On a wind-whipped afternoon in late November, Main Street in Southampton, New York looked like a ghostly still life of a slumbering summer town. No cars, no people, a shuttered fudge shop – an off-season amplified by a resurgent pandemic. Inside the state’s newest branch of Hauser & Wirth, however, artists and gallerists mounted an alternative mood through a show of paintings. With social distancing mandates in place and buzzy openings relegated to memory, the work itself – albeit viewed silently and alone – offered a much-needed shot of life.
With more than a dozen outposts across Europe, Asia and the United States – and annual sales in the hundreds of millions of dollars – Hauser & Wirth had signed the lease last June, taking over a two-storey, 450 square metre former clothing boutique. But it had never previously planned to open here. It was a move born of emergency.