Nokia N70 Multimedia Mobile Phone

Nokia N70: the smallest 3G Series 60 smartphone with 2 megapixel camera

Nokia today introduced the Nokia N70 multimedia, a compact and easy-to-use 3G smartphone with versatile mobile photography, personal productivity and entertainment features. Incorporating a complete smartphone feature set, as well as a 2 megapixel camera, flash and front camera for video calling, the Nokia N70 comes fully equipped with stereo FM radio, a digital music player and new 3D games. "The Nokia N70 perfectly illustrates our commitment to offer powerful, all-inclusive handsets that aid people in their daily lives. In addition to advanced smartphone and entertainment features, mobile photography is extremely easy and enjoyable with the elegant Nokia N70," said Joe Coles, Director of imaging product marketing at Nokia. "The number one reason why people today purchase new handsets is the camera. Indeed, we foresee that by the end of 2005, over half a billion people worldwide will own a camera phone."

Easy mobile photography - The slide and shoot design makes mobile photography fast and simple. The rear camera slide reveals and automatically activates the 2 megapixel camera, ready to instantly shoot photos or video. The intuitive slide is complemented with an integrated flash, 20x zoom capability and a range of capture scene settings for optimizing image quality in various environments, including Scenery, Portrait, Night, and Sports. Furthermore, the dedicated shutter key on the side of the phone enables users to capture images like they would with a regular camera, allowing for greater stability and ease of use. The storage, management and organization of images and video clips is convenient and efficient with the Nokia N70. With the Nokia XpressTransfer storing solution, all new photos and video clips can be automatically copied to the PC. Photo albums created on the phone are also automatically saved in similar albums on the PC. Furthermore, the Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition software offers users an efficient way for organizing or editing photos and video clips on the PC. The new improved rotating Gallery provides for enhanced browsing of images and video clips. Images can, for example, be organized into slideshows, with the viewing experience further heightened with added background music. Images and video clips can also be instantly printed from the Gallery with the Nokia XpressPrint printing solution using a USB cable, wirelessly over Bluetooth connectivity, or using the Reduced Size Dual Voltage MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC).

Smart productivity - An excellent and powerful tool for personal and professional information management, the Nokia N70 offers a full set of smartphone features, including very easy-to-set up email functionality with extensive attachment support, Internet browser, video streaming and 3G-enabled features such as two-way video calling and video sharing. Furthermore, additional applications can be installed from various sources, while organizer information can easily be synchronized with compatible PCs.

Entertainment on the move - Equipped with a digital music player with stereo audio, FM radio and support for Visual Radio, the compact 126 gram Nokia N70 also doubles as a great pocketable music device. For an even more playful multimedia experience, the Nokia N70 supports Series 60 and Java 2D and 3D games, some of which are pre-installed in the phone or on the standard in-box RS-MMC.

Measuring just 108.8 x 53 x 17.5 mm (95.9 cc), the Nokia N70 is the smallest ever 2 megapixel 3G smartphone based on the leading Series 60 Platform. The Nokia N70 is expected to be available in the third quarter of 2005. Additionally, a variant of the Nokia N70 for EDGE (Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution) markets will be available at a later date.

http://www.nokia.com/

Previous posts on Nokia Nseries products

Carl Zeiss and Nokia cooperation

New Nokia Nseries Multimedia Mobile Phone Range Announcement

Nokia Nseries Multimedia Range News

Nokia announced today the Nokia Nseries branded range of it next generation multimedia devices. Packed with the latest technologies such as 3G, Carl Zeiss Optics, megapixel cameras, multi-gigabyte memory, VHS resolution video and WLAN, the Nokia Nseries offers new fusions of digital media and mobility to the hands of mobile users. Consumers can now use a single device to do everything from snapping print-quality images, reading email, listening to music, browsing their favorite websites, watching mobile TV and much more. The Nokia Nseries multimedia range is styled to meet the expectations of the most demanding customers with stainless steel finishes and black pearl and smooth silver color pallets.

The first Nokia Nseries products are expected to become available during the second quarter of 2005 followed by several more by the end of 2005. Nokia Nseries - high performance multimedia Nokia Nseries leads the formation of new mobile product categories through the fusion of rich functionality into one beautifully designed, easy-to-use device.

