During Frieze Los Angeles later this month, Christie’s will host at its Beverly Hills branch an exhibition of art belonging to Francois Pinault, the French billionaire businessman whose holdings include the auction house.
The show, titled “Eye Contact,” will include a wide range of portraiture by eight artists: Marlene Dumas, Llyn Foulkes, Thomas Houseago, William Pope L., Jim Shaw, Cindy Sherman, Luc Tuymans, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Nothing will be for sale, according to Christie’s. Houseago will install his outdoor sculptures on Christie’s first-floor terrace in collaboration with the Pinault Collection’s curatorial team. A fun fact: More than half of the over 10,000 works in Pinault’s holdings address the subject of the human body.
The show was initially slated to open last month, but was bumped to February due to the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.
Christie’s recently appointed CEO Bonnie Brennan noted in an email that “Eye Contact” is the latest in a string of non-selling exhibitions that the auction house has hosted in L.A., which have included a 2023 show in collaboration with the local nonprofit Desert X, and in 2024, a presentation of Warhol film stills on loan from the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.
Thomas Houseago, Study (New York Mask I), (2010) Artist Credit: Thomas Houseago Studio © ARS
Photo Credit: Fredrik Nilsen Studio
Selections from the Pinault Collection are regularly exhibited at three museums that it operates—the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana in Venice and the Bourse de Commerce in Paris—as well as at other institutions around the world.
Some of the works in the L.A. show have been seen only rarely, like paintings by Tuymans and Dumas that are making their U.S. debuts. Others have never been publicly displayed, such as a portrait of Pinault by Los Angeles artist Jim Shaw.
Christie’s L.A. venue “is our second-largest gallery in the Americas, with beautiful exhibition space in our first floor galleries as well as our second floor terrace,” Brennan said. (Christie’s headquarters at Rockfeller Center in New York has the most gallery space.)
Luc Tuymans, Anonymous III (2018). © Luc Tuymans. All rights reserved. Courtesy Studio Luc Tuymans, Antwerp, and David Zwirner
In response to the recent wildfires, Christie’s has made donations to the California Community Foundation Wildfire Recovery Fund, the Los Angeles Food Bank, and the Getty’s L.A. Arts Community Fire Relief Fund. “Our hearts have broken for everyone affected by the devastation caused by the recent wildfires,” Brennan said. “We are proud to have a home in Los Angeles and will continue to stand in solidarity with our friends, family, and colleagues in this great city as we rebuild together.”
Source: Exhibition - news.artnet.com
