About

Hauser & Wirth was founded in 1992 in Zurich by Iwan Wirth, Manuela Wirth and Ursula Hauser, who were joined by Partner and President Marc Payot in 2000. A family business with a global outlook, Hauser & Wirth represents over 90 artists and estates who have been instrumental in shaping its identity and who are the inspiration for Hauser & Wirth’s diverse range of activities that engage with art, education, conservation and sustainability.

The gallery has built a reputation for its dedication to artists and support of visionary artistic projects worldwide. In addition to presenting a dynamic schedule of exhibitions, the gallery collaborates with renowned curators to present museum quality surveys and invests considerable resources in new scholarship and research. Since its earliest days, Hauser & Wirth has mounted historically significant exhibitions. The inaugural exhibition in 1992 took place at Hauser & Wirth’s first gallery, located in the first-floor apartment of an Art Deco villa in the heart of Zurich; it united mobiles and gouaches by Alexander Calder with sculptures and paintings by Joan Miró. Since then, the gallery has continued to forge an ambitious and academically rigorous program of historic exhibitions, providing a natural home for a number of major 20th-century artist estates and encouraging a continued and engaging discourse around their oeuvres. These include Louise Bourgeois, The Estate of Philip Guston, The Eva Hesse Estate, Allan Kaprow Estate, Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, The Estate of Jason Rhoades, Dieter Roth Estate and The Estate of David Smith.

Since 2013, Hauser & Wirth Somerset has supported an immersive artist-in-residence program alongside a breadth of learning and community initiatives. Artists-in-residence have included Rita Ackermann, Martin Creed, Allison Katz, Bharti Kher, Pipilotti Rist, Mika Rottenberg, Henry Taylor, Thomas J Price, Rashid Johnson and Christina Quarles. 2024 residencies include Oddur Roth, Firelei Báez, a new writer’s residency in partnership with ArtReview, a guest artist collective selected by Frances Morris responding to the work of Phyllida Barlow and a cohort of female makers from Make Hauser & Wirth.

Hauser & Wirth is committed to inclusive learning programs that create a dialogue between art, artists and diverse audiences. Ongoing global projects are centered on three core pillars: to engage with communities; enrich academic courses; and foster better access to art careers through a series of meaningful partnerships.

In 2023 the gallery partnered with 38 non-profits and supported 21 learning charities, resulting in over 180,000 people globally experiencing an element of the learning program. We welcomed 8,622 learners from schools and universities, running over 400 learning activities and events in 8 locations.

Hauser & Wirth’s Education Lab initiative is located in Menorca, Somerset and Downtown Los Angeles, as well as at Chillida Leku, and each Education Lab is a collaboration with a local community group, school or university. The interactive spaces have been inspired by and developed alongside the gallery’s international artists, facilitating a platform for discovery, discussion, and additional resources. In summer 2024, the Education Labs have taken their starting point from artists Jason Rhoades in Los Angeles, Eduardo Chillida in Menorca and San Sebastian, and Phyllida Barlow in Somerset.

In keeping with Hauser & Wirth’s artist-centric vision, Hauser & Wirth Publishers works to bring readers into the universe of artists and behind the scenes of their practices. From publishing artists’ writings and exceptional exhibition-related books to commissioning new scholarship and pursuing the highest levels of craft in design and bookmaking, Hauser & Wirth Publishers creates vital, lasting records of artists’ work and ideas, forging critical gateways to the cultural discourse they inspire. Across its dedicated bookstores in the U.S. and Europe, Hauser & Wirth Publishers complements and amplifies the artist’s voice by hosting a robust slate of special programs, including talks, panels, readings and learning initiatives that engage a variety of audiences and communities.

Hauser & Wirth is recognized for its sympathetic approach to restoring historic buildings and giving them a new lease of life as contemporary art spaces that invigorate surrounding communities. From the conversion of its first permanent venue in the former Löwenbräu brewery building that became Hauser & Wirth Zürich in 1996, the gallery has developed and sensitively restored existing structures that respond to their environments, connecting international art with local culture through architecture. The gallery renovated Durslade Farm, a collection of dilapidated farm buildings in rural Somerset, to open a world-class art center Hauser & Wirth Somerset in 2014, as well as converting a 100,000 sq. ft. former flour mill, the Globe Mills complex, in Downtown Los Angeles in 2016. In 2018, Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles was awarded Los Angeles Conservancy’s highest honor, the Chair’s Award, which recognizes the importance of preserving the historic places that make Los Angeles unique. In July 2021, the gallery opened an art center on Illa del Rei in Menorca after a conservation project repurposing existing historic buildings on the island. The project was recognized with a European Heritage Award by Europa Nostra and Best Social Responsibility Initiative by the Government of the Balearic Islands, among others.

