30/09/02

Fusion between TV Imaging Phones - The Nokia Mediamaster 230 S

 

The Nokia's latest innovation for the home, is a satellite digital television receiver that provides access to the highest quality digital television. For the first time, Nokia's new 230 S Mediamaster provides consumers the possibility to transfer digital images from any Bluetooth version 1.1 (object push profile) enabled camera phone, like Nokia's 7650, to the receiver and view them on the TV screen.

With the new Nokia Mediamaster 230S image viewer, consumers can enjoy the images from their camera phones in a larger format and store the most favored in their Navi Bars image folder. Storage is available for more than 30 images at one time. By also providing all the benefits of a digital satellite receiver, it is a fusion that enhances the pure entertainment experience of digital TV.

Based on Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) standards, Nokia's Mediamaster 230 S supports various Pay TV operators via a common interface module and also provides access to all digital free-to-air television and radio channels available. The Nokia Mediamaster 230 S offers an attractive compact design featuring a titanium grey flap, with blue black cabinet. 

"The Nokia Mediamaster 230 S offers access to a huge array of digital content available, while at the same time providing the unique image viewer and the ability to view digital images from camera phones", said Pekka Kuusela, General Manager Sales, Nokia Home Communications. "Now that there is connectivity between the digital TV receiver and the mobile phone , the family TV becomes a true information and entertainment hub for the home. The launch of the Nokia Mediamaster 230 S demonstrates Nokia's role in creating innovative functionalities for the digital receiver market."

The Nokia Mediamaster 230 S is easy to use, offering the onscreen Nokia Navi Bars user menu and an electronic program guide (EPG), thus allowing rapid navigation between TV and other digital content. Consumers have the ability to create up to eight personal favorite lists from a memory of hundreds of channels. The Nokia Mediamaster 230 S also features some of Nokia's most popular games, such as Snake, Tic-Tac-Toe and the new Card Deck game. It also supports Dolby Digital (Bitstream Out).

Nokia's new 230 S Mediamaster will be available in Europe at the end of 2002.

Next posts about Nokia products and events

• Nokia Camera Headset HS-1C

• Project Moby Click at Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art: Helsinki art students get visual with Nokia camera phone

Previous posts

• The Compact Nokia 6650 camera phone

Four Thirds System Digital SLR Camera Standard: Olympus and Kodak Agreement

Olympus and Kodak Agree to Implement Four Thirds System Digital SLR Camera Standard

Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. of Japan and Eastman Kodak Company of the United States recently announced that they have agreed to implement the Four Thirds System (4/3 System), a new standard for next-generation digital SLR camera systems that will ensure interchangeable lens mount compatibility. The two companies have resolved to aggressively implement this new standard in their respective product lines, and to establish the Universal Digital Interchangeable Lens System Forum, an industry forum that will promote acceptance of the Four Thirds System by other camera manufacturers. Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. has already agreed to participate in the new standard.

About Four Thirds System
The Four Thirds System is not based on existing standards for 35mm film SLR camera system lenses, but instead establishes a new common standard for the interchange of lenses developed exclusively to meet the optical design requirements of digital SLR cameras.

4/3-Inch (Type) Image Sensor Size
The Four Thirds System uses a 4/3-type CCD, CMOS or other image sensor, and will facilitate the development of dedicated digital camera lens systems that maximize image sensor performance and ensure outstanding image quality while also being smaller and easier to handle than 35mm film SLR camera lens systems.

Lens Mount Standardization
By establishing an open standard for camera body and lens mounts, the new system will make it possible to standardize lens mounting systems, something that has been impossible to achieve with digital SLR cameras that are based on existing 35mm film SLR lens systems. In addition, the new system defines standards for image circle size (the diameter of the area in which the subject is resolved) and back focus distance (the distance from the lens mount to the image sensor).

Development Background
Current digital SLR cameras with interchangeable lenses are basically based on conventional 35mm camera systems. As a result, they must be equipped with image sensors that are comparable in size to 35mm and APS film. However, because the imaging characteristics of these large CCDs are fundamentally different from those of film, a number of issues can prevent them from achieving their full performance potential. These include: (1) Although film is capable of responding to light striking the surface at a high angle of incidence, a high angle of incidence can prevent sufficient light from reaching sensor elements at the periphery of a CCD and result in reduced color definition, particularly when shooting with wide-angle lenses. (2) To achieve the resolutions required by the micron pitch of today's CCDs, the demands of optical design tend to result in the use of larger and heavier lenses.

Moreover, manufacturers of digital SLR camera systems have until now adopted the mounting systems used in their own respective 35mm film SLR cameras, making bodies and lenses produced by different manufacturers incompatible with one another.

In light of these circumstances, the new Four Thirds System standard was conceived to facilitate the design and development of digital SLR cameras and lenses that maximize the performance potential of digital imaging sensors, and provide users with product advantages such as compact size, handling ease, and enhanced functionality.

Benefits
The major benefit of Four Thirds System is that it allows the design of dedicated, high-performance digital camera lens systems that are more compact than 35mm film SLRcamera lens systems. The impact of the more compact lens size will be especially marked on telephoto lenses, making it possible to produce a Four Thirds System 300mm telephoto lens, for example, that offers performance equivalent to an approximately 600mm lens on a 35mm film SLR camera. In other words, it will be possible to offer the same angle of view in a lens that is only about one-half as long. The 4/3-type image sensor size will also allow the development of bright, high-performance zoom lenses that are more compact than those needed for use with image sensors the size of APS or 35mm film. By taking advantage of the more compact lens size, it will therefore be possible to develop lens systems that are much easier to handle than conventional 35mm film SLR camera lens systems. Furthermore, standardization of the lens mounting system will make it possible for consumers to photograph combining with bodies and lenses produced by different manufacturers, and enjoy a wider range of product selection.

