30/10/04

Store 'n' Go 5 en 1 de Verbatim : photo, vidéo et plus encore

Nouveauté 2004 : L'appareil compact multifonction Store 'n' Go 5 en 1 de Verbatim

Stockage de données, appareil photo numérique, caméscope numérique, Web Cam et dictaphone, c'est le Store 'n' Go 5 en 1 de Verbatim.

Store 'n' Go 5 en 1 de Verbatim

Dans cet appareil très compact, Verbatim a incorporé un appareil photo numérique qui peut prendre et stocker jusqu’à 3000 photos en 320 x 240 pixels, un caméscope numérique qui peut enregistrer jusqu’à 12 minutes de vidéo  en 640 x 480 pixels à 30 images par seconde. Le 5 en 1 peut aussi servir de Web Cam et enregistrer jusqu’à 112 minutes de voix. Grâce à sa connexion USB le 5 in 1 Store 'n' Go de Verbatim se branche sur tout ordinateur.

25/10/04

Agfa Gevaert - Agfaphoto

La division Consumer Imaging (photo argentique et numérique) quitte Agfa-Gevaert et prend un nouveau départ avec AgfaPhoto

L'ancienne division photo d'Agfa-Gevaert renaît sous un nouveau jour, AgfaPhoto. Ainsi, dès le 1er novembre 2004, la division Consumer Imaging (C.I.), qui comprend les pellicules et les équipements de laboratoires photo, sera définitivement séparée du groupe Agfa-Gevaert, et formera une nouvelle société indépendante opérant sous le nom d'"AgfaPhoto".
Basée à Leverkusen (en Allemagne), la nouvelle structure mondiale aura pour Président Directeur Général, Eddy Rottie. Quant à Agfaphoto France, elle sera dirigée par Serge Carbonne, actuellement directeur de la division Consumer Imaging. La nouvelle société restera basée pour le moment à Rueil-Malmaison, en région parisienne, louant locaux et services à Agfa.

Agfaphoto a déjà donné le ton lors du salon Photokina (en Allemagne), il ne s'agit pas d'abandonner le film argentique ; Agfaphoto entend rester l'un des principaux producteurs de pellicules. Quant au numérique, il restera plus que jamais au cœur des préoccupations d'AgfaPhoto.

Pour preuve, les produits phare seront des cartes mémoire pour appareils photo numériques, le nouvel équipement de laboratoire numérique, d-lab.1s doté de la fonction a-REDC (correction automatique des yeux rouges), le kiosque permettant de recevoir et d'imprimer des images provenant de téléphones mobiles avec option photo, ainsi que de nouvelles solutions d’e-commerce. AgfaPhoto lance également de nouveaux films car la photographie argentique reste un segment important du marché de l'imagerie, le parc d'appareils photo classiques étant très étendu.

- Présentation de la société AgfaPhoto
AgfaPhoto est une société privée qui appartient à la direction du Consumer Imaging (25% sous forme de MBO), à la holding d’investissement NannO Beteiligungsholding (55%) ainsi qu’à deux actionnaires minoritaires, Abrams Capital (10%) et Highfields Capital (10%), tous deux investisseurs institutionnels basés aux Etats-Unis.

La nouvelle société reprend la totalité des activités C.I., à savoir : les films, le papier, la chimie, les équipements de laboratoire et le service. Elle continuera par conséquent de servir tous les clients et marchés photo à l’échelle mondiale.

Les investisseurs et l’ensemble de l’équipe d’AgfaPhoto auront un but commun : le développement profitable d’AgfaPhoto en tant que société majeure dans l’industrie photographique. Dotée d’une solide assise financière (300 millions d’Euros de capitaux propres, soit un ratio de 40%), AgfaPhoto sera gérée avec un maximum de flexibilité pour s’adapter à un marché en évolution rapide et faire face aux nouveaux marchés.

Agfa a conclu un accord de licence en vertu duquel AgfaPhoto pourra utiliser la marque Agfa pour la commercialisation des produits grand public photo pendant une durée illimitée. Au plus tard 18 mois après la séparation, le lancement de la marque AgfaPhoto aura lieu pour les produits de finishing (papier, chimie) et l’équipement de laboratoire.

- Des solutions innovantes dédiées à la photographie argentique et numérique
Qu’il s’agisse de photos prises avec un appareil photo argentique, avec un numérique ou un téléphone mobile équipé d’un appareil photo : les tirages papier peuvent être réalisés à partir de n’importe quel support. Soit localement via un minilab, soit dans un laboratoire industriel de production.
Le produit clé d’AgfaPhoto pour le traitement sur site est le d-lab1, un minilab numérique tout-en-un. Lancé sur le marché au printemps 2004, il a rapidement pris la tête de la famille des minilabs Agfa. Mais les minilabs de moyenne et haut de gamme, respectivement le d-lab.2 et le d-lab.2plus, ont également connu des modifications et sont maintenant commercialisés en version « select ». Pour tous les minilabs, la nouveauté réside dans la fonction a-REDC de correction automatique des "yeux rouges".
Le produit phare de cette fin d'année est le kiosque, système qui permet de tirer instantanément et en libre-service des photos numériques sur papier à sublimation thermique.
Etant donné le nombre de tireuses haut débit installées, AgfaPhoto est le N°1 mondial du marché des industriels de la production. Le d-ws, conçu pour une capacité de 20 000 tirages à l’heure, sera également équipé de la solution a-REDC.

