelly, who
rejected the ubiquitous rectangular canvas in favour of new shapes and configurations.
Painting on linen or canvas stretched across bespoke curved wooden frames (which
Gorchov calls saddle-stretchers), the concave and convex structures have often been
described as a hybrid between painting and sculpture. By warping the edges, corners and
straight lines of the traditional flat canvas, these three dimensional works become
perceptually disorientating when viewed.
Sotheby’s | +44 20 7293 6000 | Toby Skeggs | [email protected]
Rosie Chester| [email protected]
The unique experience of viewing a Ron Gorchov work was eloquently described by the renowned
critic Robert Storr, Dean of the Yale School of Art:
“near square but never square to near oval but never oval to near rectangular but never rectangular and all
always bowed – and in different sizes – very small to very big- and in different orientations – vertical and
horizontal. The purpose… to subject the act of looking to the subtle stresses and pressures of not knowing
quite where to focus”
Ron Gorchov Studio, 2012; Photographer: Jerid Gooding
Gorchov’s work is held in numerous major collections, including the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Whitney Museum of American Art, the
Detroit Institute of Art and the Guggenheim. Gorchov’s painting, Comet, is on permanent
view at MoMA having been part of the museum’s collection since 1979. In 2016, an
exhibition of the artist’s work will be presented at the Hall Art Foundation in Vermont.
It was Vito Schnabel who organised the first comprehensive survey of the artist’s work in
2005 and this was quickly followed by a solo-show at MoMA PS1 the following year. Since
then, interest in Gorchov - whose break-through on the New York art scene came in 1960,
as part of the Whitney Museum's Young America 1960: Thirty American Painters Under ThirtySix – has reached new heights. An independent spirit, who pushed at the boundaries of what
a painting can be, his work continues to inspire a new generation of artists. The demand to
own a Ron Gorchov has never been higher: at auction, the three top prices paid for a work
by the artist have all been set within the last year.
Sotheby’s | +44 20 7293 6000 | Toby Skeggs | [email protected]
Rosie Chester| [email protected]
About S|2
S|2 gallery, with spaces in New York and London, has quickly earned a reputation for staging
innovative exhibitions by both established and emerging contemporary artists. Exhibition
programming has included shows dedicated to the work of individual artists such as: JeanMichel Basquiat, Joseph Beuys, Keith Haring, Yayoi Kusama, Claude and François-Xavier
Lalanne, Yoshitomo Nara, and Banksy, to shows curated by art world figures including Vito
Schnabel, Jane Neal and Steve Lazarides. With dedicated gallery spaces in New York and
London designed by leading architects Richard Gluckman and David Kohn, the S|2 team has
also organized a number of pop-up exhibitions in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area,
Paris and Hong Kong. In addition to gallery programming, the S|2 team also facilitates
bespoke private acquisitions and sales. Learn more at http://www.sothebys.com/S2
Images are available upon request
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Sotheby’s | +44 20 7293 6000 | Toby Skeggs | [email protected]
Rosie Chester| [email protected]