About

About

Hauser & Wirth was founded in 1992 in Zurich by Iwan Wirth, Manuela Wirth and Ursula Hauser, who were joined in 2000 by Partner and President Marc Payot. A family business with a global outlook, Hauser & Wirth represents over 90 artists and estates who have been instrumental in shaping its identity and who are the inspiration for Hauser & Wirth’s diverse range of activities that engage with art, education, conservation and sustainability.  

The gallery has built a reputation for its dedication to artists and support of visionary artistic projects worldwide. In addition to presenting a dynamic schedule of exhibitions, the gallery collaborates with renowned curators to present museum quality surveys and invests considerable resources in new scholarship and research. Since its earliest days, Hauser & Wirth has mounted historically significant exhibitions. The inaugural exhibition in 1992 took place in the first-floor apartment of an Art Deco villa in the heart of Zurich; it united mobiles and gouaches by Alexander Calder with sculptures and paintings by Joan Miró. Since then, the gallery has continued to forge an ambitious and academically rigorous program of historic exhibitions, providing a natural home for a number of major 20th-century artist estates and encouraging a continued and engaging discourse around their oeuvres. These include Louise Bourgeois, The Estate of Philip Guston, The Eva Hesse Estate, Allan Kaprow Estate, Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, The Estate of Jason Rhoades, Dieter Roth Estate and The Estate of David Smith. 

Our history

On the occasion of our 30th anniversary in 2022, you can explore an interactive digital experience that chronologically traces the journey of Hauser & Wirth and the artists who shaped the gallery through personal stories and a wealth of never-before-seen archival and visual material.  

Delve into the gallery’s history and wide-ranging projects with this invaluable resource for audiences interested in learning more about contemporary art and the Hauser & Wirth story. 

Learning

Since 2013, Hauser & Wirth Somerset has supported an immersive artist-in-residence program alongside a breadth of learning and community initiatives. Previous artists-in-residence include Rita Ackermann, Martin Creed, Allison Katz, Bharti Kher, Pipilotti Rist, Henry Taylor, Thomas J Price, Rashid Johnson and Christina Quarles. 2024 residencies included Oddur Roth, Firelei Báez, a new writer’s residency in partnership with ArtReview, a guest artist collective selected by Frances Morris responding to the work of Phyllida Barlow. 

Hauser & Wirth is committed to inclusive learning programs that create a dialogue between art, artists and diverse audiences. Ongoing global projects are centered on three core pillars: to engage with communities; enrich academic courses; and foster better access to art careers through a series of meaningful partnerships. In 2024, the gallery partnered with 22 non-profits and collaborated with a further 64 charities and organizations, resulting in over 170,000 people globally experiencing an element of the learning program. We ran over 1000 tours and events in 10 locations, welcoming 10,521 learners from schools and universities. 

Hauser & Wirth’s Education Lab initiative is located in Menorca, Somerset and Downtown Los Angeles, as well as at Chillida Leku, and each Education Lab is a collaboration with a local community group, school or university. The interactive spaces have been inspired by and developed alongside the gallery’s international artists, facilitating a platform for discovery, discussion and additional resources. In 2025, the Education Labs will take their starting point from artists Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle in Somerset, Cindy Sherman and Mika Rottenberg in Menorca, Eduardo Chillida in San Sebastian and Henry Taylor in Los Angeles.  

Hauser & Wirth Publishers

Publishing has been a cornerstone of Hauser & Wirth’s activity since the gallery’s founding in 1992. Its publishing activities steadily flourished through partnerships with various imprints before the establishment of Hauser & Wirth Publishers, with headquarters in New York and Zurich.  

In keeping with Hauser & Wirth’s artist-centric vision, Hauser & Wirth Publishers works to bring readers into the universe of artists and behind the scenes of their practices. From publishing artists’ writings and exhibition-related books to commissioning new scholarship and pursuing the highest levels of craft in design and bookmaking, Hauser & Wirth Publishers creates vital, lasting records of artists’ work and ideas, forging critical gateways to the cultural discourse they inspire. Additionally, the imprint publishes Ursula magazine, a print and digital periodical that features essays, profiles, interviews, original portfolios, films and photography by writers and artists from around the world.