“Wifredo Lam was the first Surrealist to make primitive and ethnic sources central to his art.”
William Rubin (famous curator and former director of the Painting and Sculpture Department at the MoMA in New York)
Galerie Gmurzynska is pleased to return to Hong Kong for the ninth consecutive year. Having participated to Art Hong Kong and subsequently as of the very first editions of Art Basel Hong Kong, Galerie Gmurzynska is continuing its commitment to explore and show the work of 20th Century Masters. The exhibition at the booth will be parted in two presentations: the first one dedicated to Classic Modern, with works by groundbreaking artists Wifredo Lam and Roberto Matta, and the second one with focus on Contemporary and Pop Art, with a selection of works by Fernando Botero, Robert Indiana, Allen Jones, Yayoi Kusama, Francesco Vezzoli, and Tom Wesselmann.
The gallery has been representing the Estate of the Chinese-Cuban 20th Centruy Master Wifredo Lam for almost a decade, and recently took on the Estate of Roberto Matta. In December 2018, Galerie Gmurzynska inaugurated its New York gallery location with a Wifredo Lam retrospective. Earlier the same year, an exhibition focused on Roberto Matta and Marcel Duchamp was held at the gallery’s Zurich premises, with introductory speeches by Sir Rosenthal and Prof. Adés.
This year’s presentation at Art Basel Hong Kong, will be the occasion to introduce to the Asian audience a 340 pages thoroughly documented monograph on Wifredo Lam, published by Galerie Gmurzynska in English, featuring essays and contributions by renowned scholars, documentary images, and a selection of masterpieces by Wifredo Lam, celebrated Surrealist-Cubist painter, born in Cuba to a Chinese father.
Roberto Matta, Chilean Surrealist and early mentor to the New York Surrealist movement, explored new ways of rendering the Space, achieving new means in depicting three dimensional forms, combining an aesthetic of pure abstraction with elements of figuration.