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The Hauser & Wirth empire now has eleven galleries.
Two are located in Zurich, where the company was founded by Iwan Wirth, his wife Manuela Wirth and their mother Ursula Hauser in 1992.
In Switzerland you can also visit their galleries in Gstaad and St. Moritz.
Worldwide locations in the most important art trade metropolises such as New York, London and Hong Kong are added.
In recent years, the Wirth couple and their partner Marc Payot, who joined in 2000, have also established hybrid venues that are both commercial galleries (with more than seventy artists and estates represented) and public cultural centers.
For example an art farm in Somerset, England, a modernist art campus in Los Angeles, Eduardo Chillida's artist museum in the Spanish Basque Country.
The next project is due to open in summer - an island for art in the Mediterranean.
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Hauser & Wirth Menorca, as it is called prosaically, is to open on July 17, 2021.
On the Isla del Rey, which is in the port of the Menorcan capital Mahon, the historical buildings were converted into a 1,500 square meter exhibition center.
The island is home to a former British Navy hospital, a group of outbuildings from the 18th century and the archaeological remains of a basilica from the 6th century AD.
The Isla del Rey in the port of Mahón
Source: Photo: Be Creative, Menorca
Like the gallery in St. Moritz, the facility was restored and renewed by the Argentine architect Luis Laplace in order to create exhibition spaces in eight galleries.
A sculpture path will be set up in the garden, which the landscape architect Piet Oudolf designed as before in Somerset.
An educational program with demonstrations, lectures and workshops on contemporary art is aimed at both the local population and tourists.
A gallery shop and a restaurant complete the offer based on the example of the successful projects in California and the English countryside.
Hauser & Wirth Menorca opens with Mark Bradford
The fact that the mega gallery Hauser & Wirth not only pursues philanthropic, but also commercial goals is shown by the selection of the artist with whom the maritime location on Menorca is inaugurated.
The American artist Mark Bradford is to present a "dynamic series of new paintings and sculptures" there.
The sixty-year-old Californian is one of the most sought-after contemporary artists by collectors and investors.
He became known for his paintings and collage pictures built up in many layers.
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Bradford's works regularly fetch seven-digit dollars at auctions.
The record is twelve million dollars for the ten-by-three-and-a-half-meter giant format “Helter Skelter I” from 2007. It was auctioned at the Phillips auction house three years ago.
At the time, it was the highest price for a work of art by a living African American artist.
Mark Bradford, whose works are also in important museum collections, especially in the United States and exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2017, designed the exhibition at Hauser & Wirth under the impression of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is to be expected that it was also reflected in his art.
"For the last year it has felt like we were living on Mars, masked, in suits, and six feet apart on a floor that just doesn't want to stop moving," says the artist.
At some point, however, you have to realize that impermanence is only part of the course of history.
Mark Bradford in front of his picture “Go Tell It on the Mountain” at the 2017 Venice Biennale
Source: AFP via Getty Images / VINCENZO PINTO
Galleries and cultural centers under the Hauser & Wirth umbrella suffered from the corona-related lockdowns of the past year.
The opening of the new project should therefore also be understood as a commitment to the persistence of both concern for its artists and the gallery's cultural activities.
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In a WELT interview with Iwan Wirth during the first lockdown, he said that Menorca was also a romantic idea: “We know the island very well and fell in love with this place.
It is the only one for contemporary art on the island, in one of the most beautiful places in the middle of the Mediterranean.
We weren't looking for him. ”The municipality, the Menorca Reservation Fund and the Fundación Hospital de la Isla del Rey approached him.
He loves projects like this, said the gallery owner in June 2020, and has "difficulties saying no."
The mayor of Mahón Hector Pons believes the arts center will have a positive impact on the island's economy and will be sensitively connected to the place.
Menorca is a Unesco Biosphere Reserve.
Hauser & Wirth's sustainability measures include setting up a system for reusing water for soil irrigation and energy-efficient air conditioning for the buildings.
Ecological management and climate protection are among the tasks that the art trade cannot refuse to do.