50 Times Bonami and Obrist by Teller

On the occasion of Hans Ulrich Obrist’s 50th birthday in 2018, Swiss gallery 107 S-chanf asked fellow curator Francesco Bonami to create a celebratory exhibition. Bonami’s initial idea was to invite 50 artists to create 50 portraits of Obrist in an ambitious collaborative homage. Yet the idea proved a little too ambitious, and Bonami decided to create the portraits all by himself. Within just two weeks 50 oil paintings were ready―endearing and humorous works, many of which incorporate artists of the past and present, including Edward Hopper, Ai Weiwei and Georg Baselitz.

In January 2019 Juergen Teller was invited to view the exhibition 50 Times Obrist by Bonami, and with characteristic spontaneity he photographed Bonami and Obrist before each portrait. This resulting book, with Teller’s photos on the left-hand pages and Bonami’s paintings on the right, is an unconventional, tongue-in-cheek portrait of a portrait.