{"id":90248,"date":"2025-10-20T15:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T15:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/90248\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T15:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T15:15:09","slug":"gagosian-given-exemption-by-art-basel-paris-to-bring-old-master-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/90248\/","title":{"rendered":"Gagosian Given Exemption by Art Basel Paris to Bring Old Master Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWith no more than 206 galleries setting up shop under the Grand Palais\u2019 glass roof at this week\u2019s Art Basel Paris, it\u2019s important to stand out from the crowd. Some dealers might showcase an eye-catching sculpture (like Ginny on Frederick at Frieze London last week<\/a>) or curate a quirky salon hang. But if you\u2019re Gagosian<\/a>, you rewrite the Art Basel Paris rule book by bringing a rediscovered Old Master to a fair that usually only allows post-20th century artworks.<\/p>\n

This year the mega-gallery has been allowed to present a masterwork by the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens<\/a>. It\u2019s titled The Virgin and Christ Child, with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist (c. 1611\u201314) and was most recently sold at Sotheby\u2019s New York in 2020 for a shade over $7 million.<\/p>\n

Art Basel Paris gave Gagosian the green light to break the mold in recognition of the painting\u2019s \u201cexceptional quality and its resonance with other modern and contemporary works in our booth,\u201d the gallery said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"An<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFollowing discussions within the Art Basel management team and approval from Art Basel Paris\u2019 Selection Committee, Gagosian has been exceptionally authorized to present [the Rubens work],\u201d an Art Basel spokesperson told ARTnews. \u201cWhile galleries in Art Basel\u2019s main sector are asked to exhibit works created between 1900 and 2025, the Paris fair\u2019s Premise sector, comprising nine distinct, curated presentations, was designed to include art made prior to 1900. This year, for example, Parisian gallery Pavec will present works by French Impressionist Marie Bracquemond made in the late 1800s.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSotheby\u2019s 2020 catalog entry for The Virgin and Christ Child, with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist reads: \u201cUpon seeing the painting in the early 1950s\u2026 Ludwig Burchard, the great connoisseur of Rubens\u2019s art, declared it to be the prime version of this\u00a0popular subject.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another version of the Rubens\u2019 work hangs in the Thyssen-Bornemisza\u2019s permanent collection in Madrid. Gagosian described its own version as \u201ccomparable.\u201d
In Paris, the gallery will show the oil on panel, which measures 48 x 38 inches, alongside works by John Currin, Jad\u00e9 Fadojutimi, Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Jenny Saville, \u201cand other artists who have shaped the course of postwar and contemporary art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larry Gagosian, the gallery\u2019s founder, told ARTnews: \u201cI have great affinity for Old Masters and Rubens in particular, which goes back at least\u00a030 years, when I organized an exhibition of works by the artist at my New York gallery. Over the past decade or so, I have noticed a renewed interest in the period, particularly when I think of artists like John Currin, Jenny Saville, Anna Weyant, and Glenn Brown, where there is clearly an inspiration. In the context of our booth, and the spectacular Beaux Arts architecture of the Grand Palais, I felt the Rubens would resonate and be a treat for the audience in Paris.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The exhibition the dealer mentioned was titled \u201cPeter Paul Rubens: Oil Paintings and Oil Sketches\u201d and happened in 1995 at his 980 Maddison Avenue address.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not unusual for galleries to display surprise works at art fairs, but they usually comply with the rules on what type of art is permitted. For example, at last year\u2019s Art Basel Paris<\/a>, Hauser & Wirth brought along Kazimir Malevich\u2019s 1915 painting\u00a0Suprematism, 18th construction, which previously sold at Sotheby\u2019s in 2015 for $33.6 million. It was a big draw and the gallery later confirmed to ARTnews that it had sold for a similar figure. The Swiss mega-gallery also headlined its booth at this year\u2019s Art Basel<\/a> in Switzerland with a hypnotic, moody Mark Rothko<\/a> from the early 1960s that wasn\u2019t on any of the PDFs circulated ahead of the fair. \u201cThere\u2019s only so much you can see on a screen\u2014nothing replaces the moment you stand in front of a work in real life,\u201d Iwan Wirth, the gallery\u2019s cofounder, told\u00a0ARTnews.<\/p>\n

\n\tArt Basel Paris opens its doors to VVIPs on Tuesday ahead of the VIP days on Wednesday and Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With no more than 206 galleries setting up shop under the Grand Palais\u2019 glass roof at this week\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,7905,48413,111,139,69,18731,68008],"class_list":{"0":"post-90248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-gagosian","15":"tag-hauser-wirth","16":"tag-new-zealand","17":"tag-newzealand","18":"tag-nz","19":"tag-peter-paul-rubens","20":"tag-rothko"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}