Rita Ackermann – Turning Air Blue

Hauser & Wirth Somerset is pleased to present ‘Turning Air Blue’, an exhibition of new works by Hungarian born, New York-based artist Rita Ackermann.

‘Turning Air Blue’ extends through two galleries and doubles as an organic continuation of Somerset’s rural setting. The exhibition starts in the Rhoades gallery, which features a body of work titled ‘The Coronation and Massacre of Love’. The paintings here are large-scale compositions on canvas primed with chalkboard paint, on which washes of white chalk and green and blue pigments have been applied. These Abstract Expressionist-like works are reminiscent of actual chalkboards in a classroom, covered with unintentional erasures and marks, yet they have been conceptually executed by multiple deletions of figurative drawings and landscapes. By way of these gestures, the revenant outline of the erased drawings often emerges into the foreground. The final picture is a record of these movements.

The exhibition continues into the Bourgeois gallery, which comprises two bodies of work: ‘Turning Air Blue’ and ‘Nudes”. The paintings titled ‘Turning Air Blue’ are large-scale pigment paintings on canvas where translucent figures suggest a feminine shape. These works derive from the ‘Fire by Days’ series – paintings inspired by accident being the true enemy of intention – which formed Ackermann’s introductory exhibition at Hauser & Wirth, London, in 2012. The palette of these new works is rendered by flesh tones shading into blue. The large paintings have an airy lightness about them, contrasting with the much smaller ‘Nudes’. While these smaller framed oils bear a similar pigmentation, they are painted more thickly to evoke the physicality of the female body.

Gallery hours 10 am – 5 pm (March – October), Tues-Sun 10 am – 4 pm (November – February)

www.hauserwirthsomerset.com

Location:
Hauser & Wirth Somerset
Durslade Farm / Dropping Lane
BA10 0NL Bruton / Somerset
United Kingdom