Joel Shapiro American, 1941-2025

Featuring paintings, works on paper, sculpture, film, and archival ephemera from the SFMOMA Library, and SFAI archive, this ambitious exhibition showcases museum-quality works by contemporary and historical artists, illustrating Berggruen...

Berggruen Gallery is proud to present Works in Black & White, a group exhibition that delves into the world of black and white as the primary, and often sole, colors. This curated collection explores the nuances of these two fundamental tones, reflecting on the various ways artists employ simplicity and complexity within this timeless palette. From bold abstractions to intricate minimalism, the exhibition reveals the artists' diverse abilities to convey emotion and provoke contemplation within the grayscale spectrum.

Works in Black & White will be on display from September 14 — October 13, 2023, featured on the top level of Berggruen Gallery.

Exhibiting Artists:

Robert Bechtle | Richard Diebenkorn | Lucian Freud | Michael Gregory | Philip Guston | Mona Hatoum | Al Held | Sarah Hotchkiss | William Kentridge | Anselm Kiefer | Matt Kleberg | Des Lawrence | Julian Lethbridge | Brice Marden | Sam Messenger | Martin Puryear | Linda Ridgway | Iran Do Espírito Santo | Richard Serra | Joel Shapiro | Kiki Smith | Jonas Wood

I am honored to present this exhibition, Her Voice, in honor of my late wife, Gretchen Berggruen. Co-owner of Berggruen Gallery, Gretchen was the heart and soul of the gallery. This group show features more than thirty artists, all of whom Gretchen championed, worked closely alongside, and deeply admired. This exhibition reflects Gretchen’s vision and her great passion in life. Those who had the pleasure to have known her know the deep level of care and attention with which she always acted. Her expertise, drive, kindness, patience, and perseverance drove the gallery to be what it is today. Gretchen was my partner and our leader, and I am proud to present Her Voice, celebrating her life and all that she built. – John Berggruen

Featuring artworks by the following artists:

Diana Al-Hadid | John Alexander | Jennifer Bartlett | Cecily Brown | Christopher Brown | Squeak Carnwath | Bruce Cohen | Roseline Delisle | Mark di Suvero | Richard Diebenkorn | Austin Eddy | Helen Frankenthaler | Jane Hammond | Stephen Hannock | Shara Hughes | William Kentridge | Clare Kirkconnell | Julian Lethbridge | Alicia McCarthy | Tom McKinley | Julie Mehretu | Elizabeth Murray | Tom Otterness | Martin Puryear | Linda Ridgway | Joel Shapiro | Judith Shea | Kiki Smith | Mark Tansey | Wayne Thiebaud | Fiona Waterstreet

Berggruen Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of an exhibition space in East Hampton for the 2021 summer season. The gallery space is located in the heart of East Hampton Village at 55 Main Street. Berggruen Gallery’s special "pop-up" will be on view May 14 — September 30, 2021. Hours: Monday-Wednesday, by appointment; Thursday-Sunday, 11am-5pm.

John Berggruen first opened his eponymous gallery in downtown San Francisco in the spring of 1970. Five decades later, the gallery has executed more than 800 major exhibitions, participated in significant domestic and international art fairs such as Art Basel Miami Beach, and exhibited at the Art Dealer's Association of America's The Art Show, since the fair's inception, for the past 33 years. A cornerstone of the West Coast art world, Berggruen Gallery is proud to deepen our roots on both coasts of the country with this exciting East Coast venture.

Berggruen Gallery will present a curated selection of Modern and Contemporary paintings, sculptures, and limited-edition prints. The presentation will reflect the gallery’s ongoing dedication to juxtaposing historical works with those from the contemporary canon. The gallery will feature a dynamic and diverse group of internationally-acclaimed artists, including renowned Post-War American painters like Richard Diebenkorn, Helen Frankenthaler, and Wayne Thiebaud, as well as many important contemporary artists artists such as Diana Al-Hadid, John Currin, Beatriz Milhazes, Odili Donald Odita, and Jonas Wood. Berggruen Gallery is excited to present a unique breadth of work—transcending subject matter, composition, medium, and technique—for the summer of 2021 in East Hampton.

