Hasselblad: New Ownership

 New Ownership at Hasselblad

The Hasselblad factory and head-quarters

Gothenburg, Sweden

Hasselblad has been bought by a new Swedish company owned by a group consisting of UBS Capital B.V. (Holland), CINVen (UK) and the management of Hasselblad. Enclosed please find the information from Incentive AB (former owner).

"I am most satisfied with this solution for the future of Hasselblad", says Staffan Junel, CEO at Victor Hasselblad AB. "Our independence will remain and we will be able to continue our positive development. Hasselblad will retain its principal business focus and our operations will remain in Göteborg." 

Staffan Junell

CEO and president for Victor Hasselblad AB since 1993

During 1995 the Hasselblad sales increased by 12% to around 680 MSEK (100 MUSD), with an operating margin of around 10%. Over 95% of the production is exported to customers in some 80 countries.

The increasing sales are mainly due to successful introductions of new products like the focal plane shutter cameras 201F, 203FE and 205FCC. Other new products contributing to the increase are the 90 degree prism viewfinder and the special product FlexBody.

Conventional cameras and electronic imaging products will also in the future be the dominant products for the group.

Source: www.hasselblad.se

Marc Chagall - les Fables de la Fontaine, Musée Marc Chagall, Nice

Marc Chagall

Les Fables de la Fontaine

Musée Marc Chagall, Nice

14 janvier - 25 mars 1996

En 1926, à la demande du marchand et éditeur Ambroise Vollard, Marc Chagall exécuta une centaine de gouaches pour illustrer les Fables de la Fontaine. Soixante-dix ans plus tard, cette exposition regroupe pour la première fois une partie de cet ensemble extraordinaire : vingt-quatre gouaches auxquelles s’ajoutent quarante gravures réalisées par l’artiste lui-même d’après ses gouaches.

La totalité des gouaches de la série fut exposée à Paris (Galerie Bernheim-Jeune), à Bruxelles (Galerie Le Centaure) puis à Berlin (Galerie Flechtheim) la même année, en 1930. La critique fut pour le moins partagée et certains chroniqueurs s'étonnèrent que l’on ait confié à un artiste étranger l’illustration d’un des chefs-d’oeuvre de la littérature classique française...  A l’issue de ces trois expositions, l’ensemble fut dispersé entre plusieurs collectionneurs privés. Aucun musée n’acquit la moindre gouache de la série et les six collections publiques qui en conservent six aujourd’hui les obtinrent plus tard par legs ou donation.

Plus de deux années de recherches ont été nécessaires pour localiser les 43 gouaches reproduites dans le catalogue ; vingt-quatre d’entre elles figurent dans l’exposition, dont neuf qui n’ont pas été vues depuis 1930.

Ces gouaches occupent une place importante dans l’oeuvre de Chagall : dans l’évolution de son art, elles marquent une rupture avec l’imaginaire judéo-russe de son enfance, mais aussi avec l’influence des peintres cubistes rencontrés à Paris au cours du séjour des années 1910-1914, et celle des mouvements constructivistes côtoyés en Russie entre 1914 et 1923. Elles montrent avec quelle fraîcheur et quelle invention l’artiste aborde l’une des oeuvres les plus fameuses de la littérature française ; elles expriment aussi, indirectement, son désir d’intégration dans la culture du pays qui l’accueille.

Sur le plan formel, les gouaches illustrant les Fables de la Fontaine constituent un sommet dans l’art de Chagall. Avec une grande liberté, l’artiste recourt tantôt à des compositions extrêmement simples (comme pour Le Renard et les Raisins ou L’Aigle, la Laie et la Chatte ), tantôt à des mises en scène complexes, à plusieurs personnages et fonds ornementés (comme pour L’Ours et l’Amateur des Jardins, Le Rat et l’Eléphant ou Le Soleil et les Grenouilles).