All Nokia Nseries devices support print-quality photography and high quality video recording.

In addition, Nokia Nseries devices offer rich music experience including over-the-air downloads, gigabytes of memory and stereo audio. Featuring large color displays, HTML web browser and streaming video, the Nokia Nseries devices enable access to entertainment, news and information anywhere, anytime. The Nokia Nseries range helps consumers balance personal and work life with a broad range of productivity features such as push email with attachments and full organizer features. PC synchronization of music, images, videos and organizer data are made simple with Nokia PC Suite and multiple connectivity options.

As Nokia Nseries is based on the Series 60 smartphone platform, users can choose from more than 3 000 applications to add new functionality to their device. Rich communication is naturally at the core of all Nokia Nseries devices, including telephony, two-way video call, video sharing and multiple messaging options.

First Nokia Nseries products The Nokia N90 multimedia takes mobile photography to a new level. Being the world's first camera phone equipped with Carl Zeiss optics, the Nokia N90 offers superior quality photography with a possibility to instantly print and share the shots over distances. Boasting a 2 megapixel camera and VHS resolution video capture among its advanced imaging features, the Nokia N90 multimedia helps people to capture memories at their convenience. Based on a pioneering multi-hinge twist-and-shoot design, the Nokia N90 is expected to become available during the second quarter of 2005.

The Nokia N91 multimedia is the company's latest device optimized for music. Consumers can store up to 3000 songs on the integrated 4-gigabyte hard disk, making the Nokia N91 a true mobile jukebox. Packed with multiple connectivity options, such as 3G WCDMA, WLAN, Bluetooth and USB 2.0, the Nokia N91 makes it easy for people to manage and enjoy their favorite music when and where they want. The Nokia N91 is expected to become commercially available worldwide by the end of 2005.

The Nokia N70 multimedia is the world's smallest Series 60 based 3G WCDMA device with a 2 megapixel camera, combining the elegant Nokia Nseries design with easy mobile photography. Offering the full Nokia Nseries multimedia feature set, including push email, HTML browser, music player and FM radio with stereo audio, the Nokia N70 is expected to become available during the third quarter of 2005.

http://www.nokia.com/

Leaf Aptus 65 Digital Camera Back

New Leaf Aptus 65 Digital Camera Back Delivers Uncompromised Image Quality to Graphic Communications Providers

Leaf announced the launch of the Leaf Aptus 65 digital camera back, which makes the quality, speed, and flexibility of high-end digital photography available at an exceptional value.

The newest addition to the Leaf digital camera family, the Leaf Aptus 65 camera back delivers film-like quality on location or in studio. Its 28-MP sensor captures lush color, fine detail, rich highlights and deep shadows, all in a high dynamic range. With a full frame CCD containing 6,144 x 4,622 pixels customers are able to capture a pure 16 bit RAW file in only 53mb (31mb using lossless compression) in size. This becomes an 80MB file when processed to an 8 bit tiff. The Leaf Aptus 65 also features an extended ISO range from 50 – 800.

“The digital power used by the world’s top photographers is now available for the graphic communications industry with the Leaf camera back,” said Dov Kalinski, General Manager, Leaf, Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group (GCG). “The Leaf Aptus 65 camera back is so flexible and easy to use that you can focus your attention and creativity on the image, and because it’s a Leaf camera back, you’re assured the highest level of image quality and consistent, accurate color reproduction.”

The Leaf Aptus 65 camera back features convenient, accurate touch controls on a spacious 6 x 7 cm LCD touch screen and a straightforward workflow that increase productivity and free photographers to create. With a broad range of storage options, including the 30-GB Leaf digital magazine and CF cards, users have the flexibility to shoot wherever they want for as long as they want.

“Photographers around the world trust Leaf camera backs to provide unsurpassed levels of quality and consistent color capture,” continued Mr. Kalinski. “The new Leaf Aptus 65 continues this tradition of excellence.”

