Bad news for our overseas readers who haven’t already caught actor and painter Sylvester Stallone’s retrospective at the Gmurzynska Gallery in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The 30 paintings on view — including many self-portraits — closed yesterday. But fear not art enthusiasts! The gallery has produced a catalogue for the show, with essays by Anthony Haden-Guest of the New York Times and reknowned critic Donald Kuspit. Apparently, the show will travel to State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg — for those in that hood — but due to some tense agreement issues in the press release and a VERY out of date website we’ve been unable to confirm this.
As it happens, Gmurzynska Gallery’s website mysteriously does not list the Stallone show. This is likely just poor web management, but for a a gallery that represents artists like Joseph Albers, Donald Judd, and Sonia Delaunay, it also had us wondering if there was a reason for not listing the show. After all, Stallone’s works are clearly MASTERPIECES upon MASTERPIECES. With this in mind, we’ve been working tirelessly here at Flavorpill to track down Kuspit’s email, as we’d love hear about his experience working with the gallery, and of course, his new appreciation for the work. Our first question: Have you seen that listicle of Ten Japanese Commercials Featuring American Celebrities? We’re working on one for the art world called Ten Little Known European Catalogue Essays by Famed American Critics.
A few works by the famed artist below:
Sylvester Stallone, Untitled (Micheal Jackson)
Sylvester Stallone, Toxic Superman
According to the artist, this piece is about the “ups and downs of Hollywood.”
An installation shot of Gmurzynska Gallery’s booth showcasing Stallone’s work at the Art Basel Miami fair in 2009. It made all kinds of headlines and tweets.