David Park American, 1911-1960

'The current show at Berggruen’s red-bricked schoolhouse on Howard Street offers lessons from the past that could help power the city’s forward motion today.' — Tom Molanphy, 48 Hills 'This...

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 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 David Park, Richard Diebenkorn, Nathan Oliveira, Manuel Neri: Figures and Landscapes, an historical survey of works celebrating the iconic art of the Bay Area Figurative movement. This exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue. Many of the works included in Figures and Landscapes are on loan from private collections and have rarely been shown to the public. We would like to extend our warmest gratitude to the individuals who have allowed us the opportunity to bring these paintings together in commemoration of the creative accomplishments of such distinguished artists. Please join us for our opening reception on Thursday, September 4th, 2014 between 5:30–7:30 PM.

John Berggruen Gallery, now approaching its 45th anniversary, is closely intertwined with the history of the Bay Area Figurative era. The longer we meditate on these artists and the history they forged together, the richer our understanding of this movement becomes. These four artists interpreted a forward looking modernist program not to require a specificity of medium and place, like their Abstract Expressionist cousins in New York City, but rather, deferred to optimism and a reverence for nature for inspiration. The majesty and mystery inherent in works such as Diebenkorn’s Landscape with Smoke, 1960, originates from the view that man and nature can indeed coexist in serenity, a perspective that defines the San Francisco Bay Area.

The freely brushed but carefully delineated canvases of these Bay artists quickly distinguished themselves as being disinterested in commercial interests, favoring instead psychological and pre-classical themes. While Diebenkorn and David Park consolidated and refined the wildness of the 1960's into elegant, color saturated canvases, Manuel Neri and Nathan Oliveira, the younger members of these four Bay Area favorites, were inspired by the fundamental quality of isolation. Neri's singular impasto figures and Oliveira's spiritual color fields contemplate man within and without the context of his natural environment. Together, these artists extract from the Bay Area a timeless and enduring view of man working together with nature. Through an exhibition offering a taste of the historical scope of these artists’ accomplishments, we also celebrate our own heritage.