L’exposition Marc Chagall - les Fables de la Fontaine a d’abord été présentée au Musée d’art moderne de Céret. Le musée Message Biblique Marc Chagall l’accueille en la modifiant un peu le visiteur peut en effet y voir des oeuvres que d’autres illustrateurs ont réalisées pour les Fables de la Fontaine. L’exposition de Nice permet ainsi de mesurer à quel point le travail de Chagall diffère de celui des illustrateurs de La Fontaine qui l’ont précédé l’anthropomorphisme et la primauté des morales sur l’analyse des situations sont deux travers que l’artiste sut éviter, au profit d’une vision poétique qui met en valeur les aspects cocasses, émouvants ou tragiques des récits. On admirera aussi la magnifique utilisation que Chagall fait de la couleur expressive dans ces oeuvres.

Le deuxième volet de l’exposition esquisse l’évolution dans le temps de la perception des Fables à travers la présentation d’oeuvres d’autres illustrateurs ayant travaillé sur différents types de supports assiettes, images d’Epinal, livres, estampes.

En effet, dès le XVIIIème siècle, les Fables deviennent une source d’inspiration majeure pour des artistes comme Chauveau ou Jean-Baptiste Oudry, dont le réalisme animalier triomphe. Au XIXème et au XXème siècles, la vogue des Fables auprès des illustrateurs évolue et donne naissance à des interprétations plus libres. Trois tendances apparaissent :

- la première, représentée par des artistes originaux, propose de nouvelles lectures c’est le cas de Jean-Jacques Grandville, de 1838 à 1845, ou de Gustave Doré, en 1868 ; Chagali s’inscrit aussi, au siècle suivant, dans cette lignée de rénovateurs

- la seconde est celle des satiristes en 1927, Jehan Sennep caricature à travers les personnages des Fables les personnalités politiques de l’époque

- enfin, la troisième témoigne d’un glissement de l’univers de La Fontaine vers l’enfance, glissement qui se produit à la fin du XIXème siècle : les images d’Epinal sont très représentatives de cette évolution.

Publication : Catalogue de l’exposition, préface de Sylvie Forestier, textes de Didier Schulmann, 144 pages, 43 illustrations couleurs, 145F, édition RMN

Cette exposition a été organisée par la Réunion des musées nationaux/Musée National Message Biblique Marc Chagall, à Nice, et la Ville de Céret/Musée d’art moderne de Céret.

Commissaire Didier Schulmann, conservateur au Musée national d’Art moderne, Paris

Musée National Message Biblique Marc Chagall

Avenue Docteur Ménard, 06000 Nice

Stephen Prina at Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles - Retrospection Under Duress

Stephen Prina

Retrospection Under Duress

Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles

20 January - 17 February 1996

Margo Leavin Gallery presents an exhibition of work by Stephen Prina. The exhibition, titled Retrospection Under Duress, consists of three projects: a series of thirty-five photographs combined with computer graphics, a sculpture that incorporates drawing and bookbinding procedures, and the three most recent examples from the ongoing project Exquisite Corpse: The Complete Paintings of Manet.

Retrospection Under Duress marks the artist’s second one-person show at the Margo Leavin Gallery. Stephen Prina’s work was recently the subject of a one-person exhibition at the Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen in Rotterdam titled “It was the best he could do at the moment…,’ as well as solo shows at P.S. 1, New York, and the Los Angeles Municipal Gallery at Barnsdall Art Park. His work has also been included in important group exhibitions at The Art Institute of Chicago, the 8th Biennale in Sydney, The Renaissance Society in Chicago, the Aperto in the Venice Biennale XLIV, Documenta IX in Kassel, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

Stephen Prina’s music has been featured in concerts in New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Düsseldorf, Dijon, Athens and Helsinki. Since 1994, he has been a member of the musical group The Red Krayola, appearing on the recordings The Red Krayola, 1994, and Amor and Language, 1995, under the Drag City label, Chicago.

MARGO LEAVIN GALLERY

812 North Robertson Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90069

Minolta Weathermatic Dual 35

MINOLTA WEATHERMATIC DUAL 35 

Minolta Corporation presents the Weathermatic Dual 35 -- the world's first weather/waterproof camera with dual-lens selection. This ruggedly designed compact camera lets you enjoy taking pictures anytime, anywhere and in any weather.