Les services Internet, tels que le service de tirages en ligne, l'Agfanet Print Service, et l’Album Web deviennent de plus en plus importants. AgfaPhoto suivra cette tendance et présentera des versions entièrement remodelées de ses services.

Le marché du film étant toujours un marché très important, AgfaPhoto n'a pas fini d'améliorer ses produits et ses nouveaux films photo Vista dotés de la technologie Eye Vision 3.0 en sont la preuve. Ces nouveaux films sont également intégrés dans les nouveaux prêts-à-photographier – un segment de marché qui enregistre encore de forts taux de croissance au niveau international et qui sera développé par la nouvelle entité.

Compte tenu de l’explosion du marché des appareils photo numériques, les cartes mémoires sont également en forte croissance. Leur fonction est très proche de celle d'un film. C’est donc en toute logique que l'un des premiers fabricants de films se lance sur ce marché, avec une gamme de produits adaptés aux différents groupes d’utilisateurs et d’appareils photo. Dans ce contexte, AgfaPhoto fondera sa stratégie marketing sur son expertise acquise dans la photographie argentique : ces supports de stockage numériques seront commercialisés sous le nom de "Agfa Digital Film".

- L’accent sera mis sur les systèmes de production de tirages
Les solutions de tirages sur papier d’images analogiques et numériques seront également au cœur des préoccupations d’AgfaPhoto – car les consommateurs ne souhaitent pas abandonner les tirages papier. Les tendances du marché le confirment : le nombre d’images numériques tirées sur du papier photo augmente beaucoup plus vite que les ventes d’appareils photo numériques elles-mêmes.

La photographie numérique est désormais un marché de masse. En conséquence, elle a atteint le grand public qui ne veut pas seulement stocker ses photos sous forme numérique, mais aussi avoir entre les mains de vrais tirages et peut-être les mettre dans un album. C’est pour cette raison que le laboratoire photo offre non seulement des tirages d'excellente qualité, à un coût nettement moins élevé que celui des tirages sur imprimante à domicile. De plus, des tirages sur papier photo garantissent la possibilité de regarder ses images des années et des années plus tard.
Après tout, du fait du rythme rapide de développement du marché de l’électronique, ceux qui ne font que sauvegarder leurs photos sous forme de fichier numérique courent le risque que le matériel et les logiciels nécessaires à leur visionnage ne soient plus disponibles dans dix, vingt ans ou plus. Quel PC actuel est-il encore capable de lire les données enregistrées dans les années 80’ et 90’ ?

22/10/04

Samsung SCH-S250 : 5-Megapixel Camera Phone

SAMSUNG Introduces World’s First 5-Megapixel Camera Phone : the SCH-S250


Samsung S250
Samsung S250
(c) Samsung


Samsung Electronics unveils the world's first mobile phone (model: SCH-S250) equipped with a 5-megapixel camera. Just one year after the introduction of its first 1-megapixel camera phone and 3 months after its first 3.2-megapixel camera phone, Samsung proves its technological prowess again with this revolutionary product.

The CCD (charge-coupled device) camera and high-sensitivity flash allow the user to take the same quality pictures one gets from a top-end digital camera. Similar to Samsung's premium grade camera phones, the S250 can also function as a camcorder. The 92MB onboard memory can store up to 100 minutes of video (320x240), and a 32MB auxiliary memory is included as a standard feature. The shutter speed is as fast as 1/1,000 th of a second, allowing the user to film beautiful landscapes as well as subjects as close as 10 cm. The S250 can be connected to a TV to display video during shooting or to show footage that has already been recorded in the mobile phone.

The S250 comes with a unique “stretch” design, reminiscent of the futuristic phones seen in the movie The Matrix . The high-quality camera lens and LCD remain covered and protected when the phone is closed, and when it is stretched open, the product has the feel of a regular digital camera.

Samsung has also set a new standard in mobile phone display technology. Until now, mobile phones had been equipped with LCDs capable of 262,000-color resolution. The S250 boasts a QVGA TFD-LCD (Thin Film Diode-Liquid Crystal Display) that has previously been adapted only for top-end TVs and desktop monitors. The display can reproduce 16 million colors, over 60 times the color compared to existing mobile phone displays, all the hues found in nature; thus, QVGA resolution has been referred to as “true color.”

Samsung has also taken voice recognition to a higher level by introducing text-to-speech (TTS) conversion. Now the user can listen to incoming text messages or the prepared “to-do” list rather than having to read them.

The S250 supports high-image-quality games and 3D sound effects. If a call is received in the middle of a game, the user can restore the game later and resume play.

Other advanced functions in the S250 include an MP3 player, mobile banking capability and 64-polyphonic sound.

According to President & CEO Kitae Lee of the Samsung Electronics, “Our development of a 5-megapixel camera phone will elevate the competitiveness of the Korean mobile phone industry. At the same time, I would like to see our technological advances contribute to the growth of the global mobile phone industry and create a more convenient way of life.”

President Lee adds, “It's very important to lead the trends through continuous introductions of innovative new products. Samsung Electronics possesses the world's leading technologies and state-of-the-art design capabilities, and we are committed to developing distinctive products for our customers.”

