By Avril Fenlon
Andy Warhol, Portrait of Michael Chow, 1984, polymer silkscreened on canvas, 203.2 by 203.2 cm. The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Image courtesy of Gagosian.
For decades, the dining room walls of the high-profile and renowned Mr. Chow’s restaurants have been adorned with some of the most familiar art and artists of the past century. This November, eleven works from restaurateur and collector Michael Chow’s personal collection will depart from Mr. Chow for a two-part presentation at Gagosian in Beverly Hills and New York City, sharing the stories and friendships that cemented both Chow’s and his restaurants' place in art-world culture.
Titled Friends and Legends: The Collection of Michael Chow, the exhibition will open at Gagosian in Beverly Hills on November 4 for a four-day period before travelling to the gallery’s newly opened Madison Ave headquarters in New York City just in time for the city’s autumn auction season, running from November 14th through December 22nd. Following six decades of accumulation, the presentations will feature portraits of Chow by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, David Hockney, Julian Schnabel, Peter Blake, Urs Fischer, and Ed Ruscha, many of which have previously hung in Mr. Chow restaurants.
Born in Shanghai and sent to London amid the Cultural Revolution, Michael Chow opened his flagship Mr. Chow restaurant in London’s Knightsbridge in 1968, followed by locations in Beverly Hills and New York in the seventies. The restaurants have become a cultural mecca for artists, celebrities, and visionaries in the fashion, film, and creative spheres. To complement this exchange and express his attention to detail, Chow often commissioned artists with whom he was close, sometimes before they became art-world fixtures. The resulting portraits showcase a social world built around friendship and exchange.
Food itself enters the medium, such as in Mr. Chow L.A. (1973) by Ed Ruscha, which uses ingredients from the restaurant's kitchen to name the establishment. Ruscha swaps out paint for egg yolk, coconut milk, beet, and soybean paste, mirroring the restaurant’s experimental and theatrical design. Other pieces included in Gagosian’s collection make the relationship between dining, art, and friendship even more literal, with Keith Haring’s Mr. Chow as Green Prawns in a Bowl of Noodles (1986) playfully depicting versions of Chow in one of his signature dishes or Julian Schnabel’s Portrait of Michael Chow (1984) incorporating plate fragments from Chow’s fine China collection. The collection’s visual language is closely intertwined with the restaurant’s culinary identity.
Ed Ruscha, Mr. Chow L.A., 1973, organic substances on canvas, 127 by 142.2 cm. Image courtesy of Gagosian.
Additionally, the presentations will include a classic Pop picture by Blake, a Hockney half-length portrait of Chow, a candle sculpture by Fischer, a tribute to Chow’s father by Ruscha, and a personal Basquiat portrait. Friends and Legends will make visible the relationships behind these works and the art-world network that shaped the restaurant’s reputation. It is also a fitting arrangement considering Larry Gagosian’s longtime friendship with Chow.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, 1985, Acrylic and oil stick on canvas, 218.4 by 172.7 cm. Image Courtesy of Gagosian.
The collection also includes an Artist Drawing Book filled with drawings and messages from even more loyal Mr. Chow diners and friends, including Francis Bacon and Cy Twombly. It highlights the show's theme of the intersection of personal relationships, creative identities, and Chow’s dedication to curating a singular and inspired culinary institution.
Gagosian’s presentation of Chow’s collection will serve as an archive of those who have passed through his restaurants and of the ways in which Mr. Chow’s dining rooms have shaped creative exchange and artistic vision. As the portraits leave their longstanding posts, Chow’s history and relationships will be carried into a new public setting.