Hisachika Takahashi "This is Hisachika Takahashi"

2021. 2. 28 Sun - 3. 28 Sun

The present exhibition is, on one level, meant to add to the information that has surfaced regarding the artist Hisachika Takahashi; this following an ongoing exploration of the artist and his work by yet another artist, the much younger Yuki Okumura - whose exhibition “Hisachika Takahashi by Yuki Okumura” was presented at Maison Hermes Le Forum in Tokyo (2016) and in earlier projects dating back to 2013. Okumura’s in-depth project began at roughly the same time as a coinciding exhibition of Hisachika’s work, “From Memory Draw a Map of the United States”, presented at Sean Kelly in New York - as well as an on-line discussion initiated by then Carnegie International co-curator Daniel Baumann. We have learned that Hisachika lived - and continues to live - a fascinating life contradictorily both at the center and on the periphery of the contemporary art world; assistant and collaborator with both Italian artists Robert Crippa and Lucio Fontana and subsequently the American artist Robert Rauschenberg, as well as a contributor to Gordon Marta-Clark, Caroline Gooden and Tina Giouard’s restaurant Food, and a contributing artist to the earliest incarnation of what is now White Columns, 112 Workshop, 112 Greene Street, Hisachika clearly was present.

Anecdote and biography aside; This is Hisachika Takahashi stands as an attempt to further our understanding of Hisachika via a selection of work from artist’s personal archive. - the exhibition will consist of work from the 1960’s-1980’s including painting, collage and conceptual / photographic documentation. Through this initial presentation we aim to generate a context from which to better understand the artist’s position; both in isolation from and within the wider vocabulary of the artists with whom he acted as a collaborator.