ARCOmadrid 2022
Booth 9B09
IFEMA MADRID
Recinto Ferial, Av. Partenón 5
28042 Madrid
Through February 27, 2022
www.ifema.es


Esther Schipper is pleased to participate in ARCOmadrid 2022, taking place through February 27. We hope you will join us at the fair, Booth 9B09.

With works by:
Rosa Barba
Matti Braun
Sarah Buckner
Angela Bulloch
Etienne Chambaud
Thomas Demand
Simon Fujiwara
Ann Veronica Janssens
Ugo Rondinone
Anri Sala
Karin Sander
Daniel Steegmann Mangrané

If you wish to receive a dossier, or should you have any questions about our presentation at ARCOmadrid 2022, please contact Marek Obara: obara@estherschipper.com

40 (+1) Anniversary | Booth 17
With AA Bronson and General Idea


Esther Schipper presents two historical works: General Idea's El Dorado Series,1992, and AA Bronson‘s Untitled (For General Idea), 1997 in this year’s special section ARCOmadrid's 40 (+1) Anniversary, through February 27.

El Dorado Series, 1992, consists of a set of nine abstract paintings made of tinted hydrostone on extruded Styrofoam.

While the title references the mythical city of gold that lured 16th century Spanish conquistadors into the then-uncharted territories of South America, the nine tones of each colored hydrostone painting are pointillist interpretations of 18th century Spanish “caste” paintings in the collection of Museo Nacional de Antropología, Madrid, first commissioned during the reign of Philip V of Spain (1700-1746) to map out the development of different interracial ethnic groups in South America, as a result of European colonialism. Their subtitles identify specific types for each ethnicity: Sombujito, Morisco, Lobo, Coyote, Albarazado, Albino, Cuarteron, Mestizo, and Mulato.

The work additionally refers to General Idea’s 1991 Maracaibo: ten collages of an extensive photographic archive belonging to a Venezuelan businessman who died of AIDS in 1988. The series of snapshots—representing hundreds of men of different skin color, either nude or dressed—was found by General Idea who appropriated it. Appropriation was central to many of General Idea’s artworks: the group drew on formats and aesthetics from sources in popular culture, archeology, and fine art.

Untitled (for General Idea) consists of three white Bertoia Side Chairs, an icon of mid-century modernist design, aligned in a row and outfitted with red, green and blue vinyl cushions. AA Bronson was co-founder of artists’ group General Idea with Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal in 1969, the three artists working and living together until the death of Partz and Zontal from AIDS in 1994.

Untitled (for General Idea) was the first solo work produced by AA Bronson after their deaths. The white Bertoia chairs and red/green/blue cushions were originally a gift from General Idea to Art Metropole, the center for artists books and editions that they founded in 1974. But after Jorge and Felix died, AA realized that the three chairs and cushions had become an icon of General Idea itself, or at least the memory of General Idea. He first exhibited it as an installation in 1997.

The three colors of the cushions reference the RGB color model of video and television displays. The color scheme appears frequently in General Idea’s oeuvre, which appropriated formats and aesthetics from sources in mass media, advertising and popular culture. It is the color scheme of General Idea’s iconic AIDS logo, a re-configuration of Robert Indiana’s widely quoted LOVE (1966) image to read “AIDS.” Producing posters, wallpaper, stamps, public sculpture and billboards, General Idea spread their self-described Imagevirus throughout art institutions and public spaces worldwide, in an attempt to normalize the word, and hopefully, normalize people’s relationship to the disease. As AA Bronson recounted at the time: “to make it something that can be dealt with as a disease rather than a set of moral or ethical issues.”

Thomas Demand
Mundo de Papel
Centro Botín
Muelle de Albareda s/n
Jardines de Pereda
39004 Santander
Through March 6, 2022
www.centrobotin.org
Virtual Tour

Communicating Vessels. Collection 1881-2021
With Rosa Barba
Museo Reina Sofía
C. de Sta. Isabel, 52
28012 Madrid
from November 27, 2021
www.museoreinasofia.es

Helga de Alvear Collection
With David Claerbout, Liam Gillick, Pierre Huyghe, Philippe Parreno and Ugo Rondinone
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Helga de Alvear
C. Pizarro, 8 y 10,
10003 Cáceres
Ongoing
www.fundacionhelgadealvear.es

The Point of Sculpture
With Karin Sander
Fundació Joan Miró
Parc de Montjuïc
08038 Barcelona
Through March 6, 2022
www.fmirobcn.org