The Weathermatic Dual 35 is O-Ring sealed against moisture, sand and dust. This design makes the camera ideal for use on snowy hillsides, sandy beaches, in the rain, or even 16.5 feet underwater. In addition, the camera floats and has high visibility yellow-and-gray surfaces. This makes the camera easy to retrieve if it is dropped in a swimming pool or overboard while boating.

Underwater Versatility

The Weathermatic Dual 35 is designed so that you can enjoy taking pictures anywhere you go, even underwater. The back cover and battery chamber are sealed to permit operation to depths of 16.5 feet. This makes the Weathermatic Dual 35 ideal for snorkeling, windsurfing and other water sports.

When used underwater, the Weathermatic Dual 35 automatically switches from autofocusing to Focus-Free (fixed-focus) operation. The glass plate in front of the lens forms a positive meniscus lens that sets the focus for sharp pictures of subjects from 3.96 to 11.5 feet (with the 35mm lens). The user can also select the 5Omm lens, and the viewfinder magnification will change accordingly.

By pressing the underwater close-up button, the user can set the focus for sharp pictures from 1.7 to 4.3 feet with the 35mm lens, and the flash will fire automatically for proper exposure. Now, beautiful pictures of fish, coral, and other marine life are possible without using special lenses or attachments.

Rugged All-Weather Styling

A comfortable, molded rubber handgrip and convenient controls permit camera operation even when wearing gloves. To seal out water, sand, and dust, the camera has a rubber gasket on the back cover and a rubber O-Ring on the battery chamber cover. Because the camera is completely sealed against water, it can be cleaned by rinsing it in fresh water.

Dual Lens Selection

The Weathermatic Dual 35 is the first waterproof camera that lets the user choose between 35mm standard and 50mm tele lens --even underwater. At the touch of a button, the camera instantly changes the lens from standard to tele, and the viewfinder magnification changes simultaneously to match the lens' angle of view.

Autofocus with Focus Hold

The Weathermatic Dual 35 active-infrared autofocus produces sharply focused pictures, even in the dark. By maintaining slight pressure on the shutter-release button, you can hold the focus setting an decompose the picture with the subject anywhere in the frame.

An auto close-up function enables users to get sharp picture of flowers and other small subjects. Whenever the subject is about 30 inches or closer, the flash fires automatically for proper exposure. With the 35mm lens, users can take pictures as close as 20.8 inches.

Fully Automatic Exposure

Fully automatic programmed exposure with subject-weighted metering assures accurate exposures even when the subject is backlit or spotlighted. No manual exposure settings are required at any time. You can just aim the camera and shoot.

Auto Switchover Flash

For proper exposures in low light, the camera automatically fires its built-in flash. The camera is always ready to take flash pictures because flash charging starts the moment the camera is switched on. A convenient "flash-wait" red LED glows if the flash is not charged. To prevent taking an underexposed picture, the shutter locks until the flash is ready to fire. Between exposures, flash charging is extremely fast, just 1.2 seconds when a Duracell-lithium battery pack is used.

Fully Automatic Film Transport

With the Weathermatic Dual 35, film handling is virtually mistake-proof. Film speeds for DX-coded ISO 100 and 400 films are automatically set by the camera. After loading the film and closing the back cover, the film is advanced automatically to the first frame. The film is advanced automatically after each exposure, and rewinding starts automatically at the end of the roll.

Dual Power Source

The Weathermatic Dual 35 is powered by either a 6-volt lithium battery pack or four AAA-size alkaline batteries. For longer life and shorter flash-recycle times, lithium batteries are recommended.

Accessories

A wide neck strap is supplied with the camera. The length of the strap can be adjusted to match the camera's minimum focus distance for close-up pictures.

Optional accessories include a carrying case for the camera, a Sportsfinder, and a Sportscase. The carrying case is designed to keep the Weathermatic Dual 35 handy for active travelers. The case is made of bright yellow material and has a wide belt loop for attachment to your belt. The Sportsfinder attaches quickly to the camera and permits fast, easier framing for moving subjects. The Sportsfinder is specially designed for underwater use and indicates the angle of both 35mm and 50mm lens.

