COURTESY HAUSER WIRTH & SCHIMMEL
Zurich-based gallery Hauser & Wirth is finally set to open its first California gallery, Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, and today we get word on the first exhibition: “Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women, 1947-2016.” The all-female survey of postwar sculpture will present over 100 works by artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Lynda Benglis, Yayoi Kusama, Eva Hesse, and will open to the public March 13.
Paul Schimmel—a partner in the gallery who curated the show with co-curator Jenni Sorkin, an art historian and professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara—told the Los Angeles Times that he was inspired by the collection of Ursula Hauser, the Swiss collector who founded the gallery with Iwan Wirth.
“I come from the museum world, where it’s always best to start with what’s in a collection, with the history of an institution and build out from there,” he said. “This came from a real personal recognition that these are artists who [Ursula] deeply related to, but were under-appreciated.”
The exhibition is Schimmel’s most high-profile curatorial gig since his fiery exit from L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art upon the arrival of new director Jeffrey Deitch.