Artists and Lovers: New York Show Explores Artistic Couples

Pilar Ordovas, the legendary Spanish dealer based in London known for orchestrating some of Christie's most spectacular sales in recent years, has opened a group exhibition titled "Artists and Lovers" in New York. The show features 25 works by 11 famous couples from art history, spanning the avant-garde networks between Europe and the United States from the 1930s to the 1970s. Ordovas stated, "I wanted to include only couples where both were full-fledged artists. Not an artist and a muse. I am interested in exploring the dynamics that arise when there is friendship, love, and something else." The exhibition's inspiration is Peggy Guggenheim, whose life of art, passion, and friendships serves as a starting point. Ordovas noted, "Peggy Guggenheim's vision and her ability to break down boundaries between art and love, between colleagues, friends, and lovers, was the spark for this show. I was also fascinated by how old and new worlds meet in this period of mutual influence, and how small the artistic community was at that time." Alongside famous pairs like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington, and Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, the exhibition highlights lesser-known relationships such as the "passionate but platonic" connection between Joseph Cornell and Yayoi Kusama, and the partnership between Donald Judd and his wife Lauretta Vinciarelli. The exhibition runs until January 7, 2017, at Ordovas, 9 East 77th Street, New York.