Pace Gallery announces global representation of Paul Thek’s estate.

Pace Gallery this week announced its global representation of the estate of the late American artist Paul Thek. The gallery will also host a milestone exhibition in 2025 of Thek’s notebooks at Pace’s New York space. This event will kickstart the publication of Thek’s notebooks in multiple volumes, with the first coinciding with the exhibition.

Born George Thek in 1933, the artist grew up in Sheepshead Bay in New York City. He studied art at the Art Students League, the Pratt Institute, and Cooper Union School of Art before moving to Miami. There, he began referring to himself as Paul. After moving back to New York for the remainder of his career, he passed away in 1988 due to AIDS-related complications.

Thek is best known for his “Technological Reliquaries” series. These works, consisting of hyperrealistic wax sculptures depicting flesh encased in transparent vitrines, challenged the norms of Minimalism and Pop Art. Thek’s relationship with Pace Gallery dates back to 1965, when Arne Glimcher, founder and chairman of Pace Gallery, included one of these “Technological Reliquaries” in an exhibition. In 1966, Pace also hosted the artist’s second-ever solo exhibition.

“With my business partner Fred Mueller, who had recently seen the work, we visited the studio,” Glimcher added.“There are rare moments when I have been astonished to experience something I’d never seen before. This was one of them. In process on his worktable were two meat pieces glistening with layers of fat and bristling with human hair. I was totally transported and thought the meat was real, and I actually thought I smelled it.”

The upcoming exhibition at Pace will offer a rare insight into Thek’s creative process. It will feature over 100 of his notebooks, which contain a range of drawings, diary entries, and ideas for future artwork, and the artist considered “artworks unto themselves,” according to the gallery.