The Leaf Aptus digital camera back is equipped with a wide range of pre-shoot options that make it easy to create image settings and set up of file and folder names. Full browsing and file management capabilities allow users to locate and sort images easily in the studio or on location.

The Leaf Aptus 65 camera back is certified for a wide range of medium and large format cameras, it is compatible with most external hard drives, uses standard external batteries, and its uncompressed files are compatible with Adobe Photoshop.

Flix Artists, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin - Remote Access - Neva Elliot; Fiona Larkin; Hannes Malte Mahler; Fionna Murray; Ciaran Murphy; Isabel Nolan; David Rhodes

Flix Artists: Remote Access

Rubicon Gallery, Dublin 

28 April - 28 May 2005

FLIX is a cleverly constructed cabinet containing portfolios of drawings, artists’ books, paintings, prints and photographs. It has up to 60 artists’ work at any given time and they each have one portfolio in the cabinet. The idea behind FLIX was manyfold: to introduce new artists to established collectors, to encourage individuals to start a collection by offering affordable pieces and to present a larger selection of contemporary artists to an audience of artlovers, curators, artists and anyone.

The Rubicon have invited seven leading names from the world of the arts to browse through our FLIX portfolios and select one artist each that impresses them. Their work will be on the walls for the duration of the exhibition. But we also invite you to make a selection. Call in and flick through our cabinet of portfolios. Or, even simpler, just go on-line to find your favourite artist.

The Selectors are: Helen Carey - Director, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris; Caoimhín Corrigan - Arts Officer, Leitrim County Council; Mike Fitzpatrick - Director, Limerick City Gallery of Art, Limerick; Aideen Howard - Director, Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray; Ronnie Hughes - Artist; Hugh Mulholland - Director, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast ; Anna O’Sullivan - Director, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny

The Exhibiting Artists are: Neva Elliot; Fiona Larkin; Hannes Malte Mahler; Fionna Murray; Ciaran Murphy; Isabel Nolan; David Rhodes

RUBICON GALLERY

10 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2

www.rubicongallery.ie

From Picasso to Basquiat at Institut Valencià d’Art Moderne IVAM

Exhibition:
Fire under the Ashes. From Picasso to Basquiat
Institut Valencià d’Art Modern IVAM
5 May - 28 August 2005

Curator: Kosme de Barañano

The exhibition is based on the review of primitive art, or children’s art, carried out by numerous artists since Surrealism, which shaped the iconography of avant-garde art, both in Europe and in America, with respect to the human figure, the face and graffiti, in Constructivism, Art Brut, Informalism and the legacy of Abstract Expressionism. The selection of works in the exhibition traces the evolution and development of that imagery – that fire – in modern art through the work of such acclaimed artists as Jean Dubuffet, Michel Haas, Germaine Richier, Gaston Chaissac, Pablo Picasso, Joaquín Torres-García and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The title of the exhibition comes from some words quoted by Jan Krugier when recalling a visit to Rothko: “Rothko struck me as having something shamanistic about him – there was a truth in him that he had to express. I remember going to see him once late at night in his studio in New York. And while I was looking at his paintings, he came out with a phrase that really struck me: ‘If you are looking for fire, you will find it beneath the ashes.’ Fashionable painters aren’t looking for fire. They simply make pictures, and that’s it. Rothko found this phrase in a book he had in the studio by Martin Buber. It’s a very beautiful expression and I think it sums up the role that shamans play. They find fire beneath the ashes. They rediscover our truth and transmit it to us. It is a message that has to be delivered, that is absolutely vital – because, without that fire, we are nothing.”

The exhibition seeks to present a recurrent option in twentieth-century painting and sculpture, the application of the supposedly naive mark, free of cultural roots. In these works, or rather in the poetics of these artists, the mechanisms of memory go back to prehistoric graffiti, to the icon. Despite the very different poetics of these artists, they have a common denominator: the primitive appearance of the mark, a schematic mark or blot. Among the artists whose work makes up this show – Pablo Picasso, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Joaquín Torres-García, Jean Dubuffet, Gaston Chaissac, Michel Haas, Germaine Richier and Louis Soutter, the last two of whom have never been exhibited before in Spain – there are common features, but the vocabulary is different; each one has a different rhythmic tension or linear precision, a different concision and constructive power. There are differences of texture, colour, phrasing and expression in all of them.

