Rita Ackermann
Turning Air Blue
September 30 - January 1, 2018
Somerset
Hauser & Wirth Somerset is pleased to present ‘Turning Air Blue’, an exhibition of new works by Hungarian born, New York-based artist Rita Ackermann.
Selected images
Installation views
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Events
15 Dec 2017
Exhibition Tour
Join us for a tour of current exhibitions ‘Josephsohn / Märkli. A Conjunction’ and ‘Rita Ackermann. Turning Air Blue’ led by Hauser & Wirth Somerset’s Head of Education, Debbie Hillyerd. The walking tour will lead guests through the galleries and Cloister Courtyard whilst discussing significant works in the exhibitions.
15 Dec 2017
Exhibition Tour
Join us for a tour of current exhibitions ‘Josephsohn / Märkli. A Conjunction’ and ‘Rita Ackermann. Turning Air Blue’ led by Hauser & Wirth Somerset Director, Dea Vanagan. The walking tour will lead guests through the galleries and Cloister Courtyard whilst discussing significant works in the exhibitions.
Exhibition Tour
Join us for a tour of current exhibitions ‘Josephsohn / Märkli. A Conjunction’ and ‘Rita Ackermann. Turning Air Blue’ led by Hauser & Wirth Somerset’s Senior Director, Alice Workman. The walking tour will lead guests through the galleries and Cloister Courtyard whilst discussing significant works in the exhibitions. ‘Josephsohn / Märkli. A Conjunction’ an exhibition of works by the late Swiss sculptor Josephsohn (1920 – 2012), shown alongside the architectural drawings of his long-time friend, Swiss architect Peter Märkli. Taking its name from “La Congiunta”, an isolated museum designed by Märkli to house a number of Josephsohn’s bronze sculptures, the exhibition examines the intense and longstanding collaboration between these two powerful creative minds, shining a spotlight on the elusive practice of each, and highlighting what two very different disciplines – sculpture and architecture – can offer the other as insight, and about the generosity and humanity of such an exchange. The second exhibition titled ‘Turning Air Blue’ is an exhibition of new works by Hungarian born, New York-based artist Rita Ackermann. ‘Turning Air Blue’ extends through two galleries and doubles as an organic continuation of the gallery’s rural setting. The exhibition starts in the Rhoades gallery, which features a body of work titled The Coronation and Massacre of Love. The paintings here are large-scale compositions on canvas primed with chalkboard paint, on which washes of white chalk and green and blue pigments have been applied. The exhibition continues into the Bourgeois gallery, which comprises two bodies of work: Turning Air Blue and Nudes. This is a free event, but must be booked in advance.
The Big Draw: Schools Event
Join Hauser & Wirth Somerset for an event open to 100 school children to celebrate The Big Draw, the world’s largest drawing festival. This year’s theme for the festival is ‘Living Lines’. In response to the exhibition ‘Rita Ackermann. Turning Air Blue’ we will use drawing to examine some of the ways in which her work explores both physical movement and the body as a subject. In response to the Big Draw 2017 theme: Living Lines, we shall make a huge collaborative chalkboard drawing as the subject of a stop-frame animation. Students will not only have the opportunity to explore a range of approaches to drawing but be introduced to some of the basics of animation. Early Years to Primary Schools Session: 10 am – 12 pm Secondary Schools Session: 1 – 3 pm Places are limited to a maximum of 25 pupils per school. To book a place please emaileducation@hauserwirth.com or call +44 174 981 4060 For further details contact Debbie Hillyerd, Head of Education at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, debbie@hauserwirth.com
Family Saturday
Hauser & Wirth Somerset invites families into the gallery for Family Saturdays on the first Saturday of every month. These free sessions offer families a unique experience of art, design and nature. This special Family Saturday, in collaboration with The Big Draw, invites children and their families to take part in drawing activities that provide a direct interpretation of this years festival theme: ‘Living Lines: An Animated Big Draw Festival’. For as long as we’ve been able to draw we’ve been depicting motion; activities inspired by the current exhibition ‘Rita Ackermann. Turning Air Blue’ will invite families to join the world’s largest drawing festival and draw, doodle, sketch, paint or just make marks with meaning, as we celebrate the diverse language of drawing and appreciate the visual world around us. The Big Draw is the world’s biggest drawing festival with thousands of drawing activities connecting people of all ages with museums, outdoor spaces, artists, designers, illustrators – and each other. The Big Draw annually involves 1000+ organisers on seven continents, engaging around 400,000 people in their theme ‘Living Lines’! The Big Draw 2017 takes place 1 – 31 October at various locations internationally. For our Big Draw event we will run two sessions; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The sessions are aimed at families with children aged 6 – 14 years, however younger children are welcome if supervised by parents / carers. This is a free event, however advanced booking is essential as there are limited places. To book a place please email education@hauserwirth.com or call +44 1749 814060
About the artist
The opposing impulses of creation and destruction mark the touchstone of the Hungarian-born, New York-based artist Rita Ackermann’s practice, which continues to evolve and manifest itself in the shift from representation to abstraction.