Eastman Kodak Company
www.kodak.com

August Sander: People of the 20th Century Photographs Exhibition

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
August Sander, Hod carrier, 1928, gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the August Sander Archive, Cologne ;
ARS, New York, 2002
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) presents August Sander: People of the 20th Century from November 29, 2002 through February 23, 2003. The exhibition comprises more than 200 vintage prints drawn from the photographer’s monumental portrait of German society, made for the most part between the two world wars. SFMOMA’s presentation is the most comprehensive showing in the United States of this seminal project, which has never been publicly displayed in its entirety in this country. The works on view are culled from the archives of the Photographische Sammlung of SK/Stiftung Kultur, Cologne, and supplemented by selected photographs on loan from international institutions and private collectors. The exhibition curator is Susanne Lange, director of the Photographische Sammlung of SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne. Overseeing the San Francisco presentation is Douglas R. Nickel, SFMOMA curator of photography. Accompanying the exhibition is a newly revised seven-volume trilingual (German, English and French) monograph containing all 619 works in the portfolio, as well as Sander’s own annotations on the photographs and negatives, many categorized and evaluated for the first time.
August Sander (1876–1964) is widely hailed as an avatar of modern photography. His influence can be seen in the work of subsequent generations of international photographers, including that of Walker Evans, Diane Arbus, and Bernd and Hilla Becher. Sander’s exhaustive People of the 20th Century project set conceptual and aesthetic standards that were unprecedented in the history of photography; the achievement is still considered unparalleled today. Through this project, Sander created a compelling record of the world and time in which he lived by making direct, descriptive posed portraits of ordinary people from a broad cross section of German society—the farmer, businessman, bricklayer, painter, secretary, philosopher, dockworker, blacksmith and coal carrier, for instance—where individuals stood for and were grouped according to categorical occupational, social or familial types. He then collected the photographs into some 45 portfolios, which were finally assigned to seven archetypal categories: “The Farmer,” “The Skilled Tradesman,” “The Woman,” “Classes and Professions,” “The Artists,” and “The City.” The final category, “The Last People,” included the elderly as well as those with birth defects, disabilities, and mental disorders. Taken together, these images capture a detailed view of pre–World War II Germany and reflect Sander’s optimistic view of the prevailing social order.
Sander was born in 1876 in Herdorf, Germany, near Cologne, the son of a mining carpenter. Soon after receiving a camera from an uncle in 1892, he built a darkroom and began photographing. After his military service, he worked as a commercial photographer, specializing in architectural and industrial photography. Sander was most active creatively during the period between the two World Wars, when many German artists were stimulated by newfound political freedom. Inspired by the Cologne Progressives, a group of radical painters he met in the early 1920s, he conceived of his ambitious project in sympathy with the Neue Sachlichkeit, or “New Objectivity,” in art current in this circle. Sander worked on People of the 20th Century until his death in 1964, despite the tumultuous world events generated by the rise of Hitler and the Third Reich: Nazi authorities disapproved of Sander’s undifferentiated, unheroic depiction of the German people and for a time forced him to stop work on the project; thousands of his glass negatives were confiscated and destroyed. Eventually Sander relocated to the village of Kuchhausen—bringing with him and thus saving 10,000 negatives—and sat out the war years by devoting himself to a series of landscapes and nature studies. One of Sander’s sons, Erich, who joined the anti-Nazi Socialist Worker’s Party in 1933, was jailed for treason in 1934 and died in prison 10 years later. Erich’s brother, Gunther Sander, began working toward the publication of People of the 20th Century in 1980.
The first section of the exhibition, “The Farmer,” demonstrates Sander’s familiarity with the rural environment of his youth, as well as his view of the farmer as the basic archetype of society. The first section also includes a portfolio of 12 pictures that Sander created as a prologue to the total project. These images depict a broad cross section of social types as they relate to inner character: the man of the soil, the revolutionary, the philosopher and the sage. A second section, “The Skilled Tradesman,” includes images of members of the trades as they were understood in Sander’s age—the bricklayer, the locksmith, the shoemaker, the tailor, the potter and the pastry cook—as well as images of industrialists, technicians and inventors. In the third section, “The Woman,” women appear largely defined in relationship to other people in pictures with titles such as Wholesale Merchant and Wife, The Innkeeper and His Wife and Middle-Class Couple. In some of the later images, however, women do appear in autonomous social roles in occupations that were open to them, such as nun, dressmaker and secretary.
In the fourth section, “Classes and Professions,” Sander creates a complex image of society: the subsection “The Clergyman” includes both Roman Catholics and Protestants; “The Teacher and Educator” shows teachers from cities and villages; “The Businessman” ranges from match seller to publisher to art dealer. Sander’s comprehensive view of society is most apparent in his inclusion of people whose professional activity might be considered marginal, such as the hypnotist in the portfolio “The Doctor and the Pharmacist.” Also on view are portraits of politicians of multiple political persuasions. However, all Sander’s portraits are made in the same spirit of scientific objectivity and neutrality, including a series of national socialists, Jews, and soldiers of both world wars.
The cultural spectrum of “The Artists” ranges from world-class conductor to café musician, from film actor to touring player. The images in “The City” depict the life of urban dwellers on festive and solemn occasions; people living on the fringes of urban society, such as circus artists, gypsies, transients and city youth. The section also includes images of persecuted Jewish citizens, foreign workers and political prisoners. Sander devotes the final section, “The Last People,” to people on society’s outermost perimeters: the sick, the old and frail, and people born with physical or mental disabilities. On view in this section is an image of the death mask of his son Erich, who died as a political prisoner.
The seven-volume catalogue that accompanies the exhibition is available for purchase in the SFMOMA Museum Store. Published by Harry N. Abrams, the fully illustrated set is priced at $195, $175.50 for SFMOMA members.
Hours: Open daily (except Wednesdays) 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; open late Thursdays until 9 p.m.; summer hours (Memorial Day to Labor Day) open at 10 a.m.; closed Wednesdays and the following public holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day. Admission prices: Adults $10; seniors $7; students $6. SFMOMA members and children 12 and under are admitted free, sponsored by Thursday evenings, 6 to 9. The first Tuesday of each month admission is free.

28/09/02

Compact Nokia 6650 Camera Phone Records Video with Sound

 

The Nokia 6650 phone offers robust functionality with pocket size comfort. Encompassing a large color display, integrated camera with picture and video capture, as well as voice, multiple data connectivity options and an advanced user interface, this innovative product is ideally suited to anyone who desires a mobile phone that combines leading-edge functionality with a high quality feel.

The Nokia 6650 is the first Nokia phone to incorporate the ability to record video simultaneously with sound. The VGA camera can be activated rapidly just by opening the lens cover of the camera. In addition to still pictures, you can capture video clips - with audio – for up to twenty seconds, in 4096 colors. The pictures or clips can be viewed and stored in the Nokia 6650, or sent to either a compatible phone or to an email address as a multimedia message.

With the Nokia PC Suite software for the Nokia 6650, users can view and edit the multimedia contents of the phone on the PC. They can even compose personal movies by collecting different video clips under the same playlist, arrange them into their preferred order and play them back like a movie. With the PC Suite for the Nokia 6650, it is also possible to synchronize personal data such as calendar and contacts between PC and the phone. The PC Suite will be delivered to the consumers as a part of the sales package of the Nokia 6650.

The compact Nokia 6650 camera phone marks an important milestone in the evolution to 3G

The Compact Nokia 6650 camera phone is the world’s first 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) compliant mobile phone operating both in the GSM 900/1800 frequencies and on the WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) protocol. One of the benefits of the WCDMA radio interface in the Nokia 6650 phone is it allows running more than one data session simultaneously. This makes it possible, for example, to capture and share what the user sees whilst talking on the phone.

The dual-mode functionality makes the Nokia 6650 phone the world’s first GSM/WCDMA handset to work in Europe and Asia including Japan.

The first deliveries for operator-controlled live network tests of the Nokia 6650 phone will start during fourth quarter, 2002. Depending on the WCDMA networks’ opening schedules and the maturity of the interoperability between networks, services and terminals, the first commercial deliveries of the Nokia 6650 are estimated to start during first half of 2003.

“The launch of the Nokia 6650 is solid proof of our capability to build highly sophisticated, yet user-friendly phones for more complex and demanding operating environments using new radio standards, like WCDMA,” said Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Nokia Mobile Phones. “Nokia is well prepared for - and indeed, driving - the technology transition to 3G application platforms and radio interfaces both in terminals as well as on the infrastructure side. We are working closely with all industry players to ensure both interoperability and a smooth technology take-off.”

The cutting-edge technical design of the new Nokia 6650 phone is based on a solution that brings both the GSM and WCDMA chips on to one circuit, enabling powerful talk times (up to 2h20min in WCDMA and up to 2h40min in GSM) and standby time (up to 14 days).

The Nokia 6650 phone includes a WAP 1.2.1 browser supported by GPRS, MIDP Java 1.0 technology for downloading additional applications to the phone, support for polyphonic ring tones, wallet application for mobile transactions and excellent data connectivity possibilities via USB, Bluetooth and infrared. The WCDMA bandwith support in the new phone provides mobile professionals with data connectivity from the laptop at significantly greater speeds than with ordinary landline modem.

With the new Bluetooth wireless headset also launched this month, the users of the Nokia 6650 will be able to handle phone calls and messaging comfortably on the go. The new headset is also compatible with other Bluetooth phones supporting the Bluetooth 1.1 standard version and Bluetooth handsfree or headset profiles, thereby offering improved possibilities for cross-brand interoperability across the industry. The phone weighs 141g and has a dynamic memory of 7MB.

Because of its technological merits and wide industry support, wideband radio technology offers a smooth evolution path from GSM to enriched mobile communications. WCDMA provides faster and more flexible use of mobile services thanks to increased bandwith, higher data speeds and improved roaming possibilities. As mobile services, applications and usage evolve, WCDMA will make it possible to further enhance the features and applications of mobile phones to utilize even greater voice and data capacity.   

Lee Wagstaff at The Proposition, NYC

Lee Wagstaff
The Proposition, New York
September 28 - October 26, 2002

The Proposition presents the first New York solo show by the British artist Lee Wagstaff inaugurating its new Chelsae space, in collaboration with Patrick Brillet.

The artist has spent the last four and a half years becoming heavily tatooed with his own designs. Raised as a Roman Catholic but with strong influences from Indian members of his family, Lee Wagstaff’s tattoo designs draw strongly on his religious upbringing and consists of symbols and patterns that are found in almost every culture in the world (circles, squares, swastikas, stars, triangles, etc.). Lee Wagstaff is interested in the migration and spontaneous generation of geometric forms; how the same shapes and patterns can be found in diverse cultures over vast geographic areas. 

The artist has used the medium of tattoo to transform his body into a work of “living art”; a celebration of form and geometry using the fundamental concept of mark making combined with the creative possibilities of the human body. Lee Wagstaff has become both form and content as well as subject and object.

Alongside the photographs, Lee Wagstaff will be showing “Shroud”; a life size impression of the artist screenprinted using his own blood. Blood is a byproduct of tattooing so it seemed natural for the artist to use this in his work.

“The emergence of Lee’s image on the Shroud elevates him to the status of a surrogate divine seemingly without the intervention of God. It comes off as both disquietingly heroic and at the same time spiritually arrogant.” -DAVID BOWIE

Lee Wagstaff sudied at the Royal College of Art in London, spending one semester studying with master woodblock printers in Kyoto, Japan. Lee Wagstaff’s graduation show in 2000 was greeted with a great deal of media interest and led the art critic Edward Lucie-Smith to say “...anyone looking for a genuine successor to the Hirst/Emin generation, in terms of potential public impact should make a note of his name.”