Artists
Diana Al-Hadid | John Alexander | Stephan Balkenhol | Christopher Brown | Bruce Cohen
Michael Craig-Martin | John Currin | Richard Diebenkorn | Helen Frankenthaler
Isca Greenfield-Sanders | Stephen Hannock | Jasper Johns | Paul Kremer | Alicia McCarthy
Tom McKinley | Beatriz Milhazes | Odili Donald Odita | David Park | Joel Shapiro
Wayne Thiebaud | Stanley Whitney | Lucy Williams | Donald Roller Wilson | Jonas Wood

Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present OBJECTively Speaking: Contemporary Sculpture, a powerful survey of forms that transcend notions of material, line, volume, and balance. This exhibition will be on view July 27 - October 9, 2020. You can view the exhibition in person by scheduling an appointment here. For a virtually interactive exhibition experience, we invite you to visit our online viewing room here.

We are also excited to announce the introduction of Berggruen Gallery 3D viewing experiences, a new feature that we are inaugurating with our current OBJECTively Speaking: Contemporary Sculpture exhibition.

OBJECTively Speaking brings together distinct processes from a dynamic range of artists while simultaneously meditating on the Minimalist art movement. The artists present in this showing have all worked to both continue and disrupt notions of sculpture as we understand it, even having influenced one another’s work in real-time. While Joel Shapiro’s geometric abstractions speak to Donald Judd’s unadorned objects, Anish Kapoor’s exploration of reflectivity acknowledges Joseph Kosuth’s unique use of light and medium 45 years prior. Examining the influence of Minimalist, Installation, Abstract, and Conceptual sculpture in the 20th and 21st centuries, OBJECTively Speaking presents a complex yet complimentary selection of works by:

Mark di Suvero

Antony Gormley

Mona Hatoum

Donald Judd

Anish Kapoor

Joseph Kosuth

Ritsue Mishima

Iran Do Espirito Santo

Joel Shapiro

Frank Stella

OBJECTively Speaking: Contemporary Sculpture, July 27 - October 9, 2020. On view by appointment only at 10 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. To schedule an appointment, please click here. Images and preview are available upon request. For all inquiries please contact the gallery by phone (415) 781-4629 or by email info@berggruen.com.

Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present Major Contemporary Works, an exhibition of paintings, drawings, and sculptures by important contemporary artists. This show will be on view May 16 - July 6, 2019.

Tauba Auerbach | Cecily Brown | Christo | Tony Cragg | Sarah Crowner | John Currin | Mark di Suvero
Spencer Finch | Günther Förg | Danny Fox | Michelle Grabner | Shara Hughes | William Kentridge
Alicia McCarthy | Beatriz Milhazes | Sarah Morris | Odili Donald Odita | Tom Otterness
Martin Puryear | Joel Shapiro | Jenny Sharaf | Kiki Smith | Lucy Williams


Major Contemporary Works, May 16 - July 6, 2019. On view at 10 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. Images and preview are available upon request. For all inquiries, please contact the gallery by phone (415) 781-4629 or by email info@berggruen.com.

Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present The Human Form, a sweeping exploration of the human figure from the early 20th century to today. It will be the inaugural exhibition in its new space at 10 Hawthorne Street, across from the recently expanded San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Bringing together over 60 works by 20th century masters such as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Lucian Freud, Alberto Giacometti, Edward Hopper, Willem de Kooning, Gerhard Richter, Richard Diebenkorn, and Wayne Thiebaud, as well as leading contemporary artists George Condo, Cecily Brown, Joel Shapiro, Antony Gormley, Kiki Smith and Kehinde Wiley, The Human Form will look at the formal and conceptual ways that artists have approached the representation of the figure. As Dr. Steven A. Nash writes, “The human body has been a lightning rod for creative imagination since humankind’s earliest impulses toward graphic representation. As the most common attribute of our shared humanity, it provides a powerful channel for empathetic communication of ideas, emotions, ideals, and beliefs. Throughout the history of image-making, the body has inspired countless varieties of interpretation, but it is safe to say that no other period of art history has seen the inventive, radical, and expressive explorations of this human vessel that characterize the modern era starting in the early 20th-century.”

