The exhibition “The God that Failed” at Galerie Hauser & Wirth in Zurich, curated by Philip Larratt-Smith, explores thematic and formal connections between three influential New York School artists: Louise Bourgeois, Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko.
The exhibition, which runs from June through September, places Bourgeois’ sculptures from 1946 to 1954 in dialogue with paintings and drawings by Newman and Rothko from the same period. All three made the shift from biomorphic figuration to abstraction and geometry in their work. The title of the exhibition refers to the crisis of the concept of authority, be it the father figure, abstraction, psychoanalysis, the sublime, or the emancipatory promise of radical politics, and more generally to the postwar atmosphere of existential angst. All three artists shared a special relationship to space and architecture in their work. While Newman and Rothko sought to explore the spiritual nature of man in their art, Bourgeois’ focus was more on unconscious processes.
The exhibition features important works by Newman and Rothko from museum and private collections, including Newman’s “Untitled 1, 1955” (1955) and Rothko’s “No. 40 (Blue Penumbra)” (1957).