In the last year Lee Wagstaff’s international reputation has grown, taking part in exhibitions in seven countries (including five solo shows). Lee Wafstaff’s performance was included in the prestigious Ornament Und Abstraction show at the Foundation Beyeler in Basel Switzerland; he was also the first western artist ever to be included at Art Annual in Kobe Japan.

“Shroud” can currently be seen at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in the exhibition ‘Impressions of the Century- 100 Years of the Fine Art Print.’

THE PROPOSITION
559 West 22nd Steet, New York, NY 10011
www.theproposition.com

Updated 14.07.2019

25/09/02

Kodak at Photokina 2002

Kodak Introduces Broad Array of Products at Photokina Underscoring Confidence in Future of infoimaging Industry

Eastman Kodak Company introduced, at Photokina 2002, a broad array of traditional and digital photographic products and services that will give consumers, retailers, and professionals alike better ways to take, print and share pictures, extending the company's leadership position in imaging.

"The products we are introducing here at Photokina, from easy-to-use one-time-use cameras for consumers, to traditional photographic papers that last more than a century, to a breakthrough new 14-mega pixel digital camera for professionals, prove far better than words that Kodak is investing for future growth," said Daniel A. Carp, Kodak's chairman and chief executive officer.

Despite the current economic situation, Carp is bullish on the long- term prospects for the imaging industry and Kodak's leading role in delivering the benefits of the digital transition to customers.

"Every indication points to a continued appetite for pictures by consumers and commercial customers, despite the current tough economy," Carp added. "As the economy resumes growth, we expect the $80 billion worldwide photography industry to play a major role in the broader category of infoimaging, a $385 billion market formed by the convergence of imaging science and information technology. Kodak is well positioned within this field of opportunity in its consumer, commercial and professional businesses."

Kodak's investments are guided by four key strategies, according to Martin Coyne, II, executive vice president and head of the company's Photography Group. The group accounts for about 70% of Kodak's sales, which totaled $13.2 billion last year.

These four strategies, which Kodak calls the Critical Few, are:

- Expand the benefits of film.
- Drive output the printing of pictures in all forms.
- Make digital imaging easier.
- Create new businesses and new markets.

"Everything we do starts with the customer in mind," Coyne said. "We begin by understanding first what the customer needs, and then we work to develop products and services that give them better pictures and better ways to share those pictures."

A sampling of the Kodak products and services being introduced at Photokina reflect the company's effort to fulfill the four key strategies. For example:

Kodak is expanding the benefits of film with a completely new lineup of one-time-use cameras, the fastest growing traditional photographic product. New products cover all segments of the market, including a high- performance Kodak Ultra model that offers picture-taking performance that compares with a reloadable camera; a specialty Kodak Sport model for underwater use capable of picture taking at depths of 10 meters; and the Kodak Fun, a value tier offering that brings Kodak quality to price conscious consumers.

Kodak is making digital easier for professionals and consumers. A stunning new digital camera for professionals features a near 14 megapixel sensor and the industry's first 35-mm size CMOS sensor in an SLR model, giving professional photographers unprecedented performance and freedom. And the latest models in the company's EasyShare family of consumer digital cameras, led by a sleek, titanium-bodied zoom model, are the easiest-to-use digital cameras available from any manufacturer and are becoming the de facto industry standard for ease of use in consumer digital photography, according to industry reports.

Kodak is helping customers generate more output with new photographic papers for professionals, as well as consumer snapshots that will last more than a century in typical home display, enabling people to enjoy their photographs for generations. These papers are designed to produce outstanding results in either optical or digital processing equipment. Kodak also introduced a totally new family of photo kiosks designed to make it easier than ever for consumers to get great prints from their digital cameras at retail, or to make existing photographs better with easy-to-use software to improve and enhance pictures, making it easy to create enlargements, gifts and photo novelty items.

Kodak demonstrated at Photokina the Kodak mobile photo album, a new business concept it is exploring to link the power of pictures with mobile communications. In test today in Germany, consumers can have a retailer upload their pictures to a special web site. They can then call up their images on the newest generation of mobile telephones and share their images with others via wireless communications. The company's components business also introduced a 22-megapixel image sensor the highest resolution digital imaging sensor available to the market today designed to give other camera manufacturers a device that brings Kodak technology to a broader set of customers.

Eastman Kodak Company
www.kodak.com

22/09/02

Donald Judd Retrospective at Tate Modern, London

Donald Judd
Tate Modern, London
19 September 2002 – 19 January 2003

Tate Modern and the Stedelijk Museum collaborate on the first major survey of the work of DONALD JUDD (1928-1994) since the artist’s death. The exhibition is the first full retrospective of Donald Judd, one of the most influential American artists of his time.

Donald Judd began his career in the 1950s as a writer on art, and continued throughout his life to produce a distinguished body of writing. After briefly making highly reductive paintings, by 1962 he was making reliefs and fully three-dimensional work. In 1971 he acquired a disused army base in Marfa, Texas, where he was able to show in permanent installations both his own work and that of artists he admired.

Donald Judd’s sculpture is both elegantly austere and surprisingly sensual. The power of his severely rectilinear and often serial works lies in their overwhelming presence. Arranged along the wall, across the floor, or rising in stacks, his work has a powerful, physical and optical presence and often incorporate the space around them. To the surprise of some, from the mid-eighties vibrant colour played an increasing part in his work and he is now seen as an important colourist. At the time of his death in 1994, the New York Times observed ‘By the late 1960s, his sleek cubic and rectilinear works had helped redefine the direction of postwar sculpture’.

The exhibition begins with a remarkable series of handmade works from the early 1960s. These illustrate Donald Judd’s development of a new vocabulary of sculptural form. The exhibition then explores Donald Judd’s floor and wall-based box works of the 1960s and 1970s made from industrial materials such as galvanised iron, steel, plexiglass and plywood, and the wall-mounted stacks and progressions, which often have a subtly decorative finish, using brightly coloured lacquer or polished metals such as copper or stainless steel. The exhibition moves through the 1980s with a series of unusually coloured wall pieces of bolted steel, as well as a series of floor pieces from 1989, in which light, reflections, colour and volume work together to create works of great subtlety and beauty.

The exhibition is curated by Nicholas Serota, Director of Tate, and Rudi Fuchs, Director of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and benefit from their long standing personal and professional relationship with the artist and his oeuvre. The exhibition is also being organised in close collaboration with the Judd and Chinati Foundations, the institutions founded by the artist in Marfa, Texas and with the Marianne Stockebrand, Curator and Director of Chinati. 

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, additionally reproducing works related to those in the exhibition as well as views of Donald Judd’s installed works. It includes essays by the two curators and additional essays, selected writings by and interviews with Donald Judd.

TATE MODERN

Ken Lum. Le travail de l'image, Musée canadien de la photographie contemporaine, Ottawa

Ken Lum. Le travail de l'image 
Musée canadien de la photographie contemporaine, Ottawa
21 septembre 2002 - 12 janvier 2003

Le Musée canadien de la photographie contemporaine (MCPC) présente une exposition rétrospective du travail photographique des vingt dernières années de Ken Lum. Originaire de Vancouver, Ken Lum est l'un des artistes canadiens les plus connus sur la scène internationale.

Ken Lum. Le travail de l'image comprend des oeuvres tirées de différentes collections publiques et privées de partout au pays et de l'étranger. De plus, cette exposition inclut une bannière de la grandeur d'un géant panneau d'affichage, " On est jamais bien que chez soi ", qui orne le mur externe du MCPC. Cette bannière interpelle le public d'une manière provocante à participer au débat face aux notions du " chez soi " et aux questions de l'appartenance.

Depuis ses débuts, à la fin des années 1970, Ken Lum recourt librement à diverses techniques comme la vidéo, les installations sculpturales, la peinture et la photographie. Tout au long de sa carrière, il a juxtaposé texte et photographie, démarche qui a donné naissance à ses oeuvres les plus importantes.

Ken Lum s'interroge sur le lien qui unit les beaux-arts et la culture populaire. Parfois humoristiques, souvent provocants, ses fascinants portraits sont accompagnés de mots qui semblent traduire les sentiments intimes et personnels des sujets mais qui sont présentés dans un style commercial rappelant des logos.

L'artiste privilégie la question d'identité. Si la nouvelle population immigrante du Canada lui procure l'essentiel du contenu de son oeuvre, c'est parce qu'il s'intéresse aux lieux de rencontre des langues et des cultures. Ne manquez surtout pas cette exposition qui nous présente le monde selon Ken Lum.

