Joe Fafard : les années de bronze, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal

Joe Fafard : les années de bronze

Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal

21 novembre 1996 - 16 février 1997

Près d'une centaine de sculptures figuratives de l'artiste canadien Joe Fafard sont présentées dans le pavillon Jean-Noël Desmarais du Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal. Ces oeuvres, réalisées entre 1981 et 1995, montrent l'évolution de l'artiste après qu'il ait délaissé la céramique pour le bronze, de même que sa grande maîtrise des patines. Cette exposition majeure, Joe Fafard : les années de bronze, est née d'une rencontre entre Pierre Théberge, directeur du Musée, et l'artiste en 1992. Les Montréalais avaient pu contempler quelques oeuvres de Joe Fafard qui figuraient, parmi d'autres sculptures d'artistes contemporains, sur le site du Vieux-Port de Montréal au cours de l'été 1995.

L'exposition est centrée sur trois groupes de sculptures dans l'oeuvre de Joe Fafard : bétail et chevaux, visions familières de l'environnement de son enfance, dans lesquels l'artiste explore les formes; les artistes, où se déploie son talent pour dégager l'essence des personnages; les tables, qui reflètent son sens de l'humour. Quelques sculptures antérieures en céramique, dont d'immenses têtes de Van Gogh et de Cézanne, ainsi qu'un petit Picasso assis, souligneront la continuité en même temps que le contraste offerts par les oeuvres en bronze.

JOE FAFARD

Né en 1942, à Sainte-Marthe, Saskatchewan, Joe Fafard est l'un des artistes les plus célèbres au Canada, mais relativement moins connu au Québec, où se trouvent ses racines. L'artiste a exposé à plusieurs reprises aux États-Unis. S'il crée des sculptures cinétiques au début de sa carrière, dès 1968 il réalise des portraits satiriques de personnalités du milieu artistique. À cette époque, il enseigne la sculpture à l'Université de la Saskatchewan à Regina, ce jusqu'en 1974. Il utilise la céramique à partir de 1972 et élargit son champ de représentation à la vie de sa communauté de Pense. Ses portraits et animaux lui valent un succès immense dans le pays. En 1984, il reçoit du Toronto Dominion Centre, à Toronto, une commande pour la réalisation d'une installation extérieure qui comprend sept vaches couchées, Le Pâturage. En 1985, il ouvre sa fonderie, Julienne Atelier Inc., à Pense, Saskatchewan. La même année Le Pâturage -- qui sera prêtée à l'occasion de l'exposition à Montréal -- est exposée de façon permanente au centre-ville de Toronto. Joe Fafard est titulaire de nombreux prix et a été nommé Officier de l'Ordre du Canada en 1981. Depuis 1987, l'artiste vit et travaille à Regina.

L'exposition Joe Fafard : les années de bronze est organisée par le Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, sous la direction de madame Mayo Graham, conservatrice en chef du Musée, avec la collaboration de Nancy Tousley, critique d'art et écrivain. 

Un important catalogue en versions française et anglaise est publié à l'occasion de cette présentation.

MUSÉE DES BEAUX-ARTS DE MONTRÉAL

Pavillon Jean-Noël Desmarais, 1380 rue Sherbrooke ouest, Montréal

www.mmfa.qc.ca

Sherrie Levine at Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles - New Works

Sherrie Levine: New Works

Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles

13 November - 21 December 1996

The Margo Leavin Gallery presents an exhibition of recent works by Sherrie Levine. The exhibition, which marks Levine’s second one-person show at Margo Leavin Gallery, includes sculpture and works on paper. 

Sherrie Levine’s work has consistently questioned the notions of authorship and originality in the production of art. Taking from the concepts developed by Marcel Duchamp, who used found and “ready-made” objects, Sherrie Levine uses repetition and appropriation of signature works of modern art and design to create a sense of ambiguity within her work and her role as an artist. Sherrie Levine’s images are recognizable and already known, having been re-cast, re-photographed, re-painted, or re-drawn. In her work using the ready-made, Sherrie Levine lifts a found object from its original context and transfers it to one of her own construct.

This exhibition includes a series of bronze castings after Marcel Duchamp’s 1917 porcelain urinal ready-made, Fountain. Sherrie Levine’s work, titled Buddha, was cast from a urinal very similar to Duchamp’s original ready-made. By presenting this work in a series of six, Sherrie Levine focuses on the serial nature and repetition inherent to Duchamp’s concept of the ready-made.

Also included are six wood sculptures after a 1934 side table by seminal modernist architect and designer, Gerrit Reitveld. Titled Small Krate Table, Sherrie Levine’s sculpture increases by 50% the scale of Reitveld’s side table—one of the first pieces of furniture sold as kit to be assembled by the buyer—highlighting its sculptural form.

In addition, the exhibition is included a group of ready-mades titled Chimera: After a Broken Leg. The reference to titles of works by Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp alludes to the mask-like appearance of these works, which consist of plywood leg splints designed by Charles Eames in 1941 for use by the U.S. Navy. The last body of work in the exhibition is nine Iris print images after Claude Monet’s studies of the Rouen Cathedral. These computer-generated images suggest the underlying compositional, color and light qualities of Claude Monet’s works in wholly abstracted form.

MARGO LEAVIN GALLERY

812 North Robertson Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90069

Camilo José Vergara at Getty Research Institute, Santa Monica - "They saw a very great future here": Photographs from Central Los Angeles

"They saw a very great future here": Photographs from Central Los Angeles by Camilo José Vergara
Getty Research Institute, Santa Monica
November 4, 1996 - May 2, 1997

In 1992, the Greater Holy Light Missionary Baptist Church, at 7316 Broadway in South Central Los Angeles, was serving a dwindling African-American congregation. Four years later, the same building now houses the Iglesia Cristiana Jesucristo es el Camino, and the pastor, a Salvadoran woman, would like to add a second story. This is just one example of Los Angeles' changing urban landscape as seen in a new exhibition of photographs at the Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities. 

For 20 years, photographer and sociologist Camilo José Vergara has documented the physical transformation of low-income urban communities in New York, Detroit, Chicago, Newark and, most recently, Los Angeles. While the poor and homeless have long served as poignant subject matter for photographers, Camilo José Vergara focuses on the urban environment of ghettoes, how they change over time, and how they reflect the lives of the people who inhabit them. By photographing the same sites over a period of several years, Camilo José Vergara documents how a movie theater is converted into a church by the addition of a sign, some crosses, and a bible; how a storefront is abandoned and later remodeled into a drug treatment center; and how an apartment building is closed, boarded up, covered with graffiti, and ultimately torn down.

"They saw a very great future here," co-curated by Camilo José Vergara and Research Institute Deputy Director Thomas Reese, includes photographs, taken primarily from 1992 to 1996, of East Los Angeles, Pacoima, Skid Row, and South Central Los Angeles. Through his photographs and interviews with neighborhood residents, Camilo José Vergara captures the physical evidence of people coping with the effects of chronic poverty--from boarded-up and abandoned buildings to security fencing, barred Windows, and colorful murals that disguise a disintegrating infrastructure.

"Central Los Angeles is a port of entry," says Camilo José Vergara, "teeming with poor people struggling to find a place to live, work, and raise children--people who want to speak their language, eat the foods they are accustomed to, and share in the city's prosperity. Here, openness coexists with closure. Fortresses surrounded by spiky fences sit next to colorful vernacular structures."

In his photographs of Los Angeles, Camilo José Vergara captures the ongoing impact of the 1992 riots on buildings in South Central, the complex economy of downtown's Skid Row, and the transformation of traditionally African-American communities by the recent influx of new inhabitants of Latino descent. Among the photographs are: a city block, destroyed in the 1992 riots and now surrounded by fencing used by plumbers, carpet cleaners, and hair dressers to advertise their services; a portrait of Martin Luther King on one storefront commissioned by a Latino business owner from a Latino artist in order to attract African American customers and discourage graffiti taggers; an anonymous storefront whose crosses and faded praying hands indicate that it was once a church.

Camilo José Vergara, born and raised in Chile, came to the United States in 1965 to study at the University of Notre Dame. He received a master's degree in sociology from Columbia University and the Revson Fellowship at Columbia University's School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. His photographs have been exhibited at the National Building Museum, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, the Queens Museum of Art and elsewhere. He has written about urban issues for several publications, most notably The Nation. He is the author of The New American Ghetto (Rutgers University Press, 1995). Vergara is currently a visiting scholar at the Getty Research Institute. This is the first west coast exhibition of his work.

"They saw a very great future here" is part of a year-long series of events and activities relating to Los Angeles organized by the Getty Research Institute. These events include: · The 1996-97 scholar year, Perspectives on Los Angeles: Narratives, Images, History, in which 28 writers, artists, and academics are studying the people, historical events, and economic forces that have shaped Los Angeles ·"L.A. as Subject," a project to inventory local historical resources on the cultural heritage and evolution of Los Angeles ·"L.A. Culture Net," a unique, collaborative initiative under the leadership of the Getty Information Institute which is creating a local, on-line cultural community.

The activities will culminate in late 1997 with the public opening of the Getty Center, a cultural complex dedicated to the visual arts and the humanities, now under construction in the Sepulveda Pass alongside the San Diego (405) freeway.

Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities
401 Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica, California
www.getty.edu

Hasselblad 503CW Medium Format Camera at VISCOMM Photo Exhibition in New York

Hasselblad 503CW Medium Format Camera at VISCOMM Photo Exhibition in New York

At the VISCOMM photo exhibition in New York Victor Hasselblad AB presents the Hasselblad 503CW, the latest addition to the extensive Hasselblad medium format camera line. This newly designed camera body has been re-developed from the workhorse model, the 503CXi. The new camera features an ingeneous development in the GMS (Gliding Mirror System) which gives a full image in the viewfinder regardless of focal length of lens or extension.

The 503CW is the next evolution of the timeless design of the Hasselblad camera which is one of the most respected cameras in the world. It is compatible with the entire line of leaf shutter lenses from 30mm to 500mm. There are also two tele converters available; 2X and 1.4X.

Hasselblad 503CW

© Victor Hasselblad AB

As with the 503CXi, flash synchronization can be made up to 1/500th of a second and the cameras OTF/TTL dedicated flash feature assures users of superb exposure control on the film plane where the actual image is formed.

In addition to the new camera, Hasselblad also has broken ground with the new Winder CW. This new product has been developed for use with the 503CW and the 503CXi camera bodies. Its ergonomically designed hand grip is comfortable in all possitions and the winder fits tightly against the camera body offering stability and balance, while maintaining easy access to all of the cameras functions. The Winder CW has four firing modes plus on/off lock. Single exposure, continuous exposure, multiple exposure, and infrared remote control.

Hasselblad 503CW with the Winder CW

© Victor Hasselblad AB

Another exciting new accessory, an IR Remote Control for the winder, allows the photographer the option of working away from the camera, in the studio or on location. The transmitter resembles an auto alarm transmitter in size and can be individually programmed for a specific camera or multiple camera setups making it a perfect solution for sporting events or industrial uses. The IR remote control is also ideally suited for studio work with children, groups, etc.

Hasselblad 503CW with the IR Remote Control for the winder

© Victor Hasselblad AB

Another quality that the Winder CW features is SAI (Self-Adjusting Interface) which not only senses the subtle characteristics of each camera, but also adjusts itself to their specific tolerances for perfect compatibility. In other words, it adjusts itself to minimize the potential for unneccessary wear and tear on the camera and/or the motor.

Hasselblad 503CW Technical Specifications

Camera body: One-piece, cast aluminium alloy shell with 3/8 and 1/4 socket threads and tripod plate for rapid mounting with the Hasselblad tripod quick-coupling accessory.

Film format: 6x6 cm (2 1/4" x 2 1/4") or 6x4.5 cm (2 1/4" x 1 5/8") resp. 6x3 cm (2 1/4" x 1 1/5") with format masks. 6x4.5 cm (2 1/4" x 1 5/8") with accessory magazine.

Film choice: 120 and 220 rollfilm, 70 mm perforated film and Polaroid film with accessory magazines.

Film advance: Manual or motor driven with Winder CW.

Lenses: Interchangeable Carl Zeiss CF- and C-lenses with focal lengths of 30, 40, 50, 60, 80, 100, 120, 135, 150, 180, 250, 250SA, 350 and 500 mm. Converter 2XE, PC-Mutar 1.4X Shift Converter and the new Teleconverter 1.4XE.

Shutter: Between-lens shutter with speeds from 1 sec. to 1/500 sec. and B.

Flash sync: The between-lens shutter provides flash synchronization up to 1/500 sec.

Flash Control: TTL centre-weighted dedicated system with OTF metering. Controls flash duration automatically. Film speed range from ISO 16 to ISO 1000.

Exposure metering: Meter Prism Viewfinder available as accessories. Centre weighted TTL flash metering.

Viewfinders: Fitted with GMS, Gliding Mirror System, which always provides an entire image in the viewfinder. Interchangeable focusing screens for different applications. Folding focusing hood that can be exchanged for prism viewfinders with 45° and 90° viewing angles as well as correction eyepieces.

Compatibility: All CF- and C- lenses. All magazines manufactured from 1957 and onwards. All viewfinders and most other accessories.

Dimensions: With focusing hood, Planar CF 2.8/80 mm, film magazine A12: width 114 mm (4.5"), height 110 mm (4.3"), length 180 mm (7").

Weight: With focusing hood, Planar CF 2.8/80 mm, film magazine A12: 1.5 kg. (3.3lbs.) Camera body only: 0.6 kg. (1.3lbs)

HASSELBLAD

www.hasselblad.com

Updated 18.01.2022

Roy DeCarava: A Retrospective, LACMA - Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Roy DeCarava: A Retrospective
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
November 14, 1996 - January 26, 1997

The largest and most comprehensive survey ever devoted to the works of Roy DeCarava, one of the central figures in postwar American photography, opens at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on November 14, 1996. Roy DeCarava: A Retrospective spans DeCarava's oeuvre, from his groundbreaking pictures of everyday life in Harlem, through the civil rights protests of the early 1960s, to recent lyrical studies of nature. The exhibition includes a generous selection of Roy DeCarava's landmark photographs of jazz legends Billie Holiday, Milt Jackson, John Coltrane, and many others.

Born in New York City in 1919, DeCarava is known as one of the leading American photographers of his generation. Roy DeCarava: A Retrospective spans nearly half a century of the artist's work through some 200 black-and-white photographs made from the late 1940s through the mid-1990s. Presented in chronological order, the exhibition will also explore continuities of style and theme by juxtaposing works that span decades.

On the occasion of the exhibition, Roy DeCarava stated, "Images and the making of images have been and are still central to me as a person and to my growth as an artist. Photography is the best way I know of to express my concerns and my values. Exhibiting and publishing the work are ways of sharing and confirm my belief in the power of art to illuminate and transform our lives."

Tim Wride, LACMA's assistant curator of photography, said, "The museum is very committed to collecting and exhibiting photography, and this exhibition is important because it shows the broadest possible range of an artist's trajectory through his personal discovery of photography and what is photographic through his use of that medium to evoke the emotions and passions that are so much a part of his life."

Roy DeCarava's gentle, intimate pictures of domestic life in Harlem were first published in 1955 in The Sweet Flypaper of Life, with text by poet Langston Hughes. Roy DeCarava made many of the pictures after winning a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1951--the first awarded to an African-American photographer--which allowed him to spend a full year photographing daily life in Harlem. The pictures brought a new gentleness and intimacy to photography, creating an image of everyday experience that is at once tender and unsentimental.

Trained as a painter and printmaker, Roy DeCarava turned to photography in the late 1940s and quickly mastered the vocabulary of the small, hand-held camera, which was rapidly becoming the hallmark of advanced American work.

Organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the exhibition is arranged by recurrent theme and motif (as well as chronologically), and will include a number of pictures that have not been shown previously.

Exhibition Highlights In Man coming up subway stairs (1952), one of several subway pictures in the exhibition, an exhausted worker stands for all working men at the end of the day. Also exemplary of Roy DeCarava's metaphoric bent is Hallway (1953), in which an inhumanly narrow passage is described both as a haunting instance of "the economics of building for poor people" and as a thing of beauty.

In 1956 he embarked on an extensive series of jazz musicians. Many of the jazz pictures, such as Coltrane on soprano (1963), show individuals absorbed in the act of creation. Others, such as Billie Holiday and Hazel Scott at party (1957), are warm and affecting portraits. Together with photographs of Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, Norman Lewis, and others, these portraits form an important body within Roy DeCarava's work.

In the early 1960s, Roy DeCarava's work grew more tough-minded in its response to racial discrimination, notably in pictures of laborers in New York's garment district and of civil rights protests. Mississippi freedom marcher, Washington, D.C. (1963), made at the historic March on Washington, exemplifies the photographer's instinct for isolating essential detail. Instead of attempting to encompass the vast event, Roy DeCarava's picture enters into the spirit of the March, distilling a collective determination and hope in the expression of a single face.

A life-long New Yorker, Roy DeCarava has tended to photograph close to home, making from his immediate environment the expansive world of his art. Within these parameters, his art has continued to evolve, as a group of pictures from the mid-1980s attests. Roy DeCarava's hand-camera style rejects artificial light as an intrusion upon experience and thus accepts deep shadow and blur as marks of authenticity. Beginning in 1985, Roy DeCarava elaborated this principle in pictures whose long exposures make the blur of motion an active stylistic device. In these photographs, the sensuousness that Roy DeCarava earlier had accorded to individual figures is transported to the overall field of the image.

LACMA coordinating curator: Tim B. Wride, assistant curator of photography.

Catalogue: Roy DeCarava: a Retrospective, by Peter Galassi, with an essay by Sherry Turner DeCarava; published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York; 280 pp., 237 photo reproductions; hardbound $60, softbound $29.95.

This exhibition was organized by The MoMA, New York.

LACMA
lacma.org