@davidzwirner

• The Caretaker by Doon Arbus: A lush, disorienting novel that takes no prisoners as it explores the perils of devotion and the potentially lethal charisma of things.⁣ ⁣ “Doon Arbus’s beautiful, moving, original novel does just what we want a novel to do: It creates a fictional world that reflects, illuminates and reveals the ‘real’ world we live in. This wryly funny, subversively philosophical book is brief—yet deep enough to contain humans and objects, love and death, memory and amnesia, oblivion and survival. It generates its own musical score: a phrase of Satie, a few notes of the Well-Tempered Clavier, and then the Beethoven sonata.” —Francine Prose (@prose.francine)⁣ ⁣ “Doon Arbus’s debut novel is a kind of mystery––about who we become, what the absent leave us with, and why. Dense, visual, and true, this short book speaks volumes about the theatre of the mind, and how the ensuing comedic drama we call life unfolds inside and outside our control. A marvelous new voice.” —@Hilton.Als⁣ ⁣ Link in bio • Order your copy of The Caretaker by Doon Arbus via @McNallyJackson, cc: New Directions Publishing (@ndpublishing)⁣ ––⁣⁣⁣ RG @thecountdownredux⁣ ⁣

Evening by Stan Douglas, born on this day in 1960, is still as relevant and profound as it was the year it was created: 1994. The three-channel video work is based on late 1960s archival news footage. To create Evening, Douglas hired actors to reenact local Chicago news broadcasts, and his reconstruction shines a stark light on the media’s disconnected and contradictory tone during a time of social and political unrest in America. It explores the development of the “Happy Talk” news format of the ‘60s and ‘70s, which puts an emphasis on “human interest” stories and presenting all news, no matter how grim, in a cheerful, bantering style. When viewed today we’re reminded of how much the news has changed over the last 50 years, from the introduction of the 24-hour news cycle to the proliferation of “Fake News,” and the unsettling truth of always having to question: what’s real and what’s doublespeak? ––⁣⁣ Clip from Stan Douglas, Evening, 1994. Color video installation, dimensions variable. Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, restricted gift of Frances and Thomas Dittmer; and Bernice and Kenneth Newberger Fund, 1996.40

“I’ve always set out to embrace all that I am.” —, born on this day in 1968 The present work, included in our @FriezeArtFair presentation (link in bio), belongs to a group of works on paper featuring the head of a saint. The series originates from the artist’s investigation of images of Black saints, reflecting his interest in religious iconography and synthesizing his Catholic upbringing and African and Western visual and historical traditions. Here Ofili employs gold leaf to create a halo-like aura that formally recalls his signature “afro heads” motif, a hallmark of the artist’s drawing practice. — Chris Ofili Untitled (Saint 4), 2019 Watercolour and gold leaf on paper 10 1/4 x 7 3/4 inches (25.9 x 19.7 cm)

@BrooklynRail: “Josh Smith has done it again. With a palette favoring lilac, tangerine, lime, and citron, he has transformed a relatively bland subject into a fevered dreamscape. In his current show at David Zwirner’s Upper East Side gallery, he’s depicted the streets of an imaginary, pedestrian and vehicle-free place as it might have looked during the recent lockdown. Think Bushwick without graffiti. Smith has erected industrial buildings, residential homes, a few shops, maybe some bars. It’s probably night because lots of windows are aglow with light. Instead of the radiant, clear blue skies that New Yorkers enjoyed throughout the spring and summer of 2020, Smith has rendered a more somber, overcast atmosphere. The dark streets and narrow sidewalks are uninviting. As for the two and three-story structures, they are a cross between what you’d find on a Hollywood backlot and the sort of primitive structures limned in proto-Renaissance predella panels.” ––@phyllis_tuchman⁣ ⁣ Tap the link in bio to read Phyllis Tuchman’s full review of Josh Smith: Spectre on view at David Zwirner, at 69th Street in New York (through October 24) and our London gallery at 24 Grafton Street (through October 31).⁣ ––⁣⁣⁣ RG @cincalaart⁣ ⁣

RG @yayoikusamamuseum: FLOWERS THAT SPEAK ALL ABOUT MY HEART GIVEN TO THE SKY, 2018 ⁣ THE VISION OF FANTASY THAT WE HAVE NEVER SEEN IS THIS SPLENDOR⁣⁣ On view: July 30, 2020 to March 29, 2021⁣ ⁣ © YAYOI KUSAMA⁣ ⁣ #草間彌生美術館 ⁣ #草間彌生⁣ ⁣

“Zvavahera’s representation of women’s roles and their bodies in her opaque painterly style touches on women’s issues not solely in her own locale, but also worldwide.… The painted patterns perform the task of obstructing easy visual access to the women represented.… This active veiling is a moment of resistance and self-empowerment.” —Nomaduma Rosa Masilela, art historian⁣ ⁣ Tap the link in bio to hear @zvavaheraportia’s story behind this work, recorded earlier this year at her studio in Zimbabwe. On this page you can also explore her solo exhibition, on view in The Upper Room at David Zwirner London, through October 31.⁣ ––⁣⁣⁣ Portia Zvavahera, This is where I travelled [5], 2020⁣ ⁣

was enthralled by color, and he continued to explore its visual and artistic qualities throughout his life. As the artist wrote in his diary: “[Color] penetrates so deeply and so gently into me. I feel it and it gives me confidence in myself without effort. Color has got me. I don’t have to pursue it. It will possess me always, I know it…. Color and I are one.”⁣ ⁣ Klee’s ability to interrelate his subject and visual style was unparalleled and further enhanced by his choice of titles, which are at times witty and humorous and at other times somber and piercing. In Folter (Torture) (1938), a face and body are recognizable within a composition of twisting geometric lines and overlaying reds, oranges, and yellows. Though Klee worked primarily on paper during the 1930s, the present work is a rare painting on board that he created using a paste-like paint made by combining adhesives and pigment.⁣ ⁣ Tap the link in bio to explore this late Klee work, and others illustrating the diversity of his practice and skill as a colorist, presented in our Frieze Masters Viewing Room.⁣ ––⁣⁣⁣ Paul Klee, In Folter (Torture), 1938⁣ Colored paste and watercolor on primer and cardboard⁣ 11 3/4 x 10 5/8 inches (30 x 27 cm)⁣ Framed: 18 3/8 x 17 3/8 inches (46.6 x 44.2 cm)⁣ ⁣ @friezeartfair