Ken Lum
KEN LUM
Le travail de l'image, 2002

Un catalogue illustré accompagne l'exposition. Celui-ci est produit par le Musée des beaux-arts du Canada (MBAC). Il regroupe un avant-propos de Pierre Théberge, directeur du MBAC, un avant-propos et des remerciements de Martha Hanna, directrice du MCPC, des essais de Kitty Scott, conservatrice en art contemporain au MBAC, et de Jeff Derkson, poète, une liste d'oeuvres et de l'information biographique et bibliographique.

MCPC - MUSÉE CANADIEN DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE CONTEMPORAINE
1, Canal Rideau, Ottawa K1N 9N6
www.cmcp.gallery.ca

21/09/02

Rosanjin Kitaoji: Ceramic and Calligraphic Works from the 1940’s and 1950’s at Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York

Rosanjin Kitaoji: Ceramic and Calligraphic Works from the 1940’s and 1950’s
Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York
September 20 - October 19, 2002

Rosanjin Kitaoji (1883-1959) is internationally recognized as one of the most influential and illustrious Japanese ceramic artists of the 20th Century. Franklin Parrasch Gallery presents over twenty original ceramic and calligraphic works by Rosanjin Kitaoji in the first United States exhibition of this artist’s work since 1972. A full-color catalog of this exhibition including an essay by Ken Price (one of the numerous American artists influenced by Rosanjin Kitaoji) is available.

In the Zen tradition, Rosanjin Kitaoji focused his energies on an array of disciplines including seal engraving, calligraphy, publishing, culinary arts and pottery. As an acclaimed epicurean, who established a private eating club in Tokyo, Rosanjin Kitaoji developed a heightened appreciation of ceramic vessels and, in particular, pottery of the ancient Japanese masters. The Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 led to the decimation of his Gourmet Club along with his vast collection of functional antique ceramics. In 1925 he set out to open what would eventually be the most famous restaurant in Japan. In the course of planning, he decided to create all new ceramic wares to enhance the quality of the food he served and create a total sensual experience for his guests.

After considerable research and with the help of Living Treasure designee Toyozo Arakawa, Rosanjin Kitaoji excavated ancient kilns in Korea and present day Gifu-Prefecture, relocating them to his own property in Yamazaki. As he was not a production potter, Rosanjin Kitaoji brought many of the best ceramicists of his time to his compound to take advantage of these ancient kilns and their ability to achieve the firing effects of previous periods. The result was a marriage of glaze-colors and patterns reminiscent of various Japanese periods, but the forms were uniquely Rosanjin Kitaoji’s creation. It was Rosanjin Kitaoji’s gifts with the brush and calligraphy that not only distinguished the surfaces, but also the basis of the gestures (lines, bulges, weights and balances) of his clay forms.

Much has been discussed of Rosanjin Kitaoji’s painful and tumultuous childhood. Born under the name Kitaoji Fusajiro in 1883 to Seiso and Tome Kitaoji, he was the unexpected result of an affair his mother had with a funerary worker in Kyoto. His father was so shamed by this dishonor that he took his own life prior to Rosanjin Kitaoji’s birth. His mother was financially unable to care for Rosanjin Kitaoji and left the young boy in the care of a local policeman who shortly thereafter also committed suicide. Rosanjin Kitaoji was eventually placed in the foster care of a local sign carver, where he arguably received his first artistic training. In the end, however, all of his experiences with family and marital relationships were by and large tragic and unsuccessful. His best rapports were with artists and art (including several years in the early 50’s that Isamu Noguchi lived and worked on Rosanjin Kitaoji Kitaoji’s compound), and even then only when and with whom his exacting standards were maintained.

In 1954 a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York brought Rosanjin Kitaoji to the United States and later led to meetings with Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall both of whom were admirers and collectors of his pottery. Despite all his accomplishments in pottery, he turned down the Japanese government’s attempts to designate him as a Living National Treasure in 1955 and then again in 1956. After his death in 1959, Rosanjin Kitaoji’s work was exhibited in the United States; in 1965 at the M. H. de Young Museum in San Francisco; and in 1972 at the Japan Society Gallery in New York City. Concurrent with this exhibition, the Setagaya Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan is mounting a show of their permanent collection of Rosanjin Kitaoji’s work.

FRANKLIN PARRASCH GALLERY
20 West 57 Street, New York, NY 10019
www.franklinparrasch.com

19/09/02

Appareil photo Casio EXILIM EX-S1



CASIO présente EXILIM, l'appareil photo numérique le plus plat (11 mm), le plus petit et le plus léger au monde*


Au Salon CeBIT d'Hanovre, CASIO a présenté un concept dernier cri en imagerie numérique : EXILIM EX-S1, au design exceptionnel et aux fonctionnalités attrayantes et innovantes. Pas plus grand qu'une carte de crédit, cet appareil photo est un véritable petit bijou dont l'épaisseur ne dépasse pas 11,3 mm pour 88 mm de large, 55 mm de haut et un poids plume de 86 g**. Grâce à son design exceptionnel, cet appareil fait preuve d'une élégance sans égale et peut être utilisé dans un grand nombre de situations. EXILIM vous accompagne partout : sur votre lieu de travail, lors de vos activités sportives, lors de vos soirées, pendant vos voyages ou en toutes autres occasions. Moments uniques, clichés hors du commun, situations mémorables, rien ne vous échappera : EXILIM sera toujours à portée de main. Il se glisse partout, passe totalement inaperçu et ne nécessite aucune sacoche encombrante.

Le mot « EXILIM » vient à la fois du latin et de l'anglais. Ses racines « eximius » (extraordinaire) et « slim » (plat) s'associent pour donner un qualificatif des plus adaptés : « extra-plat ».

La finition élégante aux reflets argentés souligne la grande qualité de cet appareil entièrement métallique. Cette petite merveille de miniaturisation offre tout un arsenal de fonctionnalités.

Avec deux systèmes de contrôle d'image, la petite merveille argentée brille de mille feux. Le viseur optique s'accompagne d'un écran numérique de 1,6 pouces qui garantit un parfait contraste des images claires et brillantes.

« Dès 1995, en lançant le QV-10, CASIO a révolutionné le marché des appareils photo numériques », déclare Kazuo Kashio, Président de CASIO Computer Co.,Ltd. « EXILIM ouvre une voie entièrement nouvelle, qui tranche nettement avec la tendance actuelle «Plus de pixels, plus de fonctions ». De la toute dernière génération, ces appareils photo numériques sont si plats et si compacts qu'ils trouvent leur place n'importe où et vous suivent où que vous alliez. Une nouvelle fois, CASIO cherche à proposer des produits favorisant la création d'applications innovantes et l'ouverture de nouveaux marchés ».Hiroshi Nakamura, Directeur général de CASIO Europe GmbH, ajoute : « Par l'innovation et les performances de ses produits, CASIO n'a cessé de consolider sa position sur le marché des appareils photo numériques. Grâce à la nouvelle stratégie commerciale adoptée pour EXILIM, nous continuerons à étendre et à renforcer notre position en Europe et au-delà. De plus, nous aiderons nos partenaires commerciaux à œuvrer dans ce sens ».

Le CCD 1/2,7 pouces d'EXILIM offre une résolution totale de 1,31 mégapixels, ce qui correspond à une image de format 1280 x 960 ppp. De plus, grâce à un logiciel sophistiqué, il est possible d'obtenir des images de 1600 x 1200 pixels. Avec une ouverture de 1:2,5, l'objectif possède une distance focale fixe de f=5,6 mm, soit l'équivalent d'une distance focale de 37 mm sur un appareil 35 mm. Le flash intégré se déclenche automatiquement en cas d'éclairage insuffisant.EXILIM enregistre les images dans sa mémoire interne. Vous pouvez également utiliser des cartes SD/MMC comme support de stockage. La station d'accueil USB joue deux rôles ; elle permet de transférer les données images vers un PC et de recharger la pile au lithium. L'alimentation électrique est assurée par une pile au lithium rechargeable et particulièrement puissante. EXILIM est livré avec une pile au lithium, une lanière, une station d'accueil USB + câble et un logiciel sur CD-ROM.

L'EX-S1 sera disponible dans les magasins spécialisés dès juillet 2002.

* Appareil photo numérique équipé d'un écran LCD à partir du 14 mars 2002

** Poids sans pile ni carte mémoire

De nouvelles technologies au service d'EXILIM

• Intégration de l'objectif et du CCD dans un seul et unique module
La technologie développée par CASIO qui permet de regrouper en un seul composant des objectifs asphériques et un CCD ultra-sensible contribue à réduire considérablement l'épaisseur d'EXILIM.