In all of them there is an economy in the mixture of colours and an economy in the marks used. They simplify the subject or lay it bare so as to give it the value of an icon. Sometimes their works look like drawing because of their simplification, their economy of style. The proposal or experiment is to master the figure with a simple construction, not expressive or connotative but formalized. One can see the recollection of certain signs or aspects of how to synthesize reality in a new image which have reappeared again and again since the palaeolithic caves. Ranging from Picasso to Basquiat, the exhibition assembles these signs or graffiti which come from prehistory and from the imagination of children. This influence on twentieth-century art of drawings done by children or the insane appeared in the work of Paul Klee or Louis Soutter, but also in the first almanac produced by the group Der Blaue Reiter in 1912 there were children’s drawings, together with works of African and medieval art.

Jean Dubuffet (Le Havre, 1901 – Paris, 1985) belongs to a group of painters whose aim was to move away from the influence of tradition and explore unknown techniques in order to recapture the “ancestral spontaneity of the human hand when making marks”. His paintings of pure form, sometimes figurative, sometimes abstract, with bold colours and deliberate clumsiness, recall the expressions of the mentally ill and children, although this does not mean that their style is less elaborate. Dubuffet plays with clumsiness, doodles and raw matter in order to go back to the origins of art. In 1948, together with the writer André Breton and Antoni Tàpies, he created the Compagnie de l’Art Brut, which was a focus for the work of marginal individuals, an undertaking that sought to open up the art world for children and people marginalized by society. Often causing outrage with his deliberately childlike style, he sought to seduce, to celebrate deformity and materials that repel at first sight. An inventor and provoker of talent, Dubuffet succeeded in teaching how to look at the world from a new perspective.

The work of Michel Haas (1934) comes from most of the contemporary trends concerned with new figuration, such as the London School, Abstract Expressionism in America and free figuration in France. His paintings seem to belong to a time that is not ours, indicating traces of the art of cave painting or the corroded fragment of a fresco which bears the bruises of history. His technique is based on the use of simple materials such as water, charcoal and glue. His work has evolved from an initial fluidity and transparency to a form of relief which solidifies and inscribes his forms more profoundly in the thickness of the paper.

The early works of Germaine Richier (Grans, 1902 – Montpellier, 1959) are classical in appearance. During the war she devoted herself to making clay models of rather unattractive animals such as bats or toads, which she deformed so that they looked like unfinished creatures, somewhere between the birth of life and catastrophe. At the end of her career she made painted plasters and bronzes. Her work La sauterelle (The Locust), with a woman’s head, does not correspond to a facile Surrealism but places the act of art above the conventional world. After the war, her violent, refined, cruel contemporary sculpture revealed new expressive possibilities for figuration to Giacometti and many later sculptors.

In the early years of his activity Gaston Chaissac (Avallon, 1910 – La Roche-sur-Yon, 1964) felt the fascination of a vocabulary that emerged from prehistoric forms. In the forties his work was characterized by thick profiles in black ink, the use of light colours and isolated strokes of watercolour, presenting scenes that conjured up the imagination of the child. Chaissac was a member of the Compagnie de l’Art Brut created by Dubuffet in 1948 as an attempt to seek a new line of innovation which would escape from academic art and “fine art”. The concept of Art Brut was defined then as a new stage of art, distanced from traditional art and cultural influences.

The inclination for caricature and the grotesque of Pablo Picasso (Málaga, 1881 – Notre-Dame-de-Vie, 1973) and the sense of irony of which he himself was often a recurrent focus are revealed in the caricatures of the works of his youth, in which he animalized faces and portrayed salacious and scatological situations. The works presented in this exhibition show the importance of caricature in Picasso’s art and how that unprecedented cross between caricature, children’s drawings, primitivism and fragmentation of classical forms led to what has been called the “Picasso style”.

