Richard Artschwager

This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition Richard Artschwager at Gagosian, Rome. The installation featured four piano sculptures created for the exhibition, along with Piano (1965)—a formative sculpture on loan from the Castelli Collection—and three other defining works. In these, Artschwager investigated the structures of perception by creating sculptural versions of utilitarian furnishings using synthetic materials like Formica. Characterized by blocky profiles and creative variations on keyboards and other features of the instruments, these sculptures incorporate visual puns and art historical footnotes that embody their creator’s preference for counterpoint and fugue.

The bilingual (English/Italian) catalogue is designed as a board book with a die-cut form that echoes the shape of one of the exhibited piano sculptures. It reproduces all the works in the show alongside installation photography, details, and technical drawings of the sculptures. Essays by Yves-Alain Bois and Emanuele Arciuli discuss this body of work in terms of scale, nostalgia, beauty, and the exploration of the familiar and the unexpected.