Samsung cooperated with the Japan-based Asahi Pentax, one of the most respected camera lens providers in the world, to develop a camera module customized for the mobile phone. This partnership began in the first-half of 2003.

The SCH-S250 will be available in the Korean market this October.

www.samsung.com

20/10/04

Expositions Culture Design, Palais de la Porte Dorée, Paris

Culture Design 
Palais de la Porte Dorée, Paris
20 octobre 2004 - 16 janvier 2005

Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, ministre de la culture et de la communication, a inauguré mardi 19 octobre 2004, l’exposition Culture design, qui présente, pour la première fois à Paris, plus de 2000 objets des collections publiques.

En présence de nombreux désigners, (François Bauchet, Matali Crasset, Frédéric Ruyant, Robert Stadler etc.), le Ministre a rappelé que « le design occupe un espace considérable dans le champ de la création contemporaine. Le dynamisme et la qualité des designers qui vivent et travaillent dans notre pays, la vitalité de ceux qui, éditeurs, entreprises, marchands, oeuvrent à sa diffusion et à sa rencontre avec le public, confèrent à la France, en la matière, une position de choix sur la scène internationale ».

C’est de la volonté de donner au plus grand nombre les références, les outils nécessaires à la connaissance et à la compréhension de ce champ de la création contemporaine qu’a procédé la conception cette manifestation.

Cet événement, conçu comme un diptyque réunit deux expositions :

    - Design en stock, 2000 objets du Fonds national d’art contemporain (FNAC)
    - Mobilier national : 40 ans de création

          -  Design en stock rend compte de la diversité de la collection du FNAC, riche de plus de 5000 objets de la seconde moitié du XXe siècle, ce qui la situe au tout premier rang des collections contemporaines. Elle regroupe des objets principalement destinés à l’habitat domestique, parmi lesquels le public reconnaîtra, des objets familiers. Les objets sélectionnés sont identifiés et classés en 13 zones selon la rigueur pragmatique d’un inventaire : designers, éditeurs, datations, types, matériaux et techniques, nationalités, dimensions, ensembles, stades de production, lieux de fabrication, tirages, couleurs, nombres d’éléments. Elles offrent autant de points de vue différents sur les objets et sur la collection. Ce classement a été traduit par une scénographie originale, imaginée par Konstantin Grcic, designer allemand, permettant au visiteur de découvrir l’exposition depuis des passerelles métalliques surplombant les 2000 objets.

          -  Mobilier national : 40 ans de création (1964-2004) réunit une centaine de pièces uniques réalisées depuis 40 ans par une cinquantaine de créateurs au sein de l'Atelier de Recherche et de Création du Mobilier national. Depuis sa création, l'ARC est le laboratoire où s'exerce une intense activité de recherche et de création sur les formes, les matériaux et les techniques. Vingt ans après l'exposition bilan Mobilier national : 20 ans de création présentée en 1984 au Centre Georges Pompidou, cette exposition est notamment l'occasion de mesurer, la contribution de l'atelier au renouveau voulu par les présidents Pompidou ou Mitterrand dans les décors de l'Elysée, en liaison avec des créateurs tels que Pierre Paulin, Olivier Mourgue, César, Jean-Michel Wilmotte, Etienne Hajdu, Andrée Putman …; c’est aussi l'occasion de découvrir les pièces les plus récentes, inédites, crées ces dernières années ou achevées en 2004.

15/10/04

Chun Liao at Barrett Marsden Gallery, London

Chun Liao
Barrett Marsden Gallery, London
15 October - 13 November 2004

Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1998, Chun Liao has won wide critical acclaim for her exquisite porcelain pots. These are informed by her research into ancient Chinese porcelain bodies and glazes, knowledge she transforms and extends to produce distinctive, contemporary form.

The tapering shapes are finely thrown and finished in a single glaze colour. Chun Liao has recently chosen to restrict her palette to a clear glaze, either used alone, or stained black or with copper carbonate, but she encourages subtle variations of tone and texture through the density of their application and by differing temperature settings of the kiln. Other decorative details are similarly understated, such as where the thin rims of the pots are left delicately ragged, or where tiny rods of applied silver wire descend deep into a wall during the firing process, melting to leave a green coloured trace.

The new body of work is intimate in scale, varying from barely 1cm to 7cms in height. Chun Liao‘s approach is deceptively simple - to throw pots this size demands an extraordinary degree of skill, with the smallest requiring the clay to be steadied on the wheel and pulled up using only the ring or little fingers. Their diminutive scale serves to magnify the characteristics of each form. It underscores their preciousness and calls attention to their seemingly endless range of subtle nuances.

CHUN LIAO was born in Taiwan in 1969 and came to Britain in the early 1990s. She trained in ceramics at Brighton College of Technology, Bath Spa University and the Royal College of Art. Her work has been widely exhibited in the UK, the Netherlands, USA and China and is included in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Crafts Council, London.

BARRETT MARSDEN GALLERY
17-18 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DN
www.bmgallery.co.uk

Hans-Peter Feldmann: 100 Years, P.S.1, Long Island City, NY

Hans-Peter Feldmann: 100 Years
P.S.1, Long Island City, NY
October 15, 2004 - February 21, 2005

P.S.1 presents German artist Hans-Peter Feldmann’s (b. 1941) 100 Years (2001), a monumental series of 101 photographic portraits of people aged 8 months to 100 years old. Comprised of images of the artist's family members, friends, and acquaintances, the series draws out a chronology of human life within which viewers can situate themselves, glimpsing past, present, and future. 100 Years, building on Feldmann’s interest in the concept of the archive, foregrounds both individual and collective memories and imaginations, functioning as the artist’s personal database as well as an accessible exploration of the cycle of life.