The Sportscase is also made of bright yellow material that matches the camera body. The Sportscase holds the camera and Sportsfinder and has room for spare film and batteries.

MINOLTA CORPORATION
www.minoltausa.com

Arshile Gorky: The Breakthrough Years at Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Arshile Gorky: The Breakthrough Years 
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth 
January 14 - March 17, 1996 

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth will exhibit Arshile Gorky: The Breakthrough Years at the Modern's main location in Fort Worth's Cultural District. The exhibition has been organized by the Modern Art Museum in cooperation with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Michael Auping, Chief Curator of the Modern Art Museum and former Chief Curator of the Albright-Knox, conceived of this presentation as a tribute to the Armenian-born American artist Arshile Gorky, and the historical impact of his lush, gestural paintings of the 1940s on the development of American art. This exhibition features 42 major paintings and drawings that illustrate Arshile Gorky's critical role as a link between European surrealism and the American abstract expressionist movement of the 1950s.

Arshile Gorky was born Vosdanik Adoian in 1904 in Khorkom, Armenia. The artist's childhood was marked by poignant suffering and tragedy caused by the Turkish invasions of Armenia and subsequent ethnic persecutions. Gorky's father fled to America in search of a new life for his family. During this difficult time Gorky witnessed the death of his mother by starvation as she sacrificed herself for the lives In the 1940s Arshile Gorky began to merge ideas from surrealism with his admiration for the art of Joan Miro and Wassily Kandinsky. As Michael Auping states in the exhibition catalogue: "Remembered landscapes from [Gorky's] childhood home in Armenia fuse surrealist representation with abstract plumes of color, anticipating the enigmatic symbols and expressive gestures that would be a hallmark of abstract expressionism." Works in the exhibition form the pinnacle of Gorky's artistic expression and illustrate the role he played in "leading American painting into one of the most experimental periods in its history," according to Michael Auping.

The presentation begins with a series of breakthrough paintings and drawings from Arshile Gorky's famed Garden in Sochi (1938-1942) series. Other major works featured in the exhibition are: Waterfall (1942-43) from the Tate Gallery, London; How My Mother's Embroidered Apron Unfolds in My Life (1944) from the Seattle Art Museum; Love of the New Gun (1944) from The Peril Collection, Houston; and the National Gallery's One Year the Milkweed (1944). Waterfall and One Year the Milkweed are composed of veils of luminous color that illustrate how Arshile Gorky translated abstracted surrealist forms into highly personalized imagery.

The highlight of the exhibition is the Albright-Knox Art Gallery's The Liver is the Cock's Comb (1944), recognized as the fullest and grandest of Gorky's paintings. In this work, Gorky presents viewers with an imagined reality——a psychological landscape——full of intricate imagery and sensuous colors. This grand painting is rarely loaned and has not left Buffalo in more than a decade. These paintings are accompanied by a selection of eighteen drawings that track Gorky's complex working methods throughout the 1940s.

The dramatic intensity of Arshile Gorky's later works, such as Agony (1947) from the Museum of Modern Art, New York, coincided with a series of disasters in the artist's life including a fire in his studio, an automobile accident in which his painting arm was paralyzed, and a separation from his second wife and their children. On July 21, 1948, Arshile Gorky committed suicide in his Sherman, Connecticut studio at the age of 44.

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is the final venue for Arshile Gorky: The Breakthrough Years, which was exhibited last year at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (May 7 - September 17, 1995) and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York (October 13 - December 31, 1995.)

A fully-illustrated catalogue published by Rizzoli International, with essays by Dore Ashton, Michael Auping and Matthew Spender, and selected letters written by the artist, accompanies the exhibition. Arshile Gorky: The Breakthrough Years is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The exhibition and catalogue were also made possible, in part, by The Henry Luce Foundation, with additional funding from the T.J. Brown and C.A. Lupton Foundation, Fort Worth.