Joaquín Torres-García (Montevideo, 1874–1949) received a classical training. During the time that he spent in Paris (from 1926 to 1932) he joined leading European avant-garde movements which enabled him to develop the basis for an art that he caused to evolve in a very individual way. In 1930 he and Michel Seuphor founded the Cercle et Carré group. Although Torres-García quickly moved away from the members of the group, the pure abstraction principles of Neo-Plasticism enabled him to develop his personal style: a language based on a system of geometrical relationships and a repertoire of pictograms. His Universal Constructivism, dating from his time in Paris, was based on the assembly, on a metal grid, of universal symbols taken from ancient and modern cultures, including Pre-Hispanic cultures, in which he showed special interest.

Jean-Michel Basquiat (New York, 1960–1988) was associated with the punk movement and channelled his need for self-expression into designing jewellery and painting clothes which he then devoted himself to selling. In this way he gradually completed his training on a completely self-taught basis, inspired by Picasso, African art, jazz and children’s drawings. His pictures are full of enigmas and discrete symbols which can only be deciphered by those who knew him well. An examination of his work reveals the frequency with which he provides the possibility of escape by painting icons that refer to the primitive tradition inherited from his family, and it shows his predilection  or striking, almost garish colours, as extreme as his existence. Also read on this blog the post about  Basquiat’s works exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, 2005 -

The exhibition includes both paintings and sculptures by these artists, emphasizing the primitivism that underlies them all, making this show a visceral visual experience.

To accompany the show, the IVAM has published a catalogue, illustrated with colour reproductions of the items exhibited, together with texts by the curator of the exhibition, Kosme de Barañano, and the poets Jaime Siles and Guillermo Carnero.

Kathy Mackey, Monash Gallery of Art, Wheelers Hill - The Inscripted Skin

The Inscripted Skin: Kathy Mackey

Monash Gallery of Art, Wheelers Hill

29 April — 29 May 2005

The Inscripted Skin is a new body of work by emerging photo-media artist, Kathy Mackey, which explores the physical terrain of human skin and its interplay with jewellery and tattoos. 

In this exhibition, which features 100 photographs and one video work, Kathy Mackey rewrites the skin as a mapped space that represents the transition between the interior and the exterior of the body.

Kathy Mackey says that her work, “explores the many and varied relationships that occur between human skin, metallic objects and the incised patterns that results from this interplay.

“I use photography and video to reference the body, particularly decorated skin, as not only distinguished by flesh and blood but as a series of signs, limited only by the use of context, framing and style.”

Born in Brisbane in 1961, Kathy Mackey has exhibited widely in group and solo shows since 1998. She is currently completing her PhD in visual arts practice at Griffith University. Kathy Mackey is represented by the Queensland gallery, Schubert Contemporary.

Jane Scott, Director of the MGA says, “Visitors to the MGA will be intrigued by Kathy Mackey’s compositions and the detailed landscape of each frame.”

MONASH GALLERY OF ART - MGA

860 Ferntree Gully Road, Wheelers Hill, Victoria 3150, Australia

www.mga.org.au

Pinnacle Deko version 4.0

Deko version 4.0 software enhancements include:

New animation features include effect behaviors which add a more compelling look without requiring complex effect creation and automatically adjust to variable length text, data or images using Deko’s content independence technology. Effect behaviors include magnify, repel, attract and neon-style flicker. Additionally, new adjustable 3D depth rotation provides more choices to animate pages, layers, words or characters.

New productivity enhancements include a more powerful and visual file browser and the ability to view Deko and Thunder graphics files and Targa images (.tga) as picture icons directly in Windows Explorer.

Increased interoperability includes support for additional external clip file formats such as QuickTime movies and sequential Targa files including HD resolutions. A new QuickTime plug-in allows any QuickTime compatible software application to write Deko-compatible MXF files.

Broad HD-SD support. New texture manipulation technology ensures the correct display of a single graphic asset in either SD or HD. Unique multi-compose and multi-store technology allows users to create a single file that includes individual HD and SD page layouts to take full advantage of the additional resolution and screen space available in HD, without doubling the production time or number of files to manage. When a multi-store graphic is recalled, Deko automatically selects the correct version of the graphic based on the current video output format.

