Gallery Visit: Hauser & Wirth Bahnhofstrasse Zürich

www.hauserwirth.com

Hauser & Wirth was founded in 1992 in Zurich by Iwan Wirth, Manuela Wirth and Ursula Hauser, who were joined in 2000 by Partner and President Marc Payot

John Chamberlain was a quintessentially American artist, channelling the innovative power of the post-war years into a relentlessly inventive practice spanning six decades.

Now on view at Bahnhofstrasse 1, we host our first exhibition of the artist’s work in Switzerland. ‘John Chamberlain. Reclaimed’ will present a selection of five late sculptures forged from the bodies of mid-century cars that were salvaged from Kaudorf, Bern. These vintage Cadillacs, Fords, Buicks and Chevrolets bear the chromatic imprint of the era. In primarily black, white, and silver, Chamberlain returns to his sculptural origins through employing the repurposed materials of a historic and treasured destination.

In 2009, Chamberlain came across an auction of vintage cars collected by the Messerli family in Kaufdorf, Bern. Described as an ‘auto graveyard’, the empty shells of vintage cars were stacked in endless rows and consumed by the forest, left to the unsparing will of nature for almost 80…