Petit Formats

May 06, 1999 - June 19, 1999

“Exterior dimensions are harmful, because they are there inside the things themselves… They can rise up to heaven and come down to earth, without change of proportions.” –Constantin Brancusi

“A small thing only a few inches big might seem, if it has monumental scale, to be any size.  Now this is a quality that I personally thing, all really great sculpture has; it’s quality which, for me, all the great painters have.” – Henry Moore

Yoshii Gallery is pleased to announce Petits Formats: Small Scale Works of Art from the 20th Century.  The exhibition will run from May 6 through June 19, 1999.

Artists whose work will be exhibited in Petits Formats include Hans Arp, Jean Michel Basquiat, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Jean Cocteau, Nicolas de Stael, Jean Dubuffet, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Julio Gonzalez, Eva Hesse, Ray Johnson, Frida Kahlo, Ellsworth Kelly, Yves Klein, Fernand Leger, Roy Lichtenstein, Brice Marden, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, Piet Mondrian, Henry Moore, Claes Oldenburg, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Georges Rouault, Kiki Smith, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Yves Tanguy, Joaquin Torres-Garcia, and Andy Warhol.

Paintings, sculptures, drawings, paper cut-outs, collages and photographs will be included in the exhibition.  Each of the works is less than 8 x 10 1/2 inches (20.5 x 26.8 centimeters).

Artists of the 20th century have worked in a variety of scales.  The tendency throughout the century, though the 1980’s was to expand the size of the canvases, sculptures, and prints.  Yet even as Picasso was creating Guernica and Hesse sent cascades of organic shapes dripping down walls, they and the other artists in the exhibition were also exploring far smaller scales.  Paradoxically, many of these small format works are as dense and as powerful as the artists’ larger creations.  Because of their size, they demand close, intent inspection and contemplation.