A selection of 23 works from the François Pinault Collection of Contemporary Art will be exhibited in Seoul in a show titled “Agony and Ecstasy.” It will be the first time that artworks form Pinault’s huge collection will be presented in Asia.
Curator of the exhibition is art advisor Francesca Amfitheatrof, who has worked in the past with Damien Hirst, Yayoi Kusama and many other artists in the François Pinault trust.
Francesca Amfitheatrof has selected a variety of works, including portraits, statues, busts, mirrors, animals preserved in formaldehyde and photographs by four major contemporary artists: Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Cindy Sherman.
The title “Agony and Ecstasy” refers to Damien Hirst’s butterfly diptych, and also Irving Stone’s biographical novel of Michelangelo Buonarroti. As stated by the curator, the exhibition proposes a revisitation of the infinite possibilities of how we perceive each other and ourselves.
Collector François Pinault has built one of the most comprehensive contemporary art collections in the world, comprising over 2,000 artworks. In 2006 he obtained the ownership of Palazzo Grassi in Venice to display the collection, and in 2009 he added Punta della Dogana, in front of Piazza San Marco, as an additional exhibition centre.