Sperone Westwater 50th Anniversary: The Early Years

Carl Andre, Alighiero e Boetti, Louise Bourgeois, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Hanne Darboven, Wolfgang Laib, Sol LeWitt, Richard Long, Heinz Mack, Carlo Maria Mariani, Mario Merz, Brenda Miller, Malcolm Morley, Bruce Nauman, Mimmo Paladino, Otto Piene, Susan Rothenberg, Robert Ryman, Richard Tuttle, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, William Wegman

In fall 2025, Sperone Westwater celebrates its 50th anniversary. The gallery's early years established a lasting tradition of presenting challenging, provocative and engaging work to new audiences. Founded as a three-way partnership between Angela Westwater, Gian Enzo Sperone and Konrad Fischer, the initial program brought together the European avant-garde with a core group of American artists to whom the founders were deeply committed. Over five decades, the program has continually evolved and expanded, particularly through long-term relationships with artists such as Bruce Nauman, Richard Long, Wolfgang Laib and Susan Rothenberg.

Artists featured in The Early Years include Carl Andre, Alighiero e Boetti, Louise Bourgeois, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Hanne Darboven, Wolfgang Laib, Sol LeWitt, Richard Long, Heinz Mack, Carlo Maria Mariani, Mario Merz, Brenda Miller, Malcolm Morley, Bruce Nauman, Mimmo Paladino, Otto Piene, Susan Rothenberg, Robert Ryman, Richard Tuttle, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol and William Wegman. The anniversary exhibition presents historical artworks alongside archival materials including early reviews, ephemera and a selection of notable catalogues.

The gallery began and continues with Angela Westwater as resident managing partner, while Fischer and Sperone continued operating their respective galleries in Dusseldorf and Turin. Westwater worked briefly for John Weber at his gallery at 420 West Broadway, the first gallery building in SoHo, before becoming the Managing Editor at Artforum from 1972 to 1975. Bruce Nauman, who first exhibited with the gallery in 1976 (and held his fifteenth solo show there in 2024), said of Westwater: "The first time I met her, the gallery had just opened. She was so nervous. She had the art background but not the sales experience, so she learned it. She had to learn it. She was like Leo Castelli in the sense that the work was the work, and she is deeply invested in her artists' work."

Opening at 142 Greene Street as the SoHo gallery scene emerged, Sperone Westwater later expanded to a second location at 121 Greene Street. In 2002, the gallery moved ahead of the curve to the Meatpacking District at 415 West 13th Street. Artists Alexis Rockman, Kim Dingle and Bertozzi & Casoni were among the artists joining the gallery's dynamic program around this time. In 2010, Sperone Westwater inaugurated its award-winning building at 257 Bowery, designed by Norman Foster, with a solo exhibition by Guillermo Kuitca. The building--known for its distinctive "moving room"--was among the first purpose-built galleries in New York commissioned from a major architect. In 2011, the Municipal Art Society of New York presented Foster + Partners their MASterworks Award of Best New Building for Sperone Westwater at 257 Bowery. Over the past decade, a new generation of artists has joined the program, including Joana Choumali, Shaunte Gates, Jim Gaylord, Jitish Kallat, Amy Lincoln, Katy Moran, Gamaliel Rodriguez, Kyungmi Shin and Kevin Umaña, contributing to the gallery's innovative and evolving identity.