The exhibition is the first in the gallery’s new space, and reflects the Berggruen’s interest in putting into conversation works of historical significance with contemporary pieces that grapple with the most pressing issues of our time. The gallery has a long history of exploring figuration through its exhibitions, and this show provides an in-depth look at the significant role the figure has played for artists over time, and the way it has been adapted throughout the narrative of 20th and 21st century art. The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with an introductory essay by Dr. Steven A. Nash, Founding Director of the Nasher Sculpture Center, Chief Curator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and most recently, Director of the Palm Springs Art Museum.

Full Artist List

Milton Avery Lucian Freud Elizabeth Peyton
David Bates Alberto Giacometti Francis Picabia
Max Beckmann Antony Gormley Pablo Picasso
Michaël Borremans Edward Hopper Martin Puryear
Cecily Brown Chris Johanson Gerhard Richter
Christopher Brown Alex Katz Tom Sachs
Nick Cave Yves Klein Jenny Saville
Chuck Close Roy Lichtenstein Joel Shapiro
George Condo Henri Matisse Kiki Smith
James Crosby Barry McGee Wayne Thiebaud
Willem de Kooning Henry Moore Adriana Varejão
Richard Diebenkorn Nathan Oliveira Kara Walker
Peter Doig David Park Kehinde Wiley

The Human Form, January 13 – March 4, 2017. On view at 10 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. Images and preview are available upon request. For further information, please contact the gallery by phone
(415) 781.4629 or by email info@berggruen.com. Gallery hours: Monday – Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

John Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of recent works by Joel Shapiro. This exhibition opens Thursday, April 5th, and will remain on view through Saturday, May 12th. An opening reception for the artist will be held on Thursday, April 5th, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. to coordinate with the San Francisco Art Dealer’s Association’s First Thursdays.



Joel Shapiro began working in the late 1960s at a time when traditional notions of sculpture were being radically redefined by Minimalism and Conceptual Art. In this exhibition, Shapiro will continue his investigation of the connection between line and form. As Shapiro himself explains, “Vitality of form is still something that I pursue.” Featured in this show will be bronze and painted wood sculpture, including a recently completed nine-foot tall bronze, as well as works on paper. Constructed with an exacting eye for detail, these beautifully fabricated sculptures are a pleasure to examine up close.



Shapiro’s work has been the subject of over one hundred solo shows and retrospectives. Most recently, the artist completed a commission of a 32-foot-tall aluminum work for the newly opened Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado. His other public commissions can be seen at such sites as Creative Artists Agency, Los Angeles; The United States Holocaust Museum, Washington, D.C.; Köln Sculpture Park, Cologne, Germany; National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; and the International Sculpture Collection, Rotterdam. Shapiro’s work is included in numerous public collections such as The British Museum, London; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Musee national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Modern Art, Friuli, Italy; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; The Tate Gallery, London; and The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY. He lives and works in New York City.

John Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present A View From Above, a survey of works by American and International artists whose aesthetic styles and prolific works ask the viewer to slow down and consider their every detail as physical fact, artistic choice and purveyor of meaning. A View From Above will occupy the second floor of gallery space and will include work by artists Vija Celmins, Chuck Close, Mark di Suvero, Olafur Eliasson, Helen Frankenthaler, Tom Friedman, Anish Kapoor, Julian Lethbridge, Julie Mehretu, Martin Puryear, Iran Do Espirito Santo, and Joel Shapiro. The exhibition opens Tuesday, May 17th and continues through Saturday, July 30th.



Vija Celmins received international attention early in her career for her renditions of natural scenes, which often dispel romantic notions of the sublime in nature. Celmins deliberately chooses as her subject a kind of pictorial information that looks familiar but tells us almost nothing about the realities to which it refers. On display, Starfield’s (2010) mere pattern of white dots separated by areas of densely worked graphite fittingly presents the viewer a myriad of options: is it an image the artist invented, was it viewed from a telescope by an astronomer who then photographed it, or was it a record made automatically by the instruments themselves: no one's view.