Hans-Peter Feldmann entered the art world in the late 1960s, when he began to construct and exhibit editions of small booklets containing found images such as postcards, magazine clippings and posters. These images constituted part of Feldmann’s massive “picture archive,” an assortment of images categorized according to the artist’s own system. In the event that a part of the archive was incomplete (an image was missing), Feldmann would capture this image via his own photography. Using image reproduction, photography or otherwise, as a means to illuminate the mysteries of daily life, he consistently gives credence to under-recognized art forms such as the photo album, never underestimating the power of the most “common” aesthetic strategies.

Hans-Peter Feldmann (b. Germany, 1941) lives and works in Dusseldorf. He has had numerous solo exhibitions since the early 1970s, including various shows at Galerie Paul Maenz in Koln, Germany, Galleria Sperone in Turin, Italy, and Kunstraum Munchen, Munchen, Germany. More recently he has shown at the Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York (1993), 303 Gallery, New York (1992, 1996, 2000), and Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany (2003). His work also appeared in documenta 5 and documenta 6 in Kassel, Germany (1972, 1976), do it, curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist in Ritter Klagenfurt, Austria (1994), Big Brown Bag at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in New York, NY (2002), Utopia Station, curated by Molly Nesbit, Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Rikrit Tiravanija at the 2003 Venice Biennale, and The Last Picture Show: Artists Using Photography, 1960-1982 at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

This exhibition is organized by P.S.1 Chief Curator Klaus Biesenbach.