MODERN ART MUSEUM OF FORT WORTH, TEXAS
www.mamfw.org

Updated 23.06.2019

Michael Kenna, Detroit Institute of Arts - Industrial Revelations: Photographs by Michael Kenna of the Rouge and Other Sites

Industrial Revelations: Photographs by Michael Kenna of the Rouge and Other Sites

Detroit Institute of Arts

Through February 11, 1996

Photographs by Michael Kenna are featured in the exhibition Industrial Revelations: Photographs by Michael Kenna of the Rouge and Other Sites at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Included are approximately 60 of Michael Kenna's photographs of the Rouge Steel plant in Dearborn and 20 views of industrial sites in England.

This new series of photographs was inspired by Charles Sheeler's legendary photographs of the Rouge plant commissioned in 1927 by the Ford Motor Company. However, while Sheeler concentrated on the interior of the steel-making complex, Michael Kenna's work focuses on the exterior seen in views made at dawn, at dusk and during the night. His photographs are distinguished by their dynamic design, unusual viewpoints, and dramatic contrasts of light and shade.

Industrial smoke also plays a major role in Michael Kenna's work. In the exhibition catalog he comments, "I favor the power of suggestion over descriptive documentation and often use smoke, steam or mist in my work. These elements obscure details, simplify forms, strengthen foreground graphic shapes, and simultaneously tone down background distractions."

Born in a small industrial town in Lancashire, England, Michael Kenna, now based in San Francisco, has always felt at home in industrial environments. His striking and strangely beautiful views of the Rouge plant are contrasted with the photographs he made in the 1980s of nuclear plants in his native England.

THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS

5200 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 48202

www.dia.org

Canon USA at CES 1996

Canon USA at CES 1996

Canon U.S.A., will showcase its complete line of 35mm cameras at the annual Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. In addition to its popular line of EOS 35mm SLR cameras and best selling Sure Shot series of lens shutter cameras, Canon will also showcase its newest digital technology utilizing the EOS System 35mm SLR format.

"Canon's extensive product line offers both retailers and consumers every type of camera to meet their individual needs," said Ted Ando, director and general manager of the Canon Camera Division. "Our diverse line of SLR and lens shutter cameras offer consumers high quality optics and features at varied price-points. And our line of EOS digital cameras offer solutions to the integration of imaging with computers, printers and copiers fulfilling the increasingly sophisticated demands of our consumers," added Ted Ando.

Canon EOS System

The Canon EOS System is currently the most popular SLR camera system among professional and advanced photographers. The EOS System consists of five cameras, including the newly introduced Elan IIE with Eye-Controlled autofocus, and the EOS Rebel X and Rebel XS, the most popular 35mm SLR model currently on the market. The EOS System is also supported by more than 45 lenses and hundreds of dedicated accessories.

Canon EOS*DCS Digital Cameras

Canon has utilized the advanced imaging technology of its EOS line of 35mm SLR cameras to develop a series of digital cameras. Working in conjunction with Eastman Kodak, Canon has established itself as a leader in digital imaging technology with the introduction of the Canon EOS DCS*3 and EOS DCS*5 digital cameras. Available in three versions for color, black-and-white and infrared, the digital camera offers photojournalists and sports photographers an expanded range of imaging options while maintaining all the advantages of the conventional EOS System and its supporting line of accessories. Other applications for the digital camera include scientific research, industrial analysis, medical imaging and law enforcement. The camera uses a removable PCMCIA storage disk, and flash memory cards, for recording images.

The new Canon EOS DCS*1 digital camera features a 3060 x 2036 pixel CCD imager that delivers a total resolution of 6 million pixels. The EOS DCS*1 is also based on the EOS-1N camera body and accepts all EOS System accessories.

Sure Shot Line of Lens Shutter Cameras

Canon's line of Sure Shot lens shutter cameras have become a symbol of quality and simplicity among consumers. The line of Sure Shot cameras includes several models ranging from the Sure Shot Snappy to the high-quality Z115.

CANON U.S.A., Inc.
www.usa.canon.com