Despite the many rumors of a strengthening of the French art market post-Brexit, international mega-galleries are slow to settle in Paris.
Gagosian got the ball rolling in 2010 by setting up shop on rue de Ponthieu, in the 8th arrondissement, before opening a gigantic premises in Le Bourget in 2012 and a smaller one on rue de Castiglione in 2021.
In 2019, David Zwirner followed suit on rue Vieille-du-Temple, opening in what was the former headquarters of Yvon Lambert and then VNH Gallery.
This fall, it will be the turn of the Swiss brand Hauser & Wirth to launch in Paris. The gallery, which has just opened exhibitions Cindy Sherman, Roni Horn and The God That Failed (by Louise Bourgeois, Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko) as part of Zurich Art Weekend, already has premises in Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles, London, Somerset, St. Moritz, Gstaad, Menorca and Monaco.
Henry Taylor
© Henry Taylor
Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photo: Fredrik Nilsen
The new Parisian gallery will open on October 14, a few days before the second edition of Paris+ by Art Basel. It will be located in a neoclassical 19th century private mansion at 26 bis rue François 1er, in the 8th arrondissement, not far from the Champs-Élysées and the chic avenue Montaigne. Spread over four floors, the 800 square meter space has been redesigned by Laplace, a Parisian architecture studio, and a site-specific installation by British artist Martin Creed will adorn the spiral staircase.
The gallery will be supervised by Séverine Waelchli, the new French director of Hauser & Wirth who will also manage the Monegasque gallery. Waelchli, most recently director of the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Paris, studied art history at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich before working for the Sprüth Magers gallery – notably managing its Paris office – before joining the gallery Yvon Lambert.
Severine Waelchli
Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Katharina Lütscher
For the opening, Hauser & Wirth Paris will present an exhibition of unpublished paintings, sculptures and installations by Los Angeles artist Henry Taylor, coinciding with a major retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (from October 4 to January 28, 2024 ). Many of these works were produced during the artist’s residency in Paris in June and July.
The gallery also says it intends “to establish meaningful local partnerships to create an inclusive learning program that is an integral part of the presence in Paris.”
The arrival of Hauser & Wirth will undeniably strengthen the artistic offer in Paris.
Marc Payot, president of Hauser & Wirth, declares that the opening of the Parisian gallery “is the realization of a long-standing dream, one that we have shared with our artists since the creation of Hauser & Wirth thirty years ago. .. The city has inspired our artists so much – from those born there like Louise Bourgeois and Pierre Huyghe, to those who arrived from elsewhere like Takesada Matsutani, Alina Szapocznikow and Ed Clark, among others – that their careers would be unimaginable without She.”
