{"id":590363,"date":"2026-04-17T19:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/590363\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T19:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:59:11","slug":"gagosians-frank-gehry-exhibit-showcases-his-rarely-seen-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/590363\/","title":{"rendered":"Gagosian’s ‘Frank Gehry’ exhibit showcases his rarely seen art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Most Angelenos know Frank Gehry as the rebel architect whose deconstructivist buildings<\/a> reinvigorated L.A. amid its late-century identity crisis. <\/p>\n

Fewer know him as the sentimental sculptor celebrated in Gagosian Beverly Hills\u2019 upcoming \u201cFrank Gehry\u201d exhibition, the first to showcase Gehry\u2019s work since his death in December<\/a>. Curated by those who worked with and loved the famous architect, the show, scheduled to open May 14 and run through June 27, is equal parts tribute and art presentation. It will feature several of Gehry\u2019s animal-themed sculptures, including a rarely seen stainless steel bear figure, on loan from the artist\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

The exhibition will also include the first public screening of Gehry\u2019s entry in Gagosian Premieres, a series of videos by the gallery showcasing new art exhibitions through a mix of intimate artist interviews, studio visits and specialized musical performances.<\/p>\n

By spotlighting Gehry\u2019s artistic practice rather than his design ouevre \u2014 which includes Walt Disney Concert Hall, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Fondation Louis Vuitton \u2014 the exhibition reveals a different side of the late visionary, said Deborah McLeod, senior director at Gagosian Beverly Hills. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s a retrospective, but it is a chance to stand in the room and be with him,\u201d McLeod said, adding that she \u201cwouldn\u2019t have the hubris to say this is going to offer anybody closure,\u201d but that she hopes it will help people \u2014 especially those who worked closest with Gehry \u2014 to process his loss. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is kind of raw and missing Frank, and it\u2019s just a chance to come together and do this again as his team,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

McLeod curated the exhibition alongside Meaghan Lloyd, chief of staff and partner at Gehry Partners, whom the director said \u201creally speaks for Frank.\u201d Gehry\u2018s studio will design the show, which was realized in collaboration with the artist\u2019s family. <\/p>\n

\"Frank <\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t get a chance to put one in the gallery proper. Every time we\u2019d make one, it would get sold,\u201d Deborah McLeod said about Frank Gehry\u2019s bear sculptures. <\/p>\n

(\u00a9 Frank O. Gehry. Photo: Benjamin Lee Ritchie Handler \/ Courtesy Gogosian)<\/p>\n

The highlight of the Gagosian exhibition is an artist proof of \u201cBear with Us\u201d (2014), which the gallery lifted out of Gehry\u2019s wife Berta Aguilera\u2019s garden with a crane. Another edition of the bear sculpture is on view at the New Orleans Museum of Art, but at Gagosian, the work for the first time will be on view as part of an exhibition.<\/p>\n

The stainless steel figure has a crumpled appearance that many believe is the result of Gehry balling up a piece of paper and seeing the bear in the crumple, although McLeod said Gehry told her himself that wasn\u2019t true. The director added that the bear\u2019s form gives the illusion of something \u201ccoming into being or dissolving.\u201d The sculpture will likely have the Gagosian\u2019s north gallery completely to itself. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really going to give him his due,\u201d McLeod said. It was only right for a piece that, to her, reads as Gehry\u2019s \u201cself-portrait.\u201d <\/p>\n

A handful of other animal-themed sculptures will populate the south gallery, including a glowing black crocodile, gouache-painted papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 snake lamps, and \u201cFish on Fire\u201d (2023), the last of Gehry\u2019s fish sculptures to be rendered in copper. Illuminated within the darkened gallery, the pieces will have a \u201cmagical\u201d flair, McLeod said. <\/p>\n

The first fish sculptures Gehry made in the \u201980s were contained, even still. But when he returned to the fish form 30 years later, Mcleod said, \u201cthey started to become actually Baroque, so that\u2019s kind of neat to see that evolution.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rounding out the exhibition are a series of ink, watercolor and acrylic works on paper that \u201cexpress the energetic motion of fish in networks of black line and clouds of color,\u201d a news release said.<\/p>\n

A portion of the pieces in the exhibition will be available for purchase, with a detailed checklist to come. <\/p>\n

\"Frank <\/p>\n

The first Frank Gehry Fish Lamps were exhibited in 1984 at Gagosian in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

(\u00a9 Frank O. Gehry. Photo: Robert McKeever \/ Courtesy Gagosian)<\/p>\n

Gehry\u2019s designs breathed life into the city\u2019s core,<\/a> but he didn\u2019t get to finish a number of his most exciting plans, including one to transform the 51-mile-long L.A. River. <\/p>\n

And while his architecture was his great gift to his adoptive hometown \u2014 his art was his gift to himself. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs one of the busiest architects in the world, imagine the math and the minutiae that you have to go through,\u201d McLeod said, noting the enormous pressure from clients that Gehry must have felt in his daily practice. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor him, just to make something the shape he wants to make it, plug it in … I know it was a huge relief for him,\u201d she said. \u201cI know how much he loved doing it, and I loved being a part of that part of his life.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most Angelenos know Frank Gehry as the rebel architect whose deconstructivist buildings reinvigorated L.A. amid its late-century identity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[1029,12566,228,226,227,257783,257782,229,88,6463,18211,59470,11958,20972,57527,3750,80612,257784,562,257785],"class_list":{"0":"post-590363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-artist","10":"tag-arts","11":"tag-arts-and-design","12":"tag-artsanddesign","13":"tag-bear-sculpture","14":"tag-deborah-mcleod","15":"tag-design","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-exhibition","18":"tag-fish","19":"tag-frank-gehry","20":"tag-gagosian","21":"tag-gallery","22":"tag-gehry","23":"tag-paper","24":"tag-piece","25":"tag-senior-director","26":"tag-series","27":"tag-studio-visit"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}