• CCD ultra-sensible
Les UC, CIAS et mémoires SDRAM et Flash nouvellement développées par CASIO permettent de réduire d'un tiers la consommation électrique et le bruit*. De plus, l'intégration de ces 4 puces dans un même module multipuce MCM permet de diminuer la taille de la carte à circuit imprimé de 70 %.***

• Ecran LCD TFT à interface numérique
EXILIM est le premier appareil photo numérique au monde à être doté d'un écran LCD TFT à interface numérique spécialement conçu et produit par CASIO. Dans la mesure où l'interface numérique permet de se passer d'un convertisseur, il est possible de réduire la taille de la carte de 10 %**** et de diminuer considérablement le nombre de composants nécessaires.

*** en comparaison avec les appareils photo numériques actuels

**** en comparaison avec la technologie LCD TFT utilisée sur nos appareils photo numériques actuels.

Caractéristiques techniques de l'EXILIM EX-S1

  • Enregistrement : CCD progressif 1/2,7 pouces à couleurs primaires et pixels carrés
  • Pixels efficaces : 1,24 millions (1,31 millions de pixels au total)
  • Format d'enregistrement des images : JPEG, norme DCF, compatible DPOF
  • Support d'enregistrement : Mémoire flash intégrée (environ 14 Mo) ; carte mémoire SD ; carte MultiMedia
  • Tailles des images enregistrées : Images fixes (données audio en plus avec EX-M1) de format 1600 x 1200 /1280 x 960 /640 x 480 pixels
  • Séquences vidéo (données audio en plus avec EX-M1) : 320 x 240 pixels
  • Enregistrement vocal : Enregistrement sur mémoire intégrée, carte mémoire SD / carte Multi Media
  • Lecture de fichiers audio : Format de fichier MP3 (EX-M1 uniquement)
  • Suppression d'images : Une seule image, une par une ou toutes les images stockées en mémoire (avec protection de la mémoire)
  • Objectif : 1:2,5, f=5,6 mm (soit l'équivalent d'un objectif de 37 mm sur un appareil 35 mm).
  • Zoom : Numérique 4X
  • Mise au point : Objectif à focale fixe
  • Réglage de l'exposition
  • Mesure de la lumière : point central par CCD ; contrôle : programme d'exposition automatique
  • Compensation de l'exposition : -2EV à +2EV (par incréments de 1/3EV)
  • Mode d'enregistrement : Instantané, retardateur, séquence vidéo, Best Shot, image fixe avec son audio (EX-M1 uniquement), enregistrement vocal (EX-M1 uniquement)
  • Obturateur : Obturateur CCD, obturateur mécanique
  • Balance des blancs : Automatique / Fixe (4 modes) / Commutation manuelle
  • Retardateur : 10 secondes
  • Flash intégré - Modes de flash : AUTO, OUI, NON, réducteur d'effet « yeux rouges »
  • Ecran : Ecran à cristaux liquides couleur TFT 1,6 pouces 84 960 pixels (354 x 240)
  • Viseur : Ecran et viseur optique
  • Enregistrement de la date : Enregistrement de la date et de l'heure avec l'image
  • Bornes d'entrée/sortie : Connecteur de station d'accueil USB
  • Alimentation : Pile au lithium-ion EX-M1
  • Dimensions/Poids : 88 (L) x 55(H) x 11,3 (P) mm (hors projections) / approx. 86 g (sans pile ni carte mémoire)

Accessoires fournis : Station d'accueil, adaptateur secteur pour station d'accueil, câble USB, lanière, pile au lithium-ion, CD-ROM.
CASIO - COMMUNIQUE DE PRESSE - 14.03.2002
Dernière mise à jour : 05.11.2008

18/09/02

Auguste Rodin Exhibition La Caixa Foundation Tarragona

Art Exhibition > Auguste Rodin
Art Exhibition > Spain > Tarragona

 

Auguste Rodin

Social and Cultural Centre of “la Caixa” Foundation

Tarragona, Spain

19 September - 10 November 2002

 

Today the work of Auguste Rodin (Paris, 1840 - Meudon, 1917) exerts the same fascination that it did half a century ago. The clarity of his insight, the newness of the concepts he developed, and the diversity of his styles, materials and modes of expression make Rodin one of the most brilliant sculptors in the history of art.“la Caixa”,Foundation in collaboration with the Rodin Museum of Paris, presents an exceptional collection of works at its Social and Cultural Centre in Tarragona, which show the grandeur of the master’s genius. The exhibition Auguste Rodin assembles 57 sculptures -including the monumental sculpture Jean de Fiennes, belonging to the famous sculptural group The Burghers of Calais-, as well as 25 drawings by the artist and 25 photographs of some of his most important works.

All of the works included in the exhibition are on loan from the Rodin Museum of Paris -the director of which is Jacques Vilain, curator general of Heritage-, without whose invaluable collaboration it would not have been possible to present this show in Spain. The exhibition curators are Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, curator general of Heritage and head of the Department of Sculpture of the Rodin Museum; Claudie Judrin, chief curator of Heritage and head of the Department of Drawings of the Rodin Museum, and Hélène Pinet, head of the Photograph Collection of the Rodin Museum.

The 57 sculptures assembled for the exhibition include some of Auguste Rodin’s most representative works, such as The Bronze Age (1877), The Thinker (1880), The Kiss (1882-1886), his likeness of Gustav Mahler (1909), Ugolino and his Children (1882), The Eternal Spring (1884) and two models of The Gates of Hell (1880). Also on display is the monumental sculpture Jean de Fiennes, which forms part of one of the artist’s most famous group sculptures, The Burghers of Calais.

A collection of 25 photographs and 25 drawings, the latter originally the property of the genius himself, round out the Auguste Rodin exhibition. Eugène Druet, Jean-François Limet and Jacques-Ernest Bulloz were a few of the early-twentieth-century photographers who succeeded in capturing the beauty of some of Rodin’s major works, such as the monument to The Burghers of Calais, The Bronze Age and The Thinker.

Under the title Auguste Rodin, this exhibition shows the grandeur of Rodin’s genius and illustrates some of his creative methods. The artist considered that his sculptures were never completed or fixed, but rather had infinite possibilities. Through reduction and enlargement, he would continually modify the scale of a given work, and, with it, its perception and meaning. In parallel fashion, he would recur to his “descartes” or spare parts (heads, arms and legs) and combine numerous independent figures to create unexpected and original compositions. Thus, several of the figures he sculpted for The Gates of Hell became famous quite independently of this grouping. These include The Kiss, The Thinker, Ugolino and his Children and others.

Auguste Rodin Biography

Auguste Rodin (Paris, 1840 - Meudon, 1917) began his artistic training at the age of fourteen under Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran and Louis-Pierre Gustave Fort at the Special Imperial School. After withdrawing briefly to a monastery, he returned to secular life to attend Barye’s courses at the National Museum of Natural History and began to work in Carrier-Belleuse’s studio. His journey to Italy in 1875 enabled him to observe the classics, particularly Michelangelo, and from that point on he devoted himself uninterruptedly to the creation of eternal forms like The Bronze Age, The Walking Man or Saint John the Baptist within a universe that was uniquely his.

By the end of the nineteenth century, Auguste Rodin’s prestige had increased considerably and he was commissioned to create the monumental bronze door for the future Museum of Decorative Arts of Paris. For The Gates of Hell, Rodin sought inspiration in images from Dante’s Inferno, representing scenes like the agony of Ugolino, and employing contorted figures to symbolise the damned. During this period, Rodin received several commissions such as The Burghers of Calais or the monuments to Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac. In 1890, together with Carrière, Puvis de Chavannes, Dalou and Messonier, he founded the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

Rodin’s role in the artistic milieu of his time was very significant. He portrayed his friends and the celebrities of the worlds of art, literature and politics, endowing his works with a personal and humane dimension at all times. In 1908 he undertook a group of sculptures, in which he focused on the body’s movement in dance, fascinated as he was by its freedom of gestures and postures. On the whole, Rodin’s work, which is placed at the turn of the twentieth century, offers a great variety of styles, materials and modes of expression. The artist created freely, using multiple combinations and developing original concepts that continue to be a contemporary artistic reference even today.

Exhibition
Auguste Rodin
19 September - 10 November 2002

Social and Cultural Centre of “la Caixa” Foundation in Tarragona
C/ Cristòfor Colom, 2
43001 Tarragona

The exhibition is open to the public:
Mondays to Fridays, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. and 5 - 9 p.m.
Sundays and holidays, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.

15/09/02

Chagall in Israel, Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Chagall in Israel
Israel Museum, Jerusalem
September 10, 2002 - January 11, 2003

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem presents over 80 paintings and works on paper by Marc Chagall, drawn from the collections of the Israel Museum, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and private Israeli collections. Chagall in Israel represents a collaboration between the Israel Museum and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, in which the Israel Museum is lending approximately 50 works by Picasso from its collection to Tel Aviv, in exchange for the loan of 25 works by Chagall to Jerusalem. The exhibition highlights the trademark images that have made Chagall such an important figure in the history of modern art worldwide, with a particular emphasis on works inspired by his Jewish heritage and connection to Israel. 

While Chagall absorbed influences from many of the major movements of the early twentieth century, his art remained distinctively his own - a fusion of images of mysticism and realism, fantasy and nature, religion and secular life. The exhibition explores the rich and broad range of subjects which Chagall treated in his work, including self-portraits; the Jew and the Torah; the Jewish village; lovers and flowers; musicians and performers; and artworks tied to Israel. The section devoted to Chagall and Israel features paintings created during his visits; works influenced by the landscape and light of Israel; studies for projects created for Jerusalem institutions; and rarely exhibited photographs and ephemera relating to Chagall and his visits to Israel - from Israeli postage stamps bearing his images to illustrated book inscriptions highlighting his relationship with Israel Museum Founder, Teddy Kollek.
James Snyder, director of the Israel Museum, remarks: "The exhibition demonstrates the strength of Israel's holdings in the work of this great 20th century master and his ties to Israel. It also highlights the collegiality between museums in Israel and the strength of the relationships between museums and private collections here. These are all valuable messages in Israel today."
Throughout his lifetime, Chagall acknowledged the importance of the State of Israel to the Jewish people, and he enjoyed friendships with Israeli artists, art historians, politicians, businessmen, and people from many walks of life. He made his first visit to Israel in 1931, prior to the founding of the State, on the occasion of a commission he received to complete a series of 100 illustrations of the Bible. His drawings, etchings, and lithographs illustrating the Bible and works he executed during his first visit to Israel, Interior of a Synagogue in Safed, 1931 and The Wailing Wall, 1931, are on view in this exhibition. After World War II, Chagall visited Israel seven more times. In 1951 he came for the openings of exhibitions of his works in Jerusalem, Haifa, and Tel Aviv and then again in 1957 following the publication of his Biblical illustrations. Chagall enjoyed close ties to the Israel Museum since its inception; Teddy Kollek gave him a personal tour of the construction of the nascent campus in 1963.

Chagall's imprint is most widely felt in Israel through the works commissioned for major institutions in Jerusalem, which are now national landmarks. In 1962, Chagall arrived in Israel for the inauguration of the twelve stained-glass windows for the synagogue of the Hebrew University's Hadassah Medical School Center in Jerusalem. He returned to Israel shortly thereafter to discuss and execute tapestries commissioned for the new Knesset building. Chagall also completed mosaics for the gallery wall and floor of the Knesset, all of which were his gift to the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Chagall made his last visit to Israel at the age of 90 in 1977, at which time he was honored by the City of Jerusalem and awarded an honorary doctorate by the Weizmann Institute. The Israel Museum honored him through a retrospective of his works held that year, which Chagall came to view with his wife Valentina.

Chagall in Israel is curated by Stephanie Rachum

ISRAEL MUSEUM, JERUSALEM

Iranian Modern Art at Grey Art Gallery, NYU - Between Word and Image: Modern Iranian Visual Culture

Between Word and Image: Modern Iranian Visual Culture
Grey Art Gallery, New York University 
September 18 – December 7, 2002

A groundbreaking exhibition, Between Word and Image: Modern Iranian Visual Culture examines three discrete but interrelated aspects of Iranian art of the 1960s and 1970s.  Co-organized by New York University's Grey Art Gallery and Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, Between Word and Image presents over 100 rarely exhibited works—fine art, revolutionary posters, and black-and-white photographs. Introducing American audiences to modern Iranian art, Between Word and Image also sheds light on the many ways that visual culture both reflected and affected the 1960s and 1970s, two decades which saw dramatic changes, such as the politicization of Islam and the 1979 Revolution.

The first section of Between Word and Image features approximately 30 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from the Grey Art Gallery's unparalleled collection of modern Iranian art. Adopting an increasingly social role, Iranian modern artists grappled with questions of how to reconcile their contemporary sensibilities with their Iranian heritage. Inspired by classical Persian poetry, calligraphy, and miniature paintings, they also appropriated images of Shiism, the dominant form of Islam in Iran. Also exhibited are 34 striking black-and-white photographs from the 1970s by Abbas, an Iranian photojournalist living in Paris and a member of Magnum Photos, the world-renowned collective. The exhibition concludes with a selection of revolutionary posters by both professional and amateur artists who merged calligraphy, graphics, and rhetoric in order to convey abstract ideologies. These three elements—art, photographs, and posters—furnish an important opportunity to rethink the notion of modernism in a non-Western culture.
Shiva Balaghi, Associate Director of the Kevorkian Center, observes, "The construction of modernity in Iran was an act of resistance and creation. It entailed seeking out new ways in which the arts could engage social and political concerns. In the 1960s and 1970s, Iranian visual artists began to appropriate the traditional role of the poet as Iranian society's conscious and all-seeing critic. In this sense, Iran's visual culture of this period is an archival record of the social and political problems that were emerging; it serves as the artistic pre-history to the Iranian Revolution of 1979."
"The arts serve as a testament to creativity as well as a historical record of upheaval and crisis," notes Lynn Gumpert, Director of the Grey Art Gallery. "Between Word and Image allows us to learn more about modern Persian art and to begin to understand how a country that was heralded as a paragon of universal modernization underwent an Islamic Revolution whose message was steeped in localized imagery demanding an idealized return to the past."
The modern Iranian works housed at the Grey Art Gallery—part of the Abby Weed Grey Collection of Asian and Middle Eastern Art—comprise the largest public holding of Iranian modern art outside of Iran. Amassed by Abby Grey on numerous trips to the Middle East and Asia in the 1960s and 1970s to promote artistic exchange, the collection includes major early works by the most prominent Iranian artists such as Siah Armajani, Parviz Tanavoli, and Hossein Zenderoudi. One work, Sealed Letter, a 1964 drawing by the noted large-scale public sculptor Siah Armajani, who now lives in Minneapolis, links calligraphy with the highly revered tradition of Persian poetry as a form of social critique. As in Heech, 1972, by sculptor Parviz Tanavoli, the abstract forms simultaneously constitute both word and image. In addition to featuring the Grey's holdings of Iranian art, the show includes several key works lent by New York's Museum of Modern Art.

The second section of the exhibition features photographs by Abbas that provide critical information about Iran in 1970s, when he returned to his native country to produce a photo-essay examining the social and economic changes brought on by the country's rapidly expanding oil industry. One visit coincided with the outbreak of the Revolution. Between 1978 and 1980, Abbas took hundreds of photographs, providing startling and vivid views of Tehran and its citizens caught up in the throes of a whirlwind. Some have become iconic images. An avid diarist, Abbas views his writing as an integral part of the process of making pictures. The show at the Grey juxtaposes excerpts from Abbas's diaries with his photographs, recalling the Persian tradition of illuminated manuscripts. As Balaghi notes, "As in that tradition, Abbas's words and his pictures can stand alone, but they develop a more textured meaning when taken together as a single art form."

Finally, the Iranian revolutionary posters shown in Between Word and Image offer another fascinating glimpse into modern Iranian visual culture. Composed of bold forms and intense colors, such as red (identified with Marxist liberation movements) or green, black, and red (significant in Islam), and usually incorporating calligraphy, these posters were ubiquitous throughout Tehran during the uprising. Made between 1978 and 1980, they were used as props in mass, choreographed street demonstrations and also covered the many walls of Iran's cities, often defacing public monuments built by the Pahlavi regime as symbols of its authority and grandeur. As government agents tore them off or covered them with paint, protesters would replace them with replenished supplies. Many of the posters allude to battle scenes from the Koran or classical Persian poetry. In one image, the raised arms of defiant militants merge with calligraphy proclaiming a defiant slogan, "There is only one God," against a vivid red background that both signals bloodshed and alludes to the red tulip, an icon of classical Persian literature. In another, an anonymous artist juxtaposes a black-and-white silkscreened portrait of the Ayatollah Khomeini against an abstract, brightly colored background, clearly referencing the work of American Pop artist Andy Warhol, whose portraits of the Shah and the Queen hung in the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Still others collaged newspaper images by photojournalists such as Abbas. Here art, reportage, poetry, and politics became enmeshed in a distinct form of visual culture.
As Fereshteh Daftari, a co-curator of the exhibition, observes, "Iranian modernism, like many of the culturally specific modernisms that emerged around the globe, was not synonymous with the one constructed in the West. Both nationalist and internationalist, it looked inward as well as outward. In art its languages included realism and abstraction, but formal issues were not its primary problems: the fundamental questions addressed by Iranian modernism had to do with the notion of identity." 
Between Word and Image was co-curated by Lynn Gumpert and Fereshteh Daftari in consultation with Shiva Balaghi, Peter Chelkowski, and Haggai Ram.

GREY ART GALLERY, NYU
www.nyu.edu

Wim Delvoye, Manchester Art Gallery - Gothic Works

Gothic Works by Wim Delvoye 
Manchester Art Gallery 
17 September - 17 November 2002 

Belgian artist WIM DELVOYE is a rising star in international art. For Manchester Art Gallery, Wim Delvoye has created an exhibition of new work on a Gothic theme.

A series of glass windows named after the nine muses of Greek mythology are dramatically displayed in the Gallery's new exhibition space. Brightly coloured pieces of glass are interspersed with images created by old and new methods of seeing into the body: X-rays, ulstrasound and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). These represent life and death, and mix the sacred and the profane, the beautiful and the morbid. They have been specifically made by master craftsmen under the artist's direction.

In the middle of the Gallery, there are two huge earth movers resembling miniature Gothic cathedrals. These are new works specifically made for Manchester. They are computer designed; one is made from sheets of laser-cut MDF kitchen work surface and one is made from steel.

Wim Delvoye's art is extremely eclectic and can be divided into different themes, of which the Gothic is one strand. Whilst he has deeply serious intentions, Wim Delvoye also applies his own sense of humour to create unique and challenging work.

Cloaca, his most recent and controversial project was exhibited in Antwerp last year. Wim Delvoye employed scientists and engineers to make a machine which replicated the workings of the human gut; a full-size production line turned a daily hot meal into faeces. As well as being hugely popular, this was a compelling and thought provoking show about our relationship to our own bodies. Previously, he commissioned wood carvers to make beautiful full size concrete mixers in rosewood and teak - his cement truck which took a year of working with craftsmen in Java was one of the big hits of the 1999 Venice Biennale. In Antwerp, for a show at the Open Air Museum of Sculpture in Middleheim, he approached the tattooists of the red light district in Antwerp to tattoo their designs on pigs who were thus turned into works of art and saved from the butcher's block.

Wim Delvoye has exhibited in galleries world wide and also at Documenta IX and the 1999 Venice Biennale. Wim Delvoye lives and works in Ghent.

A full colour catalogue will be available.

MANCHESTER ART GALLERY
Mosley Street, Manchester M2 3JL

Cambo New Video Range at IBC 2002

Cambo New Video Range at IBC: V15 & V40 Booms, Pan-Tilt heads & Tripods

CAMBO – the name synonymous with over 30 years experience in designing and manufacturing studio cameras and stands in the photographic business, have turned their precision engineering skills to the video market with their latest developments launched at IBC. They will be displaying their range of Video booms, Pan-Tilt heads & Tripods on Stand 538 Hall 11 at 2002 exhibition.

Following its premier at last years’ IBC, the Cambo range has been expanded to provide products for the serious amateur videographer as well as to the professional video and broadcast market.

The range now features two booms – the lightweight V15 and the V40 - capable of supporting cameras weighing up to 30kg and extending to over 4.6 metres. Also available are mechanical and motorised pan & tilt head options plus two heavy-duty tripods. The comprehensive accessory range includes boom extensions, LCD screen fixings and a battery converter enabling the pan & tilt head to be used on location.

The V15 Boom has been designed to be highly portable and will appeal to the weight conscious videographer as well as those needing to operate in confined spaces. Capable of handling cameras up to 18kg it has an 88cm standard reach and 79cm operating range, yet assembles and breaks down in seconds to a compact 94cm length. With the addition of the 0.8 metre extension piece included with the boom, the reach can be extended to 170cm with a 222cm operating range. 

The V40 is Cambo’s premier boom and is the most complete boom system in the industry. Its modular design enables the user to extend the boom to just under 5 metres with the use of interlocking extension bars. The boom is quick & easy to set-up and has a high load to weight ratio with a carrying capacity of up to 30kg – remarkable in a boom weighing just 11kg.The smart counter balance system uses standard weights whilst the fine tuning blocks allows safe & secure camera lens and battery changes, without risk of damage to the camera. The V40 is designed to be easily operated by a single operator. Extremely portable with removable bowl arm, sectioned centre arm and removable counter-balance arm, the boom can be carried in the back of a car and quickly assembled for use.

Both booms feature 100mm detachable bowl arms, fluid-action base with locking facilty and universal 75mm & 100mm tripod mounts. The modular interlocking design provides fast, easy set-up with no screws or small pieces to lose.

To allow camera movement and positioning when the boom is extended or in-use, Cambo have developed a comprehensive range of accessories. The PT90 Pan-Tilt Unit provides precision controlled motorised movements with the V40 boom. The easy to use joystick control with Hall effect sensor operates two independent motors with 350-degree pan and a +/- 175 –degree tilt. 

A switchable direction control allows the user to set the rotation direction on both movements so that it can be personalised for use. Well thoughts out add-ons have been designed to make operation easier. An LCD screen Adapter allows the user to mount an LCD screen onto the boom, whilst counterweights and stabilisation systems are available to accommodate heavier cameras.

Two prototypes are also being displayed on the stand this year. The lightweight telescopic DV-Boom weighs just 5.5kg and is designed for lightweight cameras and accessories weighing up to 3kg. 

Like its V15 counterpart, it collapses down to a compact carrying size of just 121x22x16cm – so is highly portable. The boom extends from 135cm up to a maximum extension of 275cm in seven click stop positions. A useful feature is the tilt control handle which can be adjusted to keep the camera level or at a fixed angle throughout the vertical boom movement as well as allowing a full range of movements. 

Cambo are also highlighting a new mechanical Pan-Tilt unit for its V15 & V40 booms. Whilst V40 users may prefer the motorised PT-90 unit, budget conscious users may opt for the new MPT-9 model. Weighing just 3kg it will support cameras up to 10kg and features an impressive 345-degree pan & tilt movement. A single control operates the pan-tilt functions, although a separate pan-tilt control for more flexible operations is available. 

Both units will be available commercially in January 2003.

The Cambo Video Tripods boast an impressive 100kg-carrying load to accommodate the widest selection of professional broadcast video cameras with a choice of either a 100mm or 150mm bowl option dependent on the video head used.

The specification is virtually identical for each model – the differentiator being the size of video bowl offered. The TBV-100 features a 100mm bowl which can be adapted to 75mm with an optional bowl adapter, whilst the TBV-150 has a 150mm bowl – with 100mm bowl adapter as an optional accessory. The 150mm-bowl model provides the professional with the greatest functionality – enabling broadcast quality heads to be fitted. It is also capable of supporting ‘Box Lens’ models.

Both models mirror the other high specification features. Two section single lift adjustable height legs, high tensile aluminium construction for strength and rigidity, integrated bowl levelling device, extra sturdy leg locks, adjustable leg spreader and built-in spirit level. The legs are fitted with dual rubber feet with retractable spiked foot and the tripod body features a useful anchor point for securing a cable or chain for difficult location work. A new entry-level version of the TVB 100 is also available with chain spreader. 

The maximum load capacity of 100 kg is bound to attract the most interest. With a relatively lightweight of just over 8kg the Cambo tripods offer a high carrying to size capacity and feature a closed length of just 86cm and operating height from 77cm to 120cm

Cambo Video booms and tripods are available from international distributors.

14/09/02

Peter Saul: The Sixties, Nolan Eckman Gallery, NYC

Peter Saul: The Sixties
Nolan/Eckman Gallery, New York
September 20 – October 26, 2002

In the 1960’s, Peter Saul’s paintings are poised between proto-Pop and Abstract Expressionism. Being an iconoclast, he resolutely avoids being part of either movement. But what a precocious lad he is! Somehow, he gets into the Icebox before Warhol, and then scouts for Guston, who would enter cartoon territory in 1967. Were he a stockbroker, Peter Saul’s prescience with Pop would have the SEC on his tail, pronto.

Featuring works not seen in over 35 years, this exhibition explores the foundations of Peter Saul’s fierce and mischievous artworks. He demonstrates an uncanny rapport with American culture, despite the fact that everything was made while living in Europe. And in many respects, his early work is very much like his current work: Peter Saul continues his ironical investigation of the economic and moral forces that move our society.

A catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

Peter Saul, The Sixties
Edited by David Nolan
Text by Ellen H. Johnson (re-print from 1964)
44 pages, softcover, 10 color ill., 3 b&w; ill.
Published by Nolan/Eckman Gallery, 2002.

NOLAN/ECKMAN GALLERY
560 Broadway, New York, NY 10012
www.nolaneckman.com

Updated: 16.07.2019

Johannes Kahrs, Galerie Almine Rech, Paris - A drunken boat

Johannes Kahrs : A drunken boat
Galerie Almine Rech, Paris
14 septembre - 31 octobre 2002

Le titre de l’exposition est inspiré par “les bateaux ivres” (“ships of fools”), dans lesquels au cours de l’histoire, en Hollande et en Allemagne, on embarquait les “fous” pour les envoyer en exil sans qu’ils sachent leur destination. D’une certaine façon, “A drunken boat” en est une métaphore; même si les oeuvres de cette exposition sont basées sur des documents réels ou inspirées de fictions, ce qu’elles représentent fait déjà partie d’un autre monde, d’une autre réalité, de la mémoire collective. Chacune de ces oeuvres est au delà du sujet ou de l’évènement qui l’inspire : une peinture ou un dessin non plus un moment ou une situation réels.

La recherche plastique de Johannes Kahrs s’exprime autant par les techniques de la peinture et du dessin que par un support comme la vidéo. Les oeuvres vidéo de Johannes Kahrs ont été montrées en France successivement à la galerie Almine Rech en 1998, "A-h scratch" (1998), au Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon en 1999, "Fuck you OT-Depression" (1999) (puis en novembre 1999 à PS1, New York), au Centre d’art contemporain de Sète en 1999, "A-h Scratch" (1998) et au FRAC Pays de la Loire en 2001, "A-h Scratch" (1998). Sa dernière oeuvre audio-visuelle : "Tonight" (2001) a fait l’objet d’une exposition à la Fondation Serralves à Porto en été 2001.

L’exposition à la galerie Almine Rech est le résultat d’une année de travail dédiée à la peinture et au dessin.

GALERIE ALMINE RECH
127 rue du Chevaleret, 75013 Paris

12/09/02

Praga Magica 1600, Musée Magnin, Dijon - L'art à Prague au temps de Rodolphe II

PRAGA MAGICA 1600
L'art à Prague au temps de Rodolphe II
Musée Magnin, Dijon 
12 septembre - 15 décembre 2002

Prague doit son éclat à un souverain qui a fait de cette ville une capitale des arts. Rodolphe II, empereur du Saint-Empire romain germanique, établit sa résidence permanente à Prague en 1583. Jusqu'en 1612, il constitue une prestigieuse collection privée et mène une politique active de commande publique pour la décoration du château. Rodolphe II attire à cet effet un ensemble d’artistes de haut niveau venus des Flandres, des Pays-Bas, d'Allemagne et de Suisse, qui sont généralement passés par l'Italie. L'empereur constitue ainsi un foyer artistique, que renforce son goût personnel pour la peinture d’histoire, la mythologie, l'érotisme, le style de Corrège et de Baroche, les "productions bizarres et merveilleuses de la nature". Le maniérisme y brille d'un dernier et superbe éclat, conjuguant les influences italienne et nordique, et ouvrant la voie au développement de l'art baroque tchèque.

Préparée en collaboration avec le château de Prague, l'exposition regroupe peintures, dessins, estampes et objets d’arts. Les principaux artistes ayant travaillé pour l’empereur mécène sont représentés : la peinture allégorique de B. Spranger côtoiera l'art plus aristocratique de H. von Aachen, les paysages de P. Stevens et R. Savery, l'histoire allégorique de D. de Q. von Ravesteyn, les naturalia de J. Hoefnagel.

Musée Magnin
4 rue des Bons Enfants, 21000 Dijon
Ouvert de 10h à 12h30 et de 14h à 18h (14 juillet et 15 août inclus)

10/09/02

Celartem Technology acquire Extensis

Extensis Press Release - Companies Plan Expansion of Products for Creative Professionals
Portland, Oregon - September 10, 2002 - Extensis, Inc., a leading developer of software for creative professionals and digital imaging market, today announced that the company has been acquired by Celartem Technology USA, Inc., which is wholly-owned by Celartem Technology Inc. (NASDAQ-J:4330), a Japan-based technology company focused on the creative professional and asset management markets. Extensis, a long-time fixture within the creative professional market, has been a wholly owned subsidiary of ImageX, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMGX) since 2000. The company employs 66 people based in Portland, Oregon and the United Kingdom.
Strong Synergies Between Celartem and Extensis
Celartem sees strong synergy between their technologies and Extensis' success with creative professional workgroups. Extensis shares Celartem's focus on the design, production, and workgroup side of the print equation. Additionally, Extensis' existing distribution channels and development efforts, coupled with Celartem's investment and technology, will put the combined company in a strong position for future growth.
"Over the past year, Extensis has maintained consistent profitability coupled with climbing revenues, which has positioned us for continued growth," said Craig Keudell, General Manager of Extensis, Inc. "The synergy we gain with Celartem will enable us to further invest in the creative professional market and bring our users more of the exciting products that they have come to expect."
Contingent on the closing of the deal, Extensis will maintain its existing management team as well as their operations in both Portland and the UK. Craig Keudell, currently General Manager, will take on the role of CEO of Extensis, Inc., reporting to the Celartem USA board of directors.
"Celartem's core technology for imaging is a perfect match with the Extensis brand, their products and their customer base," said Osamu Ikeda, President of Celartem USA. "By combining technologies from both companies, we see an opportunity to provide new products that will revolutionize the way creative organizations perform their everyday work."
Terms of the Deal
Celartem Technology USA has agreed to acquire Extensis, Inc. from ImageX, Inc. for $9 million in cash proceeds, with up to an additional $2.0 million due over the next two years if certain revenue targets are met. The sale represents an estimated gain of approximately $2.8 million to $3.8 million, to be recognized upon closing in September 2002. In the second quarter 2002, Extensis' domestic and international product launches fueled a 14 percent growth in revenue over first quarter 2002 revenues.

08/09/02

Elliott Puckette, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York - New Paintings

Elliott Puckette: New Paintings
Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
September 5 - October 12, 2002

Paul Kasmin Gallery presents an exhibition of new paintings by ELLIOTT PUCKETTE. It is her first major New York exhibition in three years.

Elliott Puckette's work strikes a delicate poetic balance between painting and drawing. Her elegant compositions are conceived by an unique technique and a labor intensive process. Elliott Puckette first coats a wooden panel with many layers of gesso then applies a monotone wash of colored ink. She intimates an expansive space by dripping and pouring veils of color. She then articulates delicate curved lines that sweep over the surface. They are not painted but are deliberately subtracted by etching through the ink with a razor blade leaving scratch marks. These continuous intricate and interlacing lines often evoke musical notations or a calligraphic visual language. This most recent body of work is inspired by the billowing, celestial forms of Constable’s cloud studies and the baroque lines of Tiepolo's drawings.

Elliott Puckette lives and works in New York City. 

Elliott Puckette
A fully illustrated catalogue 
with essay by Daisy Garnett 
accompanies the exhibition. 






PAUL KASMIN GALLERY
293 Tenth Avenue, New York, NY 10001

Updated Post

Preston Dickinson (1889-1930), Zabriskie Gallery, New York - Paintings and Drawings

Preston Dickinson (1889-1930)
Paintings and Drawings
Zabriskie Gallery, New York
September 10 - October 26, 2002

Zabriskie Gallery exhibits the paintings and drawings of the American precisionist PRESTON DICKINSON (1889-1930). Long overdue, this is the first one-person exhibition of his work since the Whitney Museum's retrospective in 1980. A contemporary of Charles Sheeler and Charles Demuth, Preston Dickinson remains an elusive, though well-established, member of the cubist-realist tradition.

Preston Dickinson was born in New York and studied at the Art Students League under Ernest Lawson, from whom he acquired a taste for the decorative quality of Japanese prints. He later moved to Paris and spent five years between 1910 and 1914 assimilating the canvases of his most revered artist, Paul Cezanne. Preston Dickinson returned to America at the advent of war and with Charles Sheeler and Charles Demuth introduced a unique and beautiful precisionist approach to Cubism, akin to the clean, hard edges of American industry. As early as 1914, Preston Dickinson was exhibiting together with Sheeler and Demuth at the Charles Daniel Gallery.

As part of the generation which experienced the heady rise of the school of Paris, Dickinson is to be noted for his uniquely American vision -- one which built on the European motif of still life but often included knives, cocktail mixers, and other metallic surfaces more appropriate to an industrialized society. In landscapes as well, Dickinson preferred homegrown depictions of bridges, boats, and chimneys to idyllic scenes of forests and beaches. "The languor at mealtime, lovingly immortalized in the countless still lifes of the bread, wine, and cheeses of France, was never an American trait. Nor could scenes of bathers capture the dynamism of America at the turn of the century" (Beth Urdang).

This exhibition, co-curated by Virginia Zabriskie and Thomas S. Holman, signifies an important re-introduction of Preston Dickinson to the American and New York gallery world. Preston Dickinson was an extremely accomplished artist whose promising career was unfortunately cut short by an early death at the age of forty-one. On the occasion of this show of over 20 works from private and public collections, a comprehensive brochure with color reproductions and an essay by Thomas S. Holman is published.

ZABRISKIE GALLERY
41 East 57 Street, New York, NY 10022
www.zabriskiegallery.com