Cayón Menorca is pleased to present an exhibition by Joel Shapiro (New York, 1941), the artist's first show at the gallery and in Spain since his solo show at the IVAM in Valencia more than 30 years ago (1990-1). The exhibition will present some of his most recent sculptures, pastels on paper and an installation that will occupy the vast main hall of the old theater that now hosts Cayón's exhibitions in Mahón, Menorca.
Since the seventies, Shapiro's sculptural work uses and takes to the extreme some of the basic principles of sculpture such as scale, forcing the spectators’ vision and abstracting their position to examine the smallest or medium-sized works to becoming participants in the artist’s most monumental installations, including the one that will be presented in Cayón, Menorca. Composed by a series of geometric elements in basic colors (yellow, orange, red and blue), these imposing works reaching up to three meters will hang at different heights across the 12-meter-tall room.
Joel Shapiro, Galería Cayón Menorca, 2022
Joel Shapiro, Galería Cayón Menorca, 2022
Joel Shapiro is an American artist renowned for having developed, since the 1970s, a body of sculpture distinguished by its dynamism and formal elegance. Employing a vocabulary of often geometric elements, his work, which frequently blurs the line between figuration and abstraction, explores the possibilities of sculptural form and attempts to challenge one’s sense of scale and invigorate one’s sense space.
Untitled (JS 2659), 2022 Madera y óleo, 84,1 x 43,8 x 77,8 cm. SH033
Untitled (JS 1958), 2009-2011. Madera y caseína, 185,42 x 142,24 x 81,28 cm. SH029
A resident of New York, Shapiro has been the subject of numerous solo and retrospective exhibitions at institutions including the Whitechapel Gallery in London (1980), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (1982); the Metropolitan Museum Rooftop, New York (2001); the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1985); the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (1995-1996); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2011); the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2016); Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (2017); and the Yale University Art Gallery (2018).
Shapiro’s work is installed in public settings across Europe, Asia, and North America and is held in international collections including New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Whitney Museum of American Art, and Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Tate Gallery, London; and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
In Spain, his work can be found in such public collections as the IVAM, Valencia, and the Helga de Alvear Collection, Cáceres.
Joel Shapiro, Galería Cayón Menorca, 2022
In addition to the installation, the exhibition will present various of Shapiro’s sculptures in wood and bronze characterized by the assembly of different bodies, normally of enormous formal simplicity, that have allowed those who know Shapiro’s work to relate him to the avant-garde of the early years of the last century; from Tatlin to Picasso, passing through Julio González (Barcelona, 1876-Arcueil, 1942).
Precisely because of this relationship with the Catalan sculptor, and for the first time, an encounter between González and Shapiro will be proposed in one of the gallery spaces. Thus, some sculptures by the New Yorker will coexist with major works by Julio González (such as "Les Amoureux I", 1932-3 or "Tête Aigüe/Masque Aigu", 1930).
"Julio González / Joel Shapiro", Galería Cayón Menorca, 2022
Julio González is one of the most important and influential artists of the first half of the 20th century. He was the first to use welding to make his works, which meant a radical change in the conception of sculpture that had been held since the time of Greek art. Through the industrial technique of autogenous welding, the elements that make up a sculpture occupy the space, giving it a capital importance because, finally, the sculptor was able to “draw in space” without the limitations that artists had been dragging when using materials such as wood, stone or traditional foundation.
Joel Shapiro, Untitled (JS 76.1), 1971-74. Hierro fundido, 7 x 27,9 x 10,8 cm. SH022
Julio González, Le cagoulard, 1935-1936. Bronce patinado, 14,5 x 22 x 18 cm. JG034
He spent most of his life in Paris, where he came into contact with the artistic avant-garde. It was there that he would begin to move towards an abstract language, giving space and emptiness the main role in his work. From his hand -and from the famous collaboration with Pablo Picasso in 1930- emerged some of the most important works of the last century and of the history of sculpture. Julio Gonzalez is perhaps the most influential European artist in American sculpture; without his presence we cannot understand the work of David Smith, among many others.
This is the first time that a dialogue between Gonzalez and Shapiro has taken place. The works are from the Julio Gonzalez Administration, Paris, with whose essential collaboration this project is made.
"Julio González / Joel Shapiro", Galería Cayón Menorca, 2022
As mentioned above, the American artist's project is completed with a series of seven pastels on paper, created exclusively for the exhibition.
To view the full catalogue, including an interview with the artist by Matthieu Poirier, click HERE.
For more information click HERE
Credits:
© Joel Shapiro Studio
© Julio González Administration
Galería Cayón Madrid/Manila/Menorca, 2021.
Fotografía © UMFotografía.