Lévy Gorvy presents three works by the Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto at 40 Albemarle Street, London.
Emphasizing the performance-based aspect of Pistoletto’s practice, this installation features examples from three distinct but closely related bodies of work. Rottura dello specchio—azione 2 (2017), from the artist’s iconic series of mirror portraits, shows Pistoletto himself brandishing the tool that binds them together: a long-handled wooden mallet.
On either side of this powerful self-portrait, Two Less One Colored (2014) and Two Less One Black (2011) demonstrate the result of the process whereby Pistoletto breaks the surfaces of mirrors and utilizes the shards as the basis for deconstructed, yet continually reflective, planes. Central to these works is the action itself, which the artist has performed publicly at the 2008 Yokohama Triennale (resulting in Seventeen Less One, now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York) and the 2009 Venice Biennale, among other places.
Pistoletto sees the destruction of a mirror as a way of addressing the interconnectedness of the world. “Each shard still has the same reflecting quality as the whole mirror,” he says. “So, all mirrors are connected, smashed or intact, just as all humans share the same basic DNA. I see society as a kind of broken mirror.” Thanks to the poetic dialogue between the three works on view, visitors are invited to contemplate Pistoletto’s unique concept of aesthetic experience within a dynamic, constantly metamorphosing environment.
Lévy Gorvy continues to install single-artist presentations at 40 Albemarle Street in Mayfair. Designed by Gabriel Chipperfield, the capacious ground-floor space is located a short walking distance from their gallery at 22 Old Bond Street. 40 Albemarle Street’s expansive storefront windows offer the opportunity to bring large-scale works of art to the street.
| Duration | 06 February 2021 - 31 March 2021 |
| Times | From the street |
| Cost | Free |
| Venue | Lévy Gorvy Viewing Room |
| Address | 40 Albermarle Street London W1S 4TE, , |
| Contact | +44 203 696 5910 / info@levygorvy.com / www.levygorvy.com |