For Years Now
William Klapp
Henry Belden
Hardy Hill
Passage Sainte-Anne
59 rue Sainte-Anne
Paris, 75002
18.11.2025 - 02.12.2025
Vernissage 18 November, 6 - 8pm
Mon - Sat, 9am - 7pm
The noble desire (of those waiting?)
~Ibycus, Frag. 318b
For Years Now is an exhibition of work by three artists from two generations.
William Klapp (b. 1934 d. 2018) was a sculptor, draughtsman, and painter who—in the course of 60 years—lived and worked in Missouri, Maryland, New York, and Texas. Klapp exhibited only once, in 1969 at Allan Stone gallery in New York. Nevertheless, Klapp worked steadily until his death in 2018, leaving an extensive oeuvre comprised largely of freestanding female nudes in fiberglass and bronze and cement base reliefs, many polychromed in oil. Klapp revised and reworked his figures continuously, cutting away sections, remodeling and recasting limbs and faces, and producing numerous studies on paper and in clay for fragmentary works. Reflecting this, For Years Now includes three of Klapp’s works in varying states of completeness: an unfinished reclining female nude in fiberglass (Untitled, 1972-81), a small female figure in resin (Untitled, 1983), and a study for an unrealized sculpture in pencil (Study for Bride, 1973).
Henry Belden (b. 1993) is an artist and writer who lives and works in New York. Belden’s work ranges across disciplines including printmaking, collage, and sculpture. For the exhibition, Belden has manufactured two sculptural reproductions of an early work by the artist that was stolen in 2024. Presented alongside these is the police report of the incident, framed in felt. Belden’s recent solo exhibitions include Simo Bacar, Lisbon; Gaylord Fine Arts, Los Angeles; Cierah, New York; The Meeting, New York.
Hardy Hill (b. 1993) is an artist working broadly in the tradition of printmaking. For Years Now includes two of Hill’s photograms, works produced by exposing photo paper through densely cross-hatched ink drawings made on transparent plastic. Hill’s Figure on back 6 (sleep 8) bears a strong resemblance to Klapp’s reclining nude (Untitled, 1972-81). Hill has staged recent solo exhibitions at 15 Orient, New York; Simian, Copenhagen; Fanta, Milan; N/A, Seoul, and Cassius&Co., London.