40 Albemarle | Michelangelo Pistoletto
40 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4TE
To celebrate the extension of Michelangelo Pistoletto at 909 Madison Avenue, New York, Lévy Gorvy is pleased to present three works by the Italian artist at 40 Albemarle Street, London.
Emphasizing the performance-based aspect of Pistoletto’s practice, this installation features examples from three distinct but closely related bodies of work. Rottura dello specchio—azione 2 (2017), from the artist’s iconic series of mirror portraits, shows Pistoletto himself brandishing the tool that binds them together: a long-handled wooden mallet.
On either side of this powerful self-portrait, Two Less One Colored (2014) and Two Less One Black (2011) demonstrate the result of the process whereby Pistoletto breaks the surfaces of mirrors and utilizes the shards as the basis for deconstructed, yet continually reflective, planes. Central to these works is the action itself, which the artist has performed publicly at the 2008 Yokohama Triennale (resulting in Seventeen Less One, now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York) and the 2009 Venice Biennale, among other places.
Pistoletto sees the destruction of a mirror as a way of addressing the interconnectedness of the world. “Each shard still has the same reflecting quality as the whole mirror,” he says. “So, all mirrors are connected, smashed or intact, just as all humans share the same basic DNA. I see society as a kind of broken mirror.” Thanks to the poetic dialogue between the three works on view, visitors are invited to contemplate Pistoletto’s unique concept of aesthetic experience within a dynamic, constantly metamorphosing environment.
Lévy Gorvy will continue to install single-artist presentations at 40 Albemarle Street in Mayfair. Designed by Gabriel Chipperfield, the capacious ground-floor space is located a short walking distance from our gallery at 22 Old Bond Street. 40 Albemarle Street’s expansive storefront windows offer the opportunity to bring large-scale works of art to the street.
MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO
Two Less One Colored
2014
Mirrors and gilded wood frames
Two parts, each: 70 7/8 x 47 1/4 inches (180 x 120 cm)
MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO
Rottura dello specchio—azione 2
2017
Silkscreen on super mirror stainless steel
59 1/16 x 98 7/16 inches (150 x 250 cm)
MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO
Two Less One Black
2011
Mirrors, black mirrors, and gilded wood frames
Two parts, each: 70 7/8 x 47 1/4 inches (180 x 120 cm)