Gagosian to Publish New Monograph Surveying Ten Years of Work by Richard Wright

Comunicato Stampa disponibile solo in lingua originale. 

Painting does not represent; painting is the thing itself.
—Richard Wright

LONDON, March 29, 2023—Gagosian is pleased to announce the publication of a long-awaited monograph on #richardwright, surveying works made between 2010 and 2020. The book documents projects made for both well-known public spaces and otherwise inaccessible private residences around the world and will be available for purchase from June 20, 2023.Wright is known for large-scale and site-specific—but often temporary—painted and applied metal-leaf installations that invest architectural spaces with new optical and associative complexity. Shifting between illusionism and abstraction, his projects alter the viewer's perception and understanding of space. Incorporating graphic and decorative elements, they allude to Renaissance and Minimalist painting, Baroque ornamentation and Constructivist tile patterns, commercial image making and organic contour lines. In his works on paper, Wright also employs ink drawing, gilding, printmaking, and watercolor painting techniques.Among the many works pictured and discussed in the new book are Wright's prestigious permanent installations at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh; Queen's House, London; and Tottenham Court Road station (Elizabeth Line), London. Featured too are all his works in leaded glass, beginning with his 2013 project for Tate Britain, London. The book also documents almost all of the works on paper that Wright has made over the past decade. Significantly, the publication functions as an important record of many temporary works that no longer exist, including installations at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; Volksbühne, Berlin; Lismore Castle, Ireland; and Gagosian, Britannia Street, London.The book includes essays by Martin Clark, director of Camden Art Centre, London; social anthropologist Tim Ingold; and the artist himself, and features an in-depth conversation with Will Bradley, director of Kunsthall Oslo. Clark, in his text "Process and Reality," draws parallels between the orientation toward ephemerality in Wright's work and the ideas of physicist David Bohm and philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead, who theorized that objects exist in a state of unending "becoming"—and entirely in relation to one another. Ingold's contribution, "Fleeting Sounds, Glittering Stars and Orphan Spirits," explores Wright's projects for the Rijksmuseum, Queen's House, and Scottish National Gallery, focusing on how the artist's use of color, pattern, and ornamentation resonate with the distinct features of the three historic buildings."Painting is an act that connects reality and consciousness," writes Wright in his own commentary. "It is more than a collective codification of signs. It is a performance that awakens the delirium of vision." Tracing connections with other artists from Piet Mondrian and Alexander Rodchenko to Donald Judd, Lygia Clark, and Gerhard Richter, he provides a fascinating individual perspective on the progress and purpose of his chosen medium. Finally, Bradley quizzes Wright on subjects including authorship, artisanship, and the relationship of his work to performance. The artist recalls making early, adrenaline-fueled works at Kunsthalle Bern and arguing for the time needed to produce his elaborate gold-leaf work for the Turner Prize exhibition at Tate, London, in 2009.Organized on the occasion of Wright's exhibition at Gagosian, Davies Street, which opens on March 29, a conversation between Wright and Martin Clark will be held in April at the Gagosian Shop in London's historic Burlington Arcade.