Palo Alto gallery to open with show highlighting two art giants, day of special events

The long-awaited Palo Alto location of Hauser & Wirth opens with a show befitting the latest outpost of this heavy hitter in the art community. 

“Calder | O’Keeffe” celebrates the work and the friendship of artists Alexander Calder and Georgia O’Keeffe, featuring works by both artists and archival materials.

During a walkthrough of the exhibition at an Oct. 2 media preview event, Hauser & Wirth Senior Curatorial Director Alexis Lowry noted, “There are probably not two more well-known artists in the 20th century in the United States than Alexander Calder and Georgia O’Keeffe. I mean, it is as iconic a pairing as you could imagine, and yet there’s never been a project that looks at the fact that they had a friendship or acquaintance over many decades.” 

She continued, “And this isn’t to position this as a primary relationship in their lives, but it is to say that they interacted, they encountered each other over many years, and that that invites us to think about how their work has intersected over the many years.”

The exhibition will give visitors a unique chance to get fairly up close and personal with pieces that are often displayed at a distance.

Alexander S.C. Rower, president and founder of the Calder Foundation, and the artist’s grandson, joked that a couple of his grandfather’s iconic mobiles were “in jeopardy,” as they were hung in the middle of the gallery space, and nearly at visitors’ eye-level, before going on to point out the rarity of how they’re displayed. 

“The reason I let them hang it at this low height and right where your body is is because that’s how Calder wants it to be.  … In a museum you never get to do that. So in this space, and because it’s a gallery, and because the Calder Foundation is very adventuresome, we really want you to have the experience of being with the work,” he said.

The downtown Palo Alto gallery is the latest to join international art gallery group Hauser & Wirth’s roster of 18 locations in Europe, Asia and North America. The group is known for its publications, including monographs, catalogs and artists’ books, and the Palo Alto gallery will also feature a bookshop.

During opening remarks at the Oct. 2 preview, Hauser & Wirth president and co-founder Iwan Wirth described discussing the potential Palo Alto gallery with artists and receiving a uniformly positive response. He summed it up by quoting artist George Condo’s reaction: “He said. ‘Oh, I would be so excited to show paintings in the place that is the birthplace of new technology.’
“So that’s why we’re here, because we go where the artist wants us to go.”

“Calder | O’Keeffe” opens Oct. 3 with exhibition walkthroughs with Rower of the Calder Foundation president, Dr. Laura Wertheim Joseph of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and Stanford University’s Alexander Nemerov; book and poetry readings with Musa Mayer (daughter of artist Philip Guston) and Clark Coolidge, plus DJ music, performances by Stanford Taiko and Cardinal Calypso, and refreshments from Bay Area merchants.

The exhibition will be on view through Jan. 24.

“Calder | O’Keeffe,” Oct. 3, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; free admission; Hauser & Wirth, 201 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto; hauserwirth.com/events/calder-or-okeeffe-grand-opening.

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