In October 2023, the gallery opened a space in Paris, situated on the right bank of the River Seine close to the Champs-Élysées in the 8th arrondissement with an inaugural exhibition by Henry Taylor. The gallery expanded its New York presence in November 2023 with a location on Wooster Street in Soho’s historic Cast Iron District. In addition, a space at 443 West 18th Street in New York is home to Hauser & Wirth Editions, new iterations of the popular Hauser & Wirth Publishers Bookstore and Roth Bar, and the Hauser & Wirth Learning hub for educational and community programs and projects.

Iwan Wirth, Manuela Wirth and Marc Payot, Presidents, Hauser & Wirth. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth. Photo: David Needleman / AUGUST

Ursula Hauser in her New York home, 2018. Background: Martin Creed, Work No. 2197, 2015 ©️ Martin Creed. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2024. Photo: Axel Dupeux

Our history

On the occasion of our 30th anniversary in 2022, you can explore an interactive digital experience that chronologically traces the journey of Hauser & Wirth and the artists who shaped the gallery through personal stories and a wealth of never-before-seen archival and visual material.

Delve into the gallery’s history and wide-ranging projects with this invaluable resource for audiences interested in learning more about contemporary art and the Hauser & Wirth story.

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Locations

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New York, 22nd Street

542 West 22nd Street New York 10011

Paris

26 bis rue François 1er, Paris 75008

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Philanthropy

The Wirths are benefactors of museums and international art projects, and contribute to a range of charities supporting the arts, architecture, the environment, conservation, community, and education. They are ongoing supporters of the Reykjavik Arts Festival and the Bruton Museum situated on Bruton High Street, as well as The Holburne Museum in Bath where they made a contribution towards the museum’s contemporary program with a gallery space named The Wirth Gallery.

Iwan and Manuela Wirth have partially funded the ongoing restoration of St. Margaret’s Church in Braemar, and contribute towards the River Dee Trust, Aberdeenshire and the North Atlantic Salmon Fund (NASF). They donated a 2-acre plot of land to the local council in Somerset as part of a community garden project, the Durslade Walled Garden. They are both supporters of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Somerset Wildlife Trust, Human Rights Watch and NSPCC, and have an ongoing commitment to Christoph Schlingensief’s Operndorf project in Burkina Faso, through an annual donation allocated to education programs, food and the building and running of a school.

Marc Payot is an active collector and arts patron whose engagement extends from small education-focused organizations such as the children’s arts initiative Time in Kids NYC, to major museums in New York: New Museum, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He served on the Selection Committee of Frieze New York between 2012 and 2016.

Hauser & Wirth Publishers

Since its founding in 1992, Hauser & Wirth Publishers has grown into a dynamic imprint that produces more than 20 titles per year, with a special focus on artists’ archives and writings. It creates unique, object-like books that encourage an understanding and appreciation of modern and contemporary art, with a backlist also comprising monographs, artists’ books, publications focused on important private collections, and exhibition catalogues – often bringing new and overlooked aspects of an artist’s creative practice into focus. By commissioning original, in-depth scholarship to give thoughtful insight, Hauser & Wirth Publishers aims to craft accessible, lasting records of artists’ work, ideas, and exhibitions.

In 2019, Hauser & Wirth Publishers opened a stand-alone global headquarters and flagship bookshop in the historic center of Zurich, Switzerland, which operates alongside a parallel enterprise in New York. The Zurich headquarters occupies the former home of the Oprecht & Helbling bookshop and the legendary Europa Verlag publishing house. Today it serves as an international hub for research and scholarship, led by Chief Editor Dr. Michaela Unterdörfer, who has helmed Hauser & Wirth Publishers since 2005.

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