28/12/03

Visatec Solo Kit 384 Photo Studio

The Solo Kit 384 is based on the Visatec Solo 400 B and 800 B units. For the first time, Visatec is offering a complete kit including a SOLO 800 B as the main light and two Solo 400 B units as fill lights. Standard accessories include a Soloflex 60 x 60 cm softbox, an umbrella reflector with a silver umbrella, a standard reflector, barn doors, three honeycombs; and a synch cable.
The most striking features of Visatec Solo 400 B and 800 B are their light output, continuous 3 f-stop output control capability, proportional halogen modelling light and built-in photocell. With the patented bayonet mount, reflectors can be changed quickly and rotated 360°; it also accommodates the comprehensive selection of Visatec light shapers.
The case keeps everything neatly organized and prevents damage to its valuable contents, so the entire flash equipment is always ready to use in the studio or on location. The kit's contents can be adapted to each individual photographer's requirements and expanded at any time. The transport bag is no bigger than an ordinary travel bag.
Photo (c) Visatec / Bron Elektronik AG - All rights reserved - www.bron.ch

27/12/03

Dali Collection Americaine Floride – Musée Salvador Dali de St. Petersburg

 

 

Centenaire de Dali
Une Collection Américaine

Musée Salvador Dali, St. Petersburg, Floride

09-01 > 26-09-2004

Le Salvador Dali Museum de St. Petersburg en Floride fête le centième anniversaire de la naissance de Dali avec une importante exposition " Dali Centenial: An American Collection ", présentée tout au long de la saison 2004, de janvier à septembre. Le musée de Saint Petersburg Florida entend ainsi souligner et expliquer, à nouveau, auprès du public américain, l'importance majeure de la place tenue par Salvador Dali dans l'histoire de l'art et, plus largement, dans l'histoire culturelle et sur le plan des idées. Le musée entend aussi rappeler l'importance de sa propre collection dans le cadre de Dali 2004 qui peut être l'occasion de toucher un public plus large.

L'exposition est présentée à la fois de façon chronologique et thématique. L'approche chronologique permet de bien mettre en lumière les différentes périodes dans l'évolution artistique de Dali. Les sections thématiques permettent quant à elles de montrer la récurrence de certains sujets ainsi que du symbolisme dans l'ensemble de l'oeuvre de l'artiste.

Le musée américain dédié à Salvador Dali possède une collection impressionnante d'oeuvres, ainsi que des archives, de l'artiste. C'est cette collection qui est exposée dans le cadre du centenaire avec une scénographie spécifique pour l'événement. L'exposition bénéficie également de prêts d'oeuvres de Dali provenant de deux autres musées : la Fondation Dali en Espagne et le musée d'art de Philadelphie.

En plus des peintures qui sont souvent exposées, le Salvador Dali Museum de Floride présente des oeuvres de sa collection qui sont moins souvent montrées au public, avec, entre autres, des sculptures et des oeuvres de joaillerie. En outre, certains documents de la collection, des archives ou de la bibliothèque du musée américain, faisant partie de l'exposition, ne sont que très rarement exposés et, pour certains d'entre eux, ne l'ont jamais été. Il s'agit en particulier de manuscrits originaux de Dali provenant de la succession d'André Breton, de documents importants sur l'histoire de la vie de Salvador Dali comme son certificat de naissance et des diplômes, de pages manuscrites, de contributions de Dali au magazine Studium, de livres de la bibliothèque personnelle de Dali, d'exemplaires rares de catalogues surréalistes pour lesquels Salvador Dali avait réalisé de superbes dessins ainsi que des brochures et catalogues soulignant la participation de Dali à de nombreuses expositions.

Une très importante exposition donc, par laquelle la Floride, au travers du Salvador Dali Museum de Saint Petersburg, célèbre le maître espagnol du surréalisme.

Mécénat : Progress Energy. Le musée a également bénéficié d'un soutien de l'Ambassade d'Espagne aux Etats-Unis.

Dali Centenial: An American Collection
9 janvier - 26 septembre 2004

Salvador Dali Museum
1000 Third Street South
St. Petersburg, Florida 33701

Site web : www.SalavadorDaliMuseum.org

10/12/03

Cindy Sherman, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

Cindy Sherman 
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh 
6 December 2003 – 7 March 2004

The first ever solo exhibition of the work of internationally renowned artist Cindy Sherman in Scotland opens at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Organised by the Serpentine Gallery in London, this fascinating show is also Cindy Sherman’s first survey exhibition in the UK for a decade. Around fifty photographs are brought together in Cindy Sherman, spanning thirty years of the artist’s career and including her latest works.

Cindy Sherman (b.1954) is widely recognised as one of the leading artists of our time. Although never interested in making self-portraits, Sherman shapes her own image with a bewildering array of disguises, using make-up techniques, wigs, costumes and prosthetics to create the subjects of her photographs.

Cindy Sherman’s provocative and intriguing portraiture often explores the themes surrounding female identity and stereotype in Western culture. Her work has been hugely influential on a younger generation of photographic and performance artists, raising her to iconic status in contemporary art.

Cindy Sherman first came to prominence in the mid-1970s with her series Untitled Film Stills – black-and-white photographs in which she imitated both the performers and settings of Hollywood B-movies, combining the roles of director, photographer and leading actress. In the 1980s she began to work on a larger scale and in colour, making reference to art history, fashion photography, television, horror movies and pornography. Recently she has created a series of portraits of ‘ordinary’ women with extraordinary character. 

The exhibition also provides an opportunity to view Cindy Sherman’s latest works for the first time in Scotland. Turning her attention to clowns, she examines costume and pretence in its most exaggerated and caricatural form.

Richard Calvocoressi, Director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, says: “We are delighted to be continuing our relationship with the Serpentine Gallery by bringing this exhibition to Scotland, and her first Scottish audience. Cindy Sherman is an outstanding contemporary artist.”

The landmark exhibition is being extended to include a specially produced display of Cindy Sherman’s work at Omni, Greenside Place, Edinburgh. Originally seen in London, the series of ten large billboards were commissioned collaboratively by the Serpentine Gallery and London Underground’s public art programme ‘Platform for Art’. The Billboard Commission comprises specially produced versions of Sherman’s works made between 1983 and 2002 and will be on view at Omni from 7 January to 7 March 2003. 

Cindy Sherman launches a series of exhibitions and displays at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art – throughout 2004-5, ‘A Year of American Art’ features work by some of the giants of postwar and contemporary American art, including Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol.

A fully illustrated catalogue will be available to accompany the show, published by the Serpentine Gallery and priced at £14.95. 

SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART 
Belford Road, Edinburgh
www.nationalgalleries.org

Inside-Out Portrait Photographs at the Whitney Museum

Inside-Out: Portrait Photographs from the Permanent Collection 
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
February 7 - May 23, 2004

Portraiture is the subject of the exhibition Inside-Out: Portrait Photographs from the Permanent Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. All recently acquired by the Whitney, these photographs explore the intricate dynamics involved in the relationship between subject and artist, examining issues such as vanity, comfort, and intimacy. The works, by such artists as Chuck Close, Nan Goldin, Sally Mann, Nicholas Nixon, Irving Penn, and Stephen Shore, assert photography’s capacity both to register a subject’s physical characteristics and to suggest the complexity within the subject’s emotional and psychological interior life.
Several artists, including Dawoud Bey, Chan Chao, and Melissa Pinney photograph unknown subjects within their environments. By contrast, Chuck Close, Nan Goldin, and Nicholas Nixon portray friends, family, or people with whom they have cultivated a relationship. More formal portraits describe an activity or commemorate an occasion, as in Paul Shambroom’s image of city council members at work, or in Irving Penn’s portrait of five esteemed American artists – Chuck Close, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Kenneth Noland, and Robert Rauschenberg.

When a subject and a photographer come together and agree that a likeness will be made, a complex dynamic is set in motion,” said Sylvia Wolf, the Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney. “In the most compelling portraits there is often a collision of wills, an exposure of vulnerability, a seduction, or surrender. The public face that the sitter wants to show the world is tempered by something deeper. Multiple layers of experience are brought to the surface and the inside is turned out for us to see.”
Whitney Museum of American Art [Click the link for more information]

Celebrating Contemporary Craft - Arkansas Arts Center's Exhibition

Celebrating Contemporary Craft 
Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
December 5, 2003 - February 22, 2004

CELEBRATING CONTEMPORARY CRAFT is an exhibition organized by the Arkansas Arts Center to recognize the contributions of Alan DuBois, curator of decorative arts, who will retire in June 2004. Alan DuBois has selected approximately 100 contemporary craft pieces from the Arkansas Arts Center Collection. Works were chosen for their high quality and importance to the collection. A broad range of media including glass, basketry, wood and ceramics is on view.

The Arkansas Arts Center began collecting contemporary craft in 1968 and now houses over 600 works. In 1989, Alan DuBois joined the Arkansas Arts Center and has been instrumental in achieving national recognition and in doubling the size of contemporary craft collection.
ALAN DUBOIS said, "We are beginning to see the fruits of the decision made by the Arkansas Arts Center Board of Trustees and Foundation Board to collect contemporary craft pieces. The works are shared in exhibitions around the country and the museum and its unique collections have a national reputation." 
Arkansas Arts Center 
www.arkarts.com

07/12/03

Hiroshi Sugimoto, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco - Architecture

Hiroshi Sugimoto: Architecture
Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
December 4, 2003 - January 31, 2004

Profoundly beautiful and powerfully evocative, the recent body of work entitled Architecture by internationally-acclaimed Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto is presented at Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco. This series of large-scale black-and-white photographs dissolves the lines between time, memory, and history in icons of modernist architecture as disparate as the United Nations Headquarters by Wallace K. Harrison, Luis Barraagan’s Satellite Towers, the Saint Benedict Chapel by Peter Zumthor and Minoru Yamazaki’s World Trade Center.

Hiroshi Sugimoto has two recurring obsessions: history and time. He has described this new body of work as "architecture after the end of the world." Hiroshi Sugimoto is known for taking years to work on his series of long-exposure photographs on themes ranging from museum dioramas, movie theaters, seascapes, and historical wax figures. The new architectural images run counter to the traditional sense of a photograph as capturing a moment in time.

The architectural icons in his most recent series represent the fifth major theme that Sugimoto has explored in depth. With this series Hiroshi Sugimoto has essentially broken all the rules of architectural photography. Photographing great landmarks of modernist architecture around the world, Sugimoto has deliberately taken the images out of focus and at unusual angles, isolating the recognizable forms. The blurred forms evoke the passage of time, muting the architectural details and leaving the essence of the building; suggestive of the way in which our memories preserve images.

Hiroshi Sugimoto: Architecture was recently seen at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and is accompanied by a major publication and essays by Francesco Bonami, John Yau, and Marco Di Michelis.

FRAENKEL GALLERY
49 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94108