(E)very one of the more than two hundred pieces which Sarah Pucci has made…was a present for her daughter, and every piece was made with the desire to convey the love she felt for her child… Sarah Pucci’s work is purely an expression of love, untouched by hopes or fears. In the spirit of ideal democracy, it takes the most diverse elements and creates unity. Love was the motivation which moved the simple balls of her earliest works to become part of more complex structures and even to give way to new forms, as the embodiment of her love, which she had created, grew and blossomed…and because the expression of her love for Dorothy happened to transcend the purely personal and find its home in the empire of art, it has become a public treasure delighting the senses and lifting the heart of nearly everyone who sees it.

– Dorothy Iannone, Berlin, 1993

Hannah Hoffman is pleased to present 15 sculptures by Sarah Pucci alongside 4 early collages and a video work by her daughter, Dorothy Ianonne. Beginning in 1959 until her death in 1996, Pucci made artworks exclusively as gifts to her daughter while Ianonne was traveling and living in Europe. Pucci’s compact, bejeweled objects act as love forms expressing both religious and familial adoration. Iannone’s collages, made in 1962 during an extended visit to Japan, share an interest in assembling found objects into momentos of deeply personal lived experience. Iannone’s video work, Sarah Pucci (1980), is a meditation on the life and work of her mother, and expresses the depth of a deeply felt kinship. Paired together, these works speak to the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship, wherein love, devotion, obligation, and duty interact freely with craft, collection, and object-making.

Scott Portnoy is a curator and writer based in New York.

Dorothy Iannone (b. 1933, Boston, Massachusetts) lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Iannone’s work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including the Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark (2022); Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2019); Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada (2019); Migros Museum, Zürich, Switzerland (2014); Camden Arts Center, London, UK (2013); New Museum, New York, NY (2009); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria (2006); and Kunst-Werke in Berlin, Berlin, Germany (1992). Notable group shows include Seductive Subversion: Contemporary Women Artists 1958—1968 at the Brooklyn Museum (2010), Bodypoliticx at Witte de With in Rotterdam (2007), and the 2006 Whitney Biennial. Her work is in the permanent collections of museums worldwide including the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Tate Modern, London, UK; and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France amongst many others.

Sarah Pucci (b. 1902-1996, Everett, Massachusetts) is the mother of Dorothy Iannone. Her work has been the subject of several exhibitions at Air de Paris, Paris, France and has been included in numerous group shows including Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2013); Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg, Germany (2007); Kunstahalle Wien, Vienna, Austria (2006). This show marks the first time her work has been exhibited in Los Angeles.