works 2010 - 2018

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Installation view, Swiss Pavillion, 57th Venice Biennial
Photo: Ugo Carmeni
Installation view, Swiss Pavillion, 57th Venice Biennial
Photo: Ugo Carmeni
Installation view, Swiss Pavillion, 57th Venice Biennial
Photo: Ugo Carmeni
Installation view, Swiss Pavillion, 57th Venice Biennial
Photo: Ugo Carmeni
Installation view, Swiss Pavillion, 57th Venice Biennial
Photo: Ugo Carmeni
Installation view, Swiss Pavillion, 57th Venice Biennial
Photo: Ugo Carmeni

Bust 2017

Flora Mayo and Alberto Giacometti, with the bust she made of him, circa 1927. Photographer unknown. Original photograph belonging to Flora Mayo, kept under her mattress, lost. Film negative missing. Reproduction from only known duplicate print, archive of Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur. Original clay bust portrait of Alberto Giacometti by Flora Mayo, lost. Reconstructed and cast in brass.

Framed silver gelatin print
34 5/8 x 28 3/8 in
Brass sculpture with concrete base
60 5/8 x 18 7/8 x 21 in
Permanent Collection Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA);
Modern Art Museum of Ft Worth; National Museum of Art, Osaka, et al.

Synopsis

Bust, and the accompanying work, Flora, are inspired by a photograph showing the unknown American artist, Flora Mayo and the Swiss artist, Alberto Giacometti, flanking a portrait bust she made of him. While Giacometti is one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century, Mayo’s oeuvre has been destroyed and her biography was previously relegated as a footnote in Giacometti scholarship. Bust comprises a photographic reproduction and reconstruction of Mayo’s no-longer-extant sculpture.

Additional Information

Review By Gregory Volk

press release

At the Edge of the Frame 2017
Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler
in conversation with Philipp Kaiser

Exhibition History

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
“Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler: Flora”
September 5, 2021 – January 16, 2022

Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver
“Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler: Flora”
September 20, 2019 – April 5, 2020

The National Museum of Art Osaka, Japan
“NMAO collection with Alberto Giacometti II.”
August 27 – December 8, 2019

Giacometti Foundation, Paris
“Alberto Giacometti –
Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler: Flora.”
April 5 – June 9, 2019

Museum Sammlung Goetz at the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, Munich
“Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler: Flora.”
March 1 – May 24, 2019

LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art 
“Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler: Flora.”
January 20 – April 7, 2019

The National Museum of Art Osaka, Japan
“Travelers: Stepping into the Unknown.”
January 21 – May 6, 2018

Swiss Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennial
“Women of Venice”
Mai 13 – November 26, 2017