Happy birthday to you, @jordanmatthewwolfson. The above group of oval-shaped brass panels feature unaltered and unobscured prints of Wolfson’s childhood snapshots, circa 1984 to 1990. An evolution of the artist’s ongoing series of sculptural objects mounted to the wall, the recent panels are the most personal that Wolfson has created to date. In contrast to many of his works featuring advanced digital and virtual technologies, the brass panels allude to ancient metallurgy, classical sculpture, and the radiant, gilded surfaces of churches and altarpieces from the Middle Ages.⁣ ––⁣⁣⁣ Five untitled UV prints on brass by Jordan Wolfson, 2020. Each: 82 1/2 x 50 x 3 1/2 inches (209.6 x 127 x 8.9 cm)⁣ ⁣

Frieze London Online 🔰 Der Zerhacker by Neo Rauch is part of our presentation. The German title of the 2020 work translates as “chopper” in English, referencing the activity being performed by the protagonist with an axe.⁣ ⁣ Tap the link in bio to see our full @FriezeArtFair presentation, which also features new works by Harold Ancart, Lucas Arruda, Carol Bove, @MarcelDzama, Toba Khedoori, Sherrie Levine, Nate Lowman, Oscar Murillo (@estudio_om), @Raymond_Pettibon_, and James Welling (@jamescwelling).⁣⁣ ––⁣⁣⁣ Neo Rauch, Der Zerhacker, 2020. Oil on canvas, 19 5/8 x 15 3/4 inches (50 x 40 cm)⁣ ⁣

Forty-five years after cut five openings into the Pier 52 shed that formerly occupied the site, a work titled Day’s End, will debut his new permanent public art project, inspired by Matta-Clark’s masterpiece.⁣ ⁣ Day’s End (2020), proposed to the by Hammons, will be an open structure that precisely follows the outlines, dimensions, and location of the original shed—and like Matta-Clark’s work, it will offer an extraordinary place to experience the waterfront. It will also allude to the history of New York’s waterfront—from the heyday of its shipping industry to the reclaimed piers that became a gathering place for the gay community.⁣ ⁣ In anticipation of Hammons’s forthcoming public artwork in Hudson River Park, the Whitney is presenting Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970–1986, on view through November 1. The exhibition, centered around Matta-Clark’s seminal project, features works from the museum’s collection that explore downtown New York as site, history, and memory.⁣ ––⁣⁣⁣ RG @whitneymuseum: Gordon Matta-Clark, Day’s End Pier 52.2 (Documentation of the action Day’s End made in 1975 in New York, United States), 1975, printed 1977. Gelatin silver print: sheet, 10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm); image, 8 x 7 13/16 inches (20.3 x 19.8 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Harold Berg 2017.133. © 2020 Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

While the subjects featured in ’s exhibition are notionally calm, solid, and meditative, the works were each conceived very much in action. While driving on a French highway at a breakneck clip, the artist became aware of the trees lining the road in his peripheral vision. They formed a visceral impression, defined by speed and movement that was at once concrete and ethereal. The paintings of trees that Ancart subsequently made, in generously applied oil stick on large-scale canvases, re-create the sensate impression of that experience, making the transitory eternal. The trees are cropped, almost indistinguishable, while the dense array of colors of the leaves, bark, and surrounding sky bleed into one another, creating an arresting blur.⁣ ⁣ Tap the link in bio to learn more about and plan your visit to Harold Ancart: Traveling Light, on view at David Zwirner, 19th Street, New York. The exhibition runs through October 17⁣.⁣ ––⁣⁣ Detail and installation view of Harold Ancart, Untitled, 2020. Oil stick and graphite on canvas in artist’s frame

In the middle of the desert in Qatar, four enormous steel plates rise from the bleak landscape, oriented along an east-west axis over a half-mile stretch. The monolithic structures comprise Richard Serra’s sculpture East-West/West-East—the artist’s second public commission from the Qatar Museums Authority. Several years ago, while in Doha for the first commission (the 80-foot-high sculpture 7, which stands in the city’s harbor near the I. M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art), Serra visited the Brouq Nature Reserve. “I was drawn to that desert because of its topography,” he says. “The site is rugged and craggy, with shell underfoot, very arid and windy.” He noted the distinctive gypsum plateaus, “shaped like oversized mushrooms,” which, at around 50 feet high, defined East-West/West-East’s scale. Informed by the site’s incline, the installation’s four imposing pieces vary in height from 48 to 55 feet, level with the tops of the plateaus. Initially bluish-gray in color, the half-inch-thick plates will develop a patina as they oxidize and weather, transitioning to orange, brown, and finally a dark brown-black. “Working in the desert is something I hadn’t thought I’d do,” says Serra, “and it ended up being one of the better experiences of my life. I’d never spent that much time in that vast a space, and there’s something very humbling about it.” (Words by @MiriamSitz for @archrecordmag)⁣ ––⁣⁣ RG @danilo: Richard Serra, East-West/West-East, 2014, weatherproof steel. Installation view, Brouq Nature Reserve, Qatar⁣ ⁣