(c) All trademarks are the property of their respective owners - All rights reserved - www.pinnaclesys.com

Cooperation Nokia-Carl Zeiss

Accord de coopération entre la société Carl Zeiss, spécialisée dans l'optique, et Nokia, leader sur le marché de la téléphonie mobile

La société Nokia et l’entreprise Carl Zeiss ont annoncé leur coopération afin d’intégrer un objectif de Carl Zeiss aux portables Nokia équipés d’un appareil photo. Le partenariat ainsi scellé associe les compétences de Carl Zeiss dans le domaine de l’optique avec la position leader de Nokia sur le marché de la téléphonie mobile. Les deux parties considèrent cet accord comme la base d'une coopération à long terme.

Le premier produit Nokia doté d’une optique de Carl Zeiss est le modèle Nokia N90 présenté en même temps que leur accord de coopération.

« L'étroite collaboration avec Carl Zeiss, l’une des entreprises les plus renommées de l'industrie de la photographie et de la cinématographie, souligne le souci de Nokia de proposer des produits d'imagerie mobile d’une qualité exceptionnelle », déclare Juha Putkiranta, Senior Vice President, Imaging, de Nokia. « Nous sommes fiers d'être le premier fabricant de caméraphones au monde à présenter des produits porteurs de la qualité Zeiss à ses clients. L’échange permanent de connaissances et la ferme détermination de voir nos efforts couronnés de succès vont nous permettre d’établir une nouvelle référence dans la branche de la téléphonie à imagerie mobile ».

De son côté, le Dr. Dieter Kurz, Président du Directoire de Carl Zeiss a déclaré : « Nous nous réjouissons de conjuguer nos activités avec celles du leader inconstesté de la communication mobile. Ce faisant, nous franchissons un pas important vers la création d'un marché de caméraphones à imagerie mobile haut de gamme ». « La maîtrise technologique et l’ancrage de Nokia sur le marché de la téléphonie mobile se combinent parfaitement avec le prouesses de Carl Zeiss dans le domaine de l’optique pour former une équipe de grande force dotée d’un immense potentiel», poursuit Kurz.

Photos (c) 2005 - Nokia - Carl Zeiss - Tous droits réservés

Kyocera terminate Contax business and Carl Zeiss Cooperation

Information from Kyocera Yashica UK Limited

Kyocera Corporation has decided to terminate Contax - branded camera business.

Although Carl Zeiss and Kyocera have entered into a long term co-operation regarding the development, production and sale of Contax-branded cameras, Kyocera has decided to terminate such business due to difficulties in catching up with the recent rapid market changes.

Consequently, Kyocera will terminate the shipment of Contax-branded cameras, and the exclusive lenses and accessories in September 2005, except for the Contax 645 camera system, the shipment of which to some markets will come to an end in December, 2005.

Kyocera will continue to provide after-sales services to its customers for their Contax -branded cameras, and the exclusive lenses and accessories over the maximum period of ten years within the specified time of each model.

David Smith, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas - Drawing and Sculpting

David Smith: Drawing and Sculpting
Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas
April 16 - July 17, 2005

The Nasher Sculpture Center presents David Smith: Drawing and Sculpting. Co-organized by the Nasher Sculpture Center and the David Smith Estate, the exhibition assembles approximately fifteen seminal sculptures and seventy major drawings and paintings from the Nasher Collection, the David Smith Estate, and other public and private collections. Featuring many works that have never been publicly displayed before, the exhibition illustrates not only the range and quality of David Smith’s work as a draftsman, but also the complex ways that his drawings and paintings inform his three-dimensional work.

David Smith has long been recognized as one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. His protean career single-handedly brought new maturity and international ambition to American sculpture. Forty years after his death, his works still astonish in their variety, technical mastery and brawny creative energy. So powerful is David Smith’s legacy as a sculptor, however, that other, highly accomplished aspects of his art exist in a shadowy realm of limited acknowledgement and investigation. Such is the case with his drawings.

David Smith drew regularly throughout his career for many different reasons: to make notes, plan sculptures, jot down observations, explore graphic techniques, relax, and make beautiful, independent works of art. His vast output of works on paper provides a telling record of his