Tomasso Brothers Fine Art and Karsten Schubert announce a shared presentation at Frieze Masters, London, 14-18 October 2015 which brings together works on paper by British artist Bridget Riley with ancient and Old Master portrait sculpture. “We want visitors to enjoy the contrasting and complimentary energy of these works: the abstract and the figurative, the pictorial and the sculptural, the confidence of tradition and the excitement of modernity,” says Raffaello Tomasso.
Highlights on display include a bronze, Modios Asiatikos, by the French master of the Baroque François Girardon (1628-1715), modelled after a Greek marble bust dating from the late 1st century BC/early 1st century AD, discovered at Smyrna (Turkey) in 1685. The bronze indicates Girardon’s instrumental role in forming the classical style of academic sculpture that was fashionable in the reign of the Sun King, Louis XIV.
The group of gouaches on paper by Bridget Riley, including Untitled [Cerise, Turquoise and Olive] 1970, reflects a major reconfiguration of the artist’s style during 1968-1972, moving away from a monochromatic palette to full colour. They illustrate Riley’s exploration of visual contrast and harmony through the arrangement of stripes and curves using greens, pinks and blues.
The fourth edition of Frieze Masters encourages collaborative stands between galleries specialising in different periods and artistic traditions. This display is a unique opportunity to build upon Tomasso Brothers Fine Art’s stand at TEFAF Maastricht 2014 which presented major works by Damien Hirst alongside Renaissance and Neoclassical sculpture, as well as Bridget Riley: Paintings and Related Works, at the National Gallery, London in 2010-11, which featured recent Riley works in relation to Old Master and Impressionist paintings held in the museum’s collection.
Concurrent to the Frieze Masters display is Bridget Riley: Learning from Seurat at The Courtauld Gallery, London (17 September 2015-17 January 2016), which focuses on the importance of Georges Seurat to Riley’s practice.
“The works will interact with each other, and the resulting dialogue will enrich the experience for the visitor,” comments Karsten Schubert. “We are all looking forward to this exciting experiment.” Both galleries agree that creating this type of visual conversation across centuries and artistic styles is in the very DNA of Frieze Masters as a fair, its raison d’être being to attempt to bridge the supposed schism between ancient art and the new.
Bridget Riley / Old Master Portrait Sculpture – Tomasso Brothers Fine Art, Frieze Masters – 14 to 18 October 2015