Accrochage at Punta della Dogana: Minimalist Turn in Pinault Collection

Curated by Caroline Bourgeois, 'Accrochage' is the latest installment of the Pinault Collection exhibition cycle at Punta della Dogana in Venice. The show features 70 works, all first-time presentations since acquisition, with two-thirds of the artists never before exhibited by the French magnate. The overall tone is minimalist and subtractive, exemplified by Sol LeWitt's mural paintings offsetting the central bunker's monumentality, and works by Michel Parmentier and Edward Krasiński that negate the picture frame. Peter Dreher's seriality deflates painting's rhetoric. Highlights include monographic rooms dedicated to Nina Canell, Dewain Valentine, and Fernanda Gomes, whose works assimilate into context, create atmospheric sculpture, and render pure form aspecifically. Fabio Mauri's screens transmit nothingness, Pier Paolo Calzolari's cold mattresses evoke emotion, Haim Steinbach's white amniotic room, and Günther Uecker's dialogue between weight and lightness. Guillaume Leblon, previously overlooked in Italy, is also present. Exceptions to the minimal tone include Philippe Parreno's dream/nightmare room, Goshka Macuga's historical-political tapestries, Pierre Huyghe's unsettling video 'Untitled (Human Mask)' featuring a monkey-girl, and Tino Sehgal's performance 'Ann Lee' with six preadolescent actors. Charles Ray's sculpture is placed ironically where his 'Boy with Frog' once stood before removal by city administration. The exhibition runs until November 20, 2016.