P.S.1
www.ps1.org

14/10/04

Aquisition de Jasc Software par Corel

Corel Corporation élargit son portefeuille de produits graphiques
Corel a annoncé l’acquisition de Jasc Software, éditeur de Paint Shop, une famille d’applications d’édition photo et d’images numériques. Étape clé dans la mise en oeuvre de sa stratégie, cette acquisition s’ajoute à quatre trimestres consécutifs de résultats positifs et à la refonte complète des activités depuis qu’elle est devenue une société à capitaux fermés en août 2003. De sa position renforcée sur le marché des applications bureautiques et graphiques, Corel pourra désormais offrir à ses clients, dénombrés à plus de 60 millions dans le monde entier, un portefeuille élargi de produits novateurs et spécialisés — édition photo, conception graphique, illustration vectorielle, illustration technique — sans oublier son produit renommé WordPerfect. La transaction devrait être finalisée officiellement d’ici fin octobre 2004.
Corel aura toujours son siège social à Ottawa (Canada) et continuera à exploiter l’établissement à Minneapolis, où Jasc développe Paint Shop. Amish Mehta restera à la tête de la société et plusieurs dirigeants de Jasc se joindront à l’équipe Corel.
Corel entend offrir Paint Shop Pro, Paint Shop Pro Studio et Paint Shop Photo Album sous forme de produits autonomes et continuera à fournir à l’échelle mondiale des services d’assistance sous sa propre bannière. De plus, elle appuiera activement les nouvelles initiatives en recherche et développement destinées à pérenniser la gamme Paint Shop et à garantir la réussite commerciale de la prochaine génération de produits.
En août 2003, Corel a été acquise par Vector Capital Group, une société de capital-risque basée à San Francisco et gérant actuellement plus de 500 millions de dollars en capital. Depuis, Corel a mis en oeuvre une stratégie produit et commerciale bien définie, laquelle consiste à revaloriser les produits les mieux implantés, soit WordPerfect Office, la Suite graphique CorelDRAW et Corel Painter, et à rationaliser ses activités et sa gamme de produits. Forte du soutien de Vector et de cette nouvelle acquisition, qui n’en est que la première, Corel est sans doute en passe de connaître un nouvel essor.
Développant son offre de produits prisés par des millions d’utilisateurs en raison de leur bon rapport qualité-prix, et à laquelle s’ajoute la famille Paint Shop, Corel entend conquérir des parts de marché dans deux secteurs clés, entreprises et grand public, où débutants et professionnels bénéficient désormais de solutions complètes, qu’il s’agisse simplement d’organiser ou de partager des photos, de retoucher et d’enrichir des images ou encore de créer et de modifier des graphismes complexes.
Corel accroît sa visibilité sur le marché porteur des applications numériques
« L’acquisition de Jasc nous permet de pénétrer le marché des logiciels de traitement d’images, un des secteurs clés visés par notre stratégie de croissance » a déclaré Amish Mehta. « La famille Paint Shop apporte d’excellents produits d’entrée de gamme qui permettront à Corel d’acquérir des millions de nouveaux clients. À long terme, nous gagnerons la fidélité de ceux qui achètent régulièrement des logiciels d’édition de photo numérique, un segment du marché actuellement en plein essor ».
Selon InfoTrends/CAP Ventures, les appareils photo numériques se généralisent et, à l’échelle mondiale, le marché devrait croître de près de 20 p. 100 (TCAC), soit la vente de plus de 100 millions d’appareils en 2008 par rapport aux 45 millions vendus en 2003. Une enquête conduite récemment par InfoTrends/CAP Ventures révèle également que 55 p. 100 des propriétaires d’appareils numériques achètent des logiciels complémentaires pour gérer et améliorer leurs photos numériques.
La famille Paint Shop, dont les produits phares sont Paint Shop Pro, Paint Shop Pro Studio et Paint Shop Photo Album, est non seulement réputée pour ses innovations, mais aussi pour la qualité de l’expérience numérique qu’elle procure aux utilisateurs de tous niveaux, du débutant au professionnel. « Bien connue du public, la famille de produits Paint Shop s’ajoute naturellement au portefeuille Corel et y apporte des gains d’efficacité », poursuit Amish Mehta. « Comme Corel, Jasc a toujours mis sur le marché des solutions graphiques novatrices, fiables, faciles d’emploi et économiques à tous égards. Cette acquisition témoigne donc de notre volonté d’élargir notre gamme de produits et de croître notre clientèle souhaitant bénéficier du meilleur rapport qualité-prix. »
Développer la clientèle au travers du réseau de distribution mondiale
Prises ensemble, Corel et Jasc disposent d’un important réseau de distribution mondiale qui, s’appuyant sur les nouvelles synergies, leur fera conquérir de nouvelles parts de marché. Ce réseau comprend plus de 5 000 revendeurs VAR et de grands détaillants implantés dans 75 pays.
En outre, Corel et Jasc ont réussi à conclure avec plusieurs acteurs majeurs, dont DELL Computer et Wacom, des partenariats OEM importants. Ces contrats OEM continueront à se développer et conforteront la position de Corel sur un marché à forte croissance.
Stratégie de croissance axée sur des profits record et des orientations décidées
Cette année, Corel a réalisé des profits records et enregistre sur toute sa gamme de produits des taux de croissance appréciables. En acquérant la famille de produits Paint Shop, la société est positionnée pour profiter de la progression du marché des applications d’édition de photo et d’images numériques.
« Cette fusion porte toutes les marques d’une très bonne affaire, parce que les deux sociétés ont besoin de ce que l’une et l’autre avaient à offrir », explique Rob Enderle, analyste principal chez Enderle Group. « Corel possède une solide marque internationale et des produits bien tournés vers les photographes numériques professionnels, mais elle avait besoin de produits d’entrée de gamme tout aussi solides que ceux de Jasc pour accroître sa clientèle. Inversement, Jasc avait besoin de la force d’action d’une marque internationale et un ensemble de produits robustes pour élargir sa base de clients. C’est maintenant chose faite, et les deux sociétés pourront désormais offrir à la fois aux entreprises et au grand public un choix de produits qui séduiront autant par leur fiabilité que par leurs prix compétitifs. »
A propos de Jasc Software
Grand éditeur de logiciels de photographie et d’imagerie numériques, Jasc offre une famille de produits de premier choix dont Paint Shop Pro, Paint Shop Pro Studio et Paint Shop Photo Album. Conçus pour débutants et professionnels, ces produits enrichissent l’expérience numérique des utilisateurs en les invitant à se découvrir de nouvelles possibilités d’évolution. Les produits Jasc s’utilisent sous Windows, et leur convivialité, conjuguée avec l’assistance dont ils bénéficient, en fait une solution abordable.
A propos de Corel
Réputée pour ses produits graphiques et bureautiques, surtout la Suite graphique CorelDRAW, WordPerfect Office et Corel Painter, une application de peinture et d’illustration Natural-Media, Corel Corporation propose des solutions novatrices prisées par des millions d’utilisateurs dans plus 75 pays, en raison de leur excellent rapport qualité-prix et des gains de productivité qu’elles permettent. En août 2003, Corel est reprise par Vector Capital Group, société de capital-risque basée à San Francisco, et, depuis lors, a enregistré des profits record et des taux de croissance sur toute sa gamme de produits. Corel est, depuis sa création en 1985, basée à Ottawa, au Canada. Pour en savoir plus, vous pouvez consulter son site internet : www.corel.com

Andrew Wyeth Retrospective at Philadelphia Museum of Art

Andrew Wyeth: Memory and Magic
Philadelphia Museum of Art
March - July 2006

The Philadelphia Museum of Art, in partnership with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, will present Andrew Wyeth: Memory and Magic , a retrospective that surveys seven decades of the artist’s achievement. The exhibition will be seen in Atlanta (November 2005-January 2006) before coming to Philadelphia, where it will be on view from March until July 2006.

Anne d’Harnoncourt, Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, said: "Wyeth’s art grew out of his boyhood experiences both in the Brandywine Valley near Philadelphia and on the coast of Maine, and his intensely personal vision has been etched in the American national consciousness for at least half a century. While many of his landscapes and interior views seem familiar to those of us who live in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Wyeth’s work is ultimately elusive and enigmatic in its meaning. We hope this exhibition will provide a deeper understanding of his contribution to American art."

John Wilmerding, the Christopher Binyon Sarofim Professor of American Art at Princeton University and Senior Advisor to the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is preparing an introduction to the scholarly volume that accompanies the exhibition. He noted: "As we reexamine the full range of Andrew Wyeth’s art, from landscape to figure subjects, we intend to show the various ways in which his creativity has transformed the ordinary and familiar."