In similar fashion, questions cannot be detached from one’s experience of Mark di Suvero’s sculptures, which is hardly passive. Di Suvero’s interactive sculptures like Evrard's Marc (2010) which is on display ask you to move different parts, to walk around, and to watch elements turn and tilt. In relationship to the viewer’s movement, the angles constantly change. These mysterious instruments are at once aerodynamic and clunky; whose purpose one can never quite deduce.



Another highlight includes the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Ellison’s Super Star (2008). A rainbow star wrapped in brass bands suggests elliptical orbits, recalls holiday decorations, religious symbols, and children's toys. It also resembles a giant jewel, with gorgeously cut facets reflecting every color of the spectrum. But rather than settling on any one of these interpretations, it evokes a more expansive experience. Ingeniously crafted from tinted glass, mirrors, brass, and halogen light fixtures, it casts kaleidoscopic patterns on the domed ceiling and shines soft beams of light on visitors, who then become part of the art.



Two works by the London-based Indian artist Anish Kapoor will also be on display. Double (2004) and Untitled (2007) with blazingly reflective metal surfaces dispense multiple visual thrills and mysteries. They carve, color and complicate space in different ways, creating an interactive experience.



Other highlights include Julie Mehretu’s 15-foot-long abstract etching Auguries (2010), a combination of delicate markings reminiscent of Chinese calligraphy and bolder architectural shapes. The work was also the centerpiece of Notations After the Ring (2010), an exhibition at the Metropolitan Opera’s Gallery Met, which grew out of the visual language she explored in a suite of six paintings that made up the Grey Area (2010) show at the Guggenheim Museum.



Works by Iran Do Espírito Santo, one of Brazil’s key contemporary artists, reveal his interest in industrial and everyday sculptural forms distilled down to their very essence. These sculptures, realized in deceptive “incongruous” materials belying the heavy mediums used to create his “cans” and “ice cream pots” - all strangely crafted in stainless steel and marble. The effect created is one of confronting a form’s pure essence.



Individual “views” of the world are expressed in this show in Helen Frankenthaler’s 1963 saturated painting September Image, Martin Puryear’s sculpture Face Down (2008), and Joel Shapiro’s Untitled (1986) falling figure. In all cases, these works provoke viewer participation, contemplation and individual responses.



For further information and photographs, please contact Tatem Read at 415.781.4629 or tatem@berggruen.com. Gallery hours: Monday - Friday: 9:30-5:30 Saturday: 10:30-5:00



Concurrent Artist Exhibitions:

Vija Celmins: Television and Disaster 1964-1966, LACMA, California through June 5, 2011



Mark di Suvero, curated by Storm King Center, Governors Island, New York through 2011



Olafur Eliasson: Din Blinde Passager (Your Blind Passenger), Arken Museum of Modern Art, Denmark through November 11, 2011



Anish Kapoor: Monumenta 2011, Grand Palais, France through June 20, 2011



Joel Shapiro, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany through May 29, 2011

John Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of recent works by Joel Shapiro. This exhibition opens Thursday, September 15th, and will remain on view through Saturday, October 29th.

Joel Shapiro lives and works in New York City. He was born in 1941 and received both his B.A. and M.A. from New York University. Shapiro's work has been the subject of over 100 solo shows and retrospectives. In this exhibition, he will continue his investigation of the connection between line and form. Featured in this show will be bronze and painted wood sculpture as well as works on paper. In this new body of work, Shapiro introduces the elements of wire and colored paint to his traditional wood and bronze block forms.

Shapiro's public commissions can be seen at such sites as Creative Artists Agency, Los Angeles; The United States Holocaust Museum, Washington, D.C.; Köln Sculpture Park, Cologne, Germany; National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; and the International Sculpture Collection, Rotterdam. Shapiro's work is included in numerous public collections such as The British Museum, London; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Musee national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Modern Art, Friuli, Italy; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; The Tate Gallery, London; and The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY.