Larry Rivers, Marlborough Gallery, New York - Fashion and The Birds

Larry Rivers: Fashion and The Birds

Marlborough Gallery, New York

October 29 - November 29, 1997

Marlborough Gallery presents an exciting exhibition of new work by the inimitable American painter, Larry Rivers. This is Larry Rivers' twelfth one-man show at Marlborough since his joining the gallery in 1964. Larry Rivers was born Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg, in the Bronx, New York in 1923 to Russian Jewish immigrants. He began his career in music as a jazz saxophonist. In 1947, at the suggestion of a friend, he began to paint at Hans Hoffman's school in Provincetown, Mass. His success was such that two years later he was given his first New York show. In 1950, Clement Greenberg and Meyer Schapiro selected him to be part of a New Talent show, and since that time he has become one of America's most important and innovative painters.

Larry Rivers' exhibition is comprised of approximately twenty-five paintings and ten drawings. Larry Rivers likes to work in a series using a central subject such as in his previous show called Art and the Artist. In this show, many of the works are based on a series derived from his recent interest in James Audubon and The Birds of America. (His first painting based on this subject was painted in 1985/86, entitled Twenty-five Birds of the Northeast, taken from a place mat at his table at his favorite diner). Among the new works are two brilliant portraits of Audubon as well as several works devoted to single bird studies such as a striking Great Blue Heron (50 x 48 inches), Black Neck Stilt (30 x 34 inches) and Comorant (48 x 40 inches). In other works, Larry Rivers has taken female models from the world of fashion and mixed them with bird images creating an intriguing visual Gestalt from separate elements of experience and emotion. This eclectic mixture is at once provocative, surprising, and enjoyably fresh. The medium for these works is based in some cases on the relief technique which Larry Rivers has developed into his own personal style. In some of these, he has deepened their relief increasing thereby the work's tactile exuberance. In other works, Larry Rivers has continued to use the flat canvas to magnificent expressive effect.

What stands out in all Larry Rivers' work is the superiority of his draughtsmanship, the lightness of his touch, the presence of his hand, and a unique color palette. It has been said that "Rivers' stubborn individualism has become his signature." He has been called a "maverick and innovative artist," "enterprising and mercurial," "a reactionary." Art International called him "contrariness incarnate." Rivers himself has said, "I have my own agenda," reflecting Arthur Jones' statement that "Rivers has constantly challenged the status quo." Rivers was painting figurative works when the tide was high on Abstract Expressionism. He was the first American artist to use commercial images in fine art which led the London Sunday Telegraph later to call him "the grand old man of Pop Art." In the same article, the Telegraph said Larry Rivers "has always stayed true to his talent as a figurative draughtsman and interested in relating the contemporary image to the tradition of western painting." In his brilliant new work, Rivers once again adds to the lexicon of stimulating contemporary images that one hasn't seen before. Rivers' style has always been hard to pin down. John Ashberry, who described Rivers' work as "handsome and dazzling original," summarized that "Rivers has always been out of sync" and Roberta Smith of the New York Times called him "a consummate synthesizer who seems to have considered any artist or art work fair game." But perhaps the wellspring for the strength, sensitivity and enormous individuality by which his work can be measured has been best sounded by John Gruen who wrote the following:

"Early on, Rivers had developed a painting style he could call his own. It might be categorized as being semi-abstract, semi-realistic, pop-artist, post-romantic, or neo-classic. But whatever the label, it reflected (and still does) an untrammeled imagination, an extraordinary draughtsmanship, a color sense that has no truck with garishness or vulgarity, and an innate vitality that springs from Rivers' own restlessness and reflects itself with charged-up spontaneity, into whatever he paints."

Larry Rivers is represented in numerous public collections in the United States. Among them are the following: The Baltimore Museum of Art; The Art Institute of Chicago; Dallas Museum of Art; De Menil Foundation, Houston; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Minneapolis Institute of Art. In New York City, he is represented in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Jewish Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. In Washington, D.C., he is represented at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden and the National Gallery of Art. He is also represented by the Tate Gallery, London, the Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City and the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Caracas.

An illustrated color catalogue of the Rivers Fashion and The Birds is available.

This exhibition is accompanied in the small gallery by a show of small sculptures by Arnaldo Pomodoro.

Following Larry Rivers' exhibition in December will be an exhibition of paintings by Vincent Desiderio.

MARLBOROUGH GALLERY

40 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019

www.marlboroughgallery.com

Kiki Smith at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin - Convergence

Kiki Smith: Convergence
Irish Musuem of Modern Art, Dublin
24 October 1997 - 15 February 1998

The first major solo exhibition in Ireland of the work of Kiki Smith, one of America’s leading contemporary artists, opens to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on 24 October. Kiki Smith: Convergence ranges over ten years of Kiki Smith’s work from 1988 and reflects her main concerns in terms of subject matter and use of colour and materials. It features a number of her characteristic sculptures based on the human body, a number of more recent drawings from 1996 and 1997, and mixed-media works using materials such as glass, crystal and neon, which mark a shift in focus from the human to animal forms and the natural world. 

Kiki Smith is best known for her works based on the female body which she presents in stark, often provocative terms - its flesh, blood, secretion and excretions suggesting fundamental questions of life and death. As an artist Smith gives birth to adult forms still grimy with the process of delivery. Indeed, a paradox of her works is that one cannot tell if they are coming into existence or passing out of it through decay and disintegration. Both formally and psychologically, these sculptures break with traditional notions of the depiction of the human figure in art. 

Using the physical body as her starting point, Kiki Smith explores the wider female condition in works suggesting pain, humiliation and subservience. There are also allusions to religious rituals and beliefs, which reflect her Catholic upbringing. The artist has selected works for this exhibition by using the device of colour for individual rooms at the museum - red, yellow, blue, green, brown and silver - colours which have been a strong force in her work. 

Kiki Smith was born in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1954. She moved to the United States as a child and in 1976 moved to New York where she now lives and works. In 1979-80 she began to work with the body using Gray’s Anatomy as a reference. She had her first solo exhibition Life Wants to Live at The Kitchen in New York in 1982. Since then she has exhibited to considerable critical acclaim in solo and group shows worldwide. Kiki Smith’s sculpture was included in From Beyond the Pale at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 1994. 

Irish Museum of Modern Art
Royal Hospital, Military Road, Kilmainham, Dublin 8
www.modernart.ie

Compact Nikon Coolpix 300

Nikon Coolpix 300

Sortie en 1997, après le Coolpix 100, sortie également en 1997, le Nikon Coolpix 300 est le second appareil photo numérique fabriqué par Nikon.

Liens vers d'autres messages connexes du blog : Anciens Compacts Nikon - Nikon Coolpix 100 - Nikon Coolpix 600 - Nikon Coolpix 700 - Nikon Coolpix 775 - Nikon Coolpix 800 - Nikon Coolpix 880 - Nikon Coolpix 885 - Nikon Coolpix 900 - Nikon Coolpix 950 - Nikon Coolpix 990 - Nikon Coolpix 995 - Nikon Coolpix 2000 - Nikon Coolpix 2100 - Nikon Coolpix 2500 - Nikon Coolpix 3100 - Nikon Coolpix 3500 - Nikon Coolpix 3700 - Nikon Coolpix 4300 - Nikon Coolpix 4500 - Nikon Coolpix 5000 - Nikon Coolpix 5400 - Nikon Coolpix 5700 - Nikon Coolpix SQ

Compact numérique Nikon Coolpix 100

Nikon Coolpix 100

Sortie en 1997, c'est le premier appareil photo compact numérique Nikon. Il ouvre la longue série des COOLPIX. Avant le Coolpix 100, Nikon avait produit des appareils numériques mais ceux-ci n'étaient pas des compacts.

Liens [A VENIR] vers d'autres messages connexes du blog [INACTIFS POUR L' INSTANT] : Anciens Compacts Nikon - Nikon Coolpix 300 --- Nikon Coolpix 600 --- Nikon Coolpix 700 --- Nikon Coolpix 775 --- Nikon Coolpix 800 --- Nikon Coolpix 880 --- Nikon Coolpix 885 --- Nikon Coolpix 900 --- Nikon Coolpix 950 --- Nikon Coolpix 990 --- Nikon Coolpix 995 --- Nikon Coolpix 2000 --- Nikon Coolpix 2100 --- Nikon Coolpix 2500 --- Nikon Coolpix 3100 --- Nikon Coolpix 3500 --- Nikon Coolpix 3700 --- Nikon Coolpix 4300 --- Nikon Coolpix 4500 --- Nikon Coolpix 5000 --- Nikon Coolpix 5400 --- Nikon Coolpix 5700 --- Nikon Coolpix SQ

Photo (c) Nikon - Tous droits réservés

Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing 830 Sackler Museum

A new wall drawing by conceptual artist Sol LeWitt (b. 1928), Wall Drawing #830: Four Isometric Figures with Color Ink Washes Superimposed, has been installed in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum's lobby – Harvard University Art Museums. Comprising four large-scale geometric shapes on fields of primary colors, the drawing dramatically amplifies and animates the Sackler's double-height entry space. The project was organized by James Cuno, director of the Art Museums, to create a friendlier, more inviting space for visitors, while at the same time giving the public easy access to a major work by one of our generation's premier draftsmen.

Sol LeWitt has been a dominating influence in contemporary art for several decades. His wall drawings have been installed in major museums worldwide. Although his work emphasizes conception rather than implementation, the final product is always visually pleasing.

"This is a beautiful work of art in its own right, but all the more beautiful for how it transforms and enhances the lobby of the Sackler Museum," said James Cuno. "We believe it demonstrates our commitment to working with contemporary artists and to offering our public new, exciting, and easily accessible aesthetic experiences. Anyone walking down Quincy Street or Broadway can now take refuge in the midst of a great work of art."

The installation of Wall Drawing #830 was led by Anthony Sansotta, who has worked with LeWitt for nineteen years, with the help of other assistants to LeWitt, local students and artists and staff at the Art Museums. The project was supported by the Contemporary Art Sub-Committee of the Art Museums Collections Committee, led by Gabriella de Ferrari and Bruce Beal.

The museum is located at 485 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Landscape Painter Tomas Sanchez joins Marlborough Gallery

LANDSCAPE PAINTER TOMAS SANCHEZ 

JOINS MARLBOROUGH GALLERY

Marlborough Gallery announces that the esteemed landscape painter, TOMAS SANCHEZ, has joined its stable of artists.

Tomas Sanchez was born in 1948 in Cuba. He graduated in 1971 from the National School of Art in Havana. In 1980, he won first place in the 19th International Juan Miro Prize of drawing in Barcelona and in 1981 had his first one-man show of drawings at the Miro Foundation in the same city. In 1984, he won the Amelia Palaez National award for painting in the first Biennial of Havana and the following year he was honored by his first retrospective exhibition at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana. In 1988, Tomas Sanchez, received Cuba's National Culture Merit Award given by the State Council. He has had several successful exhibitions in South America, Mexico and Florida where the artist now lives and works. His most recent exhibition (1996) was a one-man show at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

There are currently two books published on Tomas Sanchez's work: Tomas Sanchez and His Pictorial Universe (Palette Publications, 1996) and Tomas Sanchez, Paisaje Interior (Petroleos Mexicanos, 1994). Writing in the text to the former work, Roberto J. Cayuso says that Tomas Sanchez can be associated with Spanish realist painters who understand their art not from a photographic vision, but born from meditation and...prompted by life and authentic visual perceptions. Continuing, he states:

When we admire one of his landscapes, whether it deals with junkyards or interpretations of nature, the first thing that impresses us is the surprising magnificence of the theme and then, the treatment of it. Here, we can almost count the leaves of the trees and the waves of the waters. His clouds seem to be pieces of cotton torn and tossed by the wind that create an exquisite symphony of lights and colors without neglecting the smallest detail, however small it may be. He delivers us with a work of lyricism and unsuspected yearnings.

MARLBOROUGH GALLERY

www.marlboroughgallery.com

Roy Dowell at Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles - New Work

Roy Dowell: New Work

Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles

4 October - 1 November 1997

The Margo Leavin Gallery presents an exhibition of new works by ROY DOWELL (b. 1951). The exhibition, which marks the artist’s second one-person show at Margo Leavin Gallery, includes nine mixed-media paintings on wood panel and sixteen mixed-media collages on paper.

With a background in photography from Oakland’s College of Arts and Crafts and painting from the California Institute for the Arts, Roy Dowell has been able to unite these two seemingly disparate mediums. Roy Dowell’s work combines collage elements from printed video images and advertisements with abstract painted forms to create a coherent overall composition.

Roy Dowell’s imagery refers to the abundance of visual information disseminated through television, outdoor media, printed matter, and commercial products. In Roy Dowell’s work, however, specific images are distorted or altered so that no one reference is necessarily identifiable. The layering and juxtaposition of the collage elements with the painted elements in Roy Dowell’s work create patterns and colors that function similarly to brushstoke passages found within more traditional abstract painting.

Roy Dowell’s work has been included in numerous exhibitions across the country and has been the subject of one-person exhibitions at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica; Otis College of Art and Design, Pasadena; and the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art.

MARGO LEAVIN GALLERY

812 North Robertson Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90069

Tracey Moffatt at Dia Center for the Arts, NYC

Tracey Moffatt: Free-falling
Dia Center for the Arts, New York
October 9, 1997 - June 14, 1998

Dia Center for the Arts presents an exhibition of the work of Australian photographer and filmmaker, Tracey Moffatt. This exhibition, entitled Free-falling, will be on view on the fourth floor of Dia's galleries at 548 West 22nd Street, New York City.

Free-falling includes two newly commissioned works: a suite of twenty-five photographs called Up in the Sky (1996) and a video installation, Tracey Moffatt's first in this medium. The subject of this video piece will be a surfer, a figure close to the heart of Australia's contemporary self-image. By contrast, Up in the Sky, which was shot near Broken Hill in the Outback, draws on imagery and a landscape that have long been central to the Australian mythos. In addition, the exhibition includes Guapa (Goodlooking), a series of twelve monochrome photographs loosely based on the theme of the roller derby, which Tracey Moffatt made in 1995 while on a residency at ArtPace in San Antonio, and Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy (1990), her early but prophetic short film. Guapa explores the intersection of violence with eroticism as sanctioned under the umbrella of sport. Silhouetted against neutral backdrops, the carefully choreographed female contestants create formally compelling images recalling at times sculptural groupings from the art of the past: artifice is as intrinsic to this sport as it is to Tracey Moffatt's aesthetic.

Of Abori-ginal descent, Tracey Moffatt has gained increasing international attention in the past several years. In 1995 she was awarded a prize at the Kwangju Biennale in Korea, and two of her films were shown at the Cannes Film Festival. Given that she is also included in this year's Venice Biennale and Site Santa Fe exhibitions, Tracey Moffatt, who was born in 1960 in Brisbane, is among the preeminent Australian artists of her generation. Free-falling is her most substantial exhibition to date.

Major funding for this exhibition has been provided by the Lannan Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Embassy of Australia on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and The Australia Council for the Arts with an additional generous contribution by the Wolfensohn Family Foundation.

Dia Center for the Arts
www.diacenter.org