Andrew Wyeth: Memory and Magic will present about 100 tempera paintings, watercolors, and drawings from the 1930s to the present. It will explore in depth Wyeth’s frequently unadorned and often haunting images—ranging from meditative, softly lighted vessels and containers to scenes of stark rooms, windows with curtains lifted in the breeze, barren hills, and people lost in deep introspection.

The exhibition is organized by the High Museum, Atlanta with the collaboration of the Wyeth family and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The curatorial team for Andrew Wyeth: Memory and Magic includes guest curator Ann Knutson for the High Museum of Art, and, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Kathleen L. Foster, the Robert L. McNeil Curator of American Art, and Michael Taylor, the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art.

Catalogue
In the fully illustrated catalogue, published by the High Museum of Art, guest curator Anne Knutson will explore the central role of objects in Wyeth’s art and situate these works in the larger context of American art. Kathleen Foster will discuss the artist’s tempera painting Ground Hog Day (1959) in terms of its meaning and technique and related works in tempera, watercolor, and drawing; and Michael Taylor will write about Wyeth’s relationship to currents in Realism and Surrealism in the 1930s and 1940s. Christopher Crosman, the Director of the Farnsworth Art Museum, will examine the role of Betsy Wyeth in the artist’s life and art.

About Andrew Wyeth
Born in 1917 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, southwest of Philadelphia, Andrew Wyeth is one of America’s most highly regarded living artists. The youngest of five children, Wyeth received his artistic training from his father—the famed illustrator Newell Convers (N.C.) Wyeth. During annual vacations in Maine, Andrew Wyeth explored watercolor and tempera; both would become signature mediums for his work. Subject matter for Wyeth’s painting and drawing came primarily from his surroundings in Pennsylvania and Maine. In 1939, Wyeth married Betsy James and they had two sons, Nicholas and James (Jamie). Jamie Wyeth, a much-exhibited painter and watercolorist, is the third-generation artist in the family.

In 1936, at the age of 19, Andrew Wyeth held his first solo exhibition, at the Philadelphia Art Alliance. In 1963, President Kennedy awarded Wyeth the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the first visual artist to be honored with the nation's highest civilian award. Opened in 1971, the Brandywine River Museum, in Chadds Ford, Pa., became closely associated with the Wyeth family and is among the largest repositories of the Wyeth artists’ work. In 1990, Andrew Wyeth was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, again the first artist to receive this honor.

Andrew Wyeth at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
In 1959, the Philadelphia Museum of Art acquired Ground Hog Day (1959), one of Wyeth’s best-known tempera paintings, in which pale sunlight rakes across a windowsill and strikes the flowered golden wallpaper of a kitchen in the Kuerner farm, Chadds Ford, where a table is set for one. The Museum has since added to its collections other important works by Wyeth, including Cooling Shed (1953), acquired in 1998, and the early tempera Public Sale (1943), acquired in 2001. Both were included in the exhibition celebrating the Museum’s 125th anniversary in 2002. These three works are currently on view in Gallery 119 of the American Wing.

Philadelphia Museum of Art
www.philamuseum.org

Gary Webb - Chisenhale Gallery, London - Deep Heat T-Reg Laguna

Gary Webb: Deep Heat T-Reg Laguna
Chisenhale Gallery, London
14 October – 12 December 2004

Gary Webb’s first solo exhibition in a public gallery is a pivotal, in-depth exploration of the artist’s new work.  Using a wide range of materials including glass, rubber, marble, metal, plastic and sound, Gary Webb employs an intuitive visual flourish that retains a seductive sense of mystery.

Crucial to Gary Webb’s work is his personal relationship to the materials he finds around him. Gary Webb is fascinated by the contemporary urban environment - a world of highly designed interiors comprising restaurants, bars, leisure centres and shopping malls.

Gary Webb’s sculpture hovers equivocally between abstraction and a subtle form of figuration so that organic forms coexist, with varying degrees of ease, alongside mass-produced elements. The familiarity and vivid sensuality of his materials draw in the viewer, whilst their combination and structural qualities solve what Webb calls ‘problems that I invent for myself’.

As well as the evident pleasure taken in his chosen materials, Gary Webb’s sculptures invariably end up being more than the sum of their parts. As the viewer moves around them they are able to evoke a wide array of emotions and unexpected narratives, deftly sidestepping hastily reductive interpretations while proposing their own internal logic.

Gary Webb builds playfully on a broad spectrum of art historical precedents: Brancusi, Moore, Hepworth, Judd, King, Artschwager and Kounellis have all been cited by various critics when discussing Gary Webb’s work, but his sculptures are also very much of their time. They edgily define a highly individual relationship to a world of bewildering consumer choices, hybrid technologies and the desire for material culture.

Gary Webb was born in 1973 and graduated from Goldsmiths’ College in 1997. Recent exhibitions include: The Moderns, Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Torino (2003); Biennale d’Art Contemporian de Lyon (2003); Early One Morning, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (2002); Ringer, MW Projects, London (2002, solo); Casino 2001, SMAK, Ghent, Belgium (2001); Nouveau Riche (with Keith Farquhar), The Approach, London (2000); Gary Webb plays Gary Webb, The Approach, London (1998, solo).

CHISENHALE GALLERY
64 Chisenhale Road, London E3 5QZ
www.chisenhale.org.uk

08/10/04

J. Lindfors Berger, Maurice van Daalen, Misha de Ridder, Galerie Juliètte Jongma, Amsterdam - On Angels

J. Lindfors Berger, Maurice van Daalen, Misha de Ridder: On Angels 
Galerie Juliètte Jongma, Amsterdam 
9 October – 20 November 2004 

The group show 'On Angels' in Galerie Juliètte Jongma includes the works of three artists, Maurice van Daalen (NL), J. Lindfors Berger (S) and Misha de Ridder (NL). Their vision on the world is characterized by a particular sense of otherwordly creation.

At first glance the drawings by Maurice van Daalen (Zaandam, 1975) seem to be suburban areas scanned from above. This cross section of a living environment is extremely organised and seems to be existing under the ground. His mental but at the same time hilaric enumeration of architectual elements suggests a new world without sunrise and sunset. This emotional meaning in architecture designed by van Daalen is one where the artist takes the viewer to a surrounding where imagination rules.

The landscape photographs of Misha de Ridder (Alkmaar, 1971) have a strong, almost meditative quality. The enormous sense of concentration gives the landscape or details from the landscape a grotesque meaning. Without committing an infringement on reality De Ridder is able to intensify and capture the coincidence of the moment. The meaning of his photographs go beyond the image, but strongly references the action of looking itself.

In her final exam show at the Rietveld Academy last summer, J. Lindfors Berger (1978, S) showed an installation with two videoworks and sculptures of exotic animals. In one of the videos the artist interviews a Swedish convict who is in jail for murder. In the second video shown you see a mollifying conversation between the artist and her sister who discuss each others appearance. In her work, Lindfors Berger addresses notions of identity and the relation between the rational and the instinctive. During the exhibition 'On Angels' Lindfors Berger will show a new work which reflects on the gallery space and the show she is participating in.

GALERIE JULIETTE JONGMA
Gerard Douplein 23, 1073XE Amsterdam

03/10/04

Walter Sickert, Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester - drawing is the thing

Walter Sickert: drawing is the thing
The Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester
1 October - 5 December 2004
‘Any fool can paint, but drawing is the thing and drawing is the test.’
Walter Sickert (1860-1942) is seen as a major figure within the history of British painting and yet by his own affirmation drawing lay at the core of his creative process. Walter Sickert drew constantly in order to capture new subjects for his paintings – theatrical interiors, the stage, and highly-charged domestic dramas such as The Camden Town Murder. Walter Sickert: ‘drawing is the thing’ examines every form of drawing Walter Sickert made, together with a number of related paintings and prints. Together these works offer an insight into Walter Sickert’s techniques, themes and, most importantly, his reasons for drawing.

Walter Sickert’s earliest, small drawings were made in the semi-darkness of the theatre, and he kept a selection of these in his possession until his death, emphasising their importance to him. He mounted them in an idiosyncratic way, several to a mount. Many are inscribed with details of lighting, colour and costume. They are not only one of the best documents of London’s theatrical interiors and performances of the late 19th century, but also evidence if his daily, or rather nightly, practice of drawing from real-life situations. Their style in the main is one of the quick, evocative sketch, the line which above all must be rapid. Walter Sickert also made more considered drawings of the theatre, some of which were very finished and which were used as preparation for prints and paintings. These he would often square up in an elaborate way, using red ink and numbering the squares to facilitate their transfer.

Walter Sickert’s depictions of couples in an interior are rightly recognised as his major achievement, and this body of work forms the central part of the exhibition. Just as many of Walter Sickert’s theatrical interiors featured the dynamic tension between audience and performer so his domestic dramas are full of psychological tension with couples engaged in the whole gamut of enigmatic confrontation. Drawings like A Weak Defence (Arts Council of England), The Prevaricator(The British Council) and The Conversation (Royal College of Art) have given rise to recent speculation on the relevance of the Jack The Ripper crimes to Walter Sickert and his work. A central feature of the exhibition is a section assembling all the known drawings for his famous composition Ennui, together with the paintings and prints they inspired.

The unusual nature of Walter Sickert’s subject-matter extends to his choice of unconventional models, both architectural and human. He rejected professional models and preferred unglamorous, working-class parts of town. The exhibition also explores the relationship between Walter Sickert and one of his models, Cicely Hey, or ‘Kikely’ as he chose to call her. The sixty-two year old Sickert and Cicely, a young art student, met in 1923 and they became firm friends. He made a series of works featuring her ‘dear little face’, which she eventually bequeathed to The Whitworth Art Gallery. They show the artist using drawing to record a relationship – in contrast to his invention of relationships in his domestic fictions.

Walter Sickert taught drawing and painting, and examples of his drawings were obviously used for teaching purposes. His system of developing a painting is exemplified by unfinished works including My Awful Dad (Private Collection). Works by pupils Sylvia Gosse and Harry Rutherford, show the influence of Walter Sickert and exemplify the methods he advocated as a teacher when, for example he conducted an evening class in Manchester in the late 1920s.

Walter Sickert stopped drawing at about the age of seventy, around 1930, and employed a new range of sources, including engravings, newspaper cuttings or photographs. On occasions, Walter Sickert would square up a photograph for transfer, exactly as he had done drawings earlier in this life.

This loan exhibition comprises about 150 works, drawn from the UK’s most prominent collections, both public and private. This most extensive exhibition of Walte Sickert’s drawings ever be exhibited is supported by a fully illustrated catalogue features essays by prominent scholars in the field. Following the showing at The Whitworth Art Gallery, it will travel to Southampton City Art Gallery and then to The Ulster Museum, Belfast.

The exhibition is supported by The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

THE WHITWORTH ART GALLERY
The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M15 6ER
www.whitworth.man.ac.uk

01/10/04

Josef and Anni Albers: Designs for Living Exhibition

 

Josef and Anni Albers: Designs for Living

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, NYC

October 1, 2004 - February 27, 2005 

 

Josef and Anni Albers: Designs for Living, an exhibition chronicling the Alberses’ extraordinary designs for objects for everyday living, will be on view at Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Curated by Nicholas Fox Weber, executive director of The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Josef and Anni Albers: Designs for Living explores the domestic creations of these pioneering artists from the early 1920s through the 1950s, as their designs developed from their days as students in Germany’s famed Bauhaus School to their arrival upon the American scene. The exhibition reveals the full extent of the Alberses’ mutual aesthetic commitment, perpetual creativity and contribution to modern living.

Josef Albers (1888-1976) was one of the most pioneering and respected artists of his era, excelling as a painter, printmaker, designer, writer and teacher. His wife Anni Albers (1899-1994) is considered by many to be the foremost textile artist of the 20th century.

Although the pair did not collaborate artistically, they shared a vision and developed a design philosophy that helped to transform the look of the modern domestic interior. Anni and Josef Albers embraced the fundamental idea that everyday life can be enhanced and enriched through design. Individually, their work displayed brilliance and versatility; together, their shared aesthetic formed an enduring legacy, which, until now, has scarcely been known to the public. The seminal ideas of these partners in life and design will be explored for the first time through the domestic objects featured in this exhibition.

Subscribing to the belief that art is everywhere, Josef and Anni Albers designed an array of innovative furniture, textiles and tabletop objects not only for themselves but also for use by others in their social and artistic circle, including Walter Gropius, founder of the influential Bauhaus. “Designs for Living” will include several domestic creations developed in their Dessau (Germany) Bauhaus apartment and in Berlin, many of which have never been shown publicly. 

Josef Albers has been the subject of numerous retrospectives at major institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he was the first living artist ever to be given a one-person show, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Josef Albers was one of the few students to be made a Junior Master at the Dessau Bauhaus and was an active instructor until 1933, when the school closed under pressure from the Nazis. Later that year, Josef and Anni Albers emigrated to Black Mountain College—a groundbreaking institution in North Carolina, known as a nurturing ground for such cultural icons as John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and Buckminster Fuller. In 1950 they moved to Connecticut, where Josef Albers headed the Department of Design at Yale University. In the last 25 years of his life, Josef obtained an international reputation for his Homage to the Square paintings as well as for his teachings and writings on color.

Featured in “Josef and Anni Albers: Designs for Living” are dozens of Josef’s objects, ranging from holiday greeting cards to glass-top nesting tables, all of which are simple in form and radiant in color. Josef’s extraordinary ability to use a lean aesthetic vocabulary and minimal means to obtain complex results is demonstrated through the exhibition of items such as his fruit bowl and tea glass, glass paintings, LP album covers and fireplace designs. Also on view together, for the first time, will be furniture designed by Josef for the Moellenhoff apartment in Berlin―his first major furniture commission. 

Anni Albers has influenced generations of designers through her weavings as well as through her teaching and writing. She entered the Bauhaus in 1922 as a student and in 1930 briefly served as director of its weaving workshop. In those early years Anni Albers was already gaining recognition as a major artist and designer from contemporaries such as Sonia Delaunay. After arriving in America, she took her textile work in unprecedented directions and began to exercise great influence in the field. In 1949, Anni was commissioned by architect Philip Johnson to design curtains for the stylish guesthouse of the John D. Rockefeller III family. Later that year, she became the first textile artist to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She has been honored with several retrospectives at major institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre in Paris. Today, Anni’s textiles continue to influence, inspire and delight as new generations are introduced to her work.

  On view will be many of Anni’s austere and experimental designs from her years at the Bauhaus, as well as the more playful and exuberant examples from her years in the United States. More than 50 examples of her textiles and designs, some of which have never been shown before, will be featured in the exhibition, including: the Rockefeller guesthouse draperies; wall hangings that were pioneering forays into abstract art; jewelry made from ordinary objects such as paper clips and sink strainers; and a large sampling of her upholstery and drapery materials and other fabrics for everyday living.

Josef and Anni Albers: Designs for Living has been organized by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, and The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation.  Additional support was provided by Maharam.

Curators:  Nicholas Fox Weber, executive director of The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation,  and Matilda McQuaid, in-house curator, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.

Exhibition Catalog:   This exhibition will be accompanied by a major catalog with original writings by Josef and Anni Albers, and essays by Nicholas Fox Weber and Martin Filler, a frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review, The New York Review of Books and House & Garden magazine.

Exhibition Designer:  Toshiko Mori, Toshiko Mori Architect
Lighting Designer:   Anita Jorgensen, Anita Jorgensen Lighting Design

 

Josef and Anni Albers: Designs for Living
October 1, 2004 - February 27, 2005

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
2 East 91st Street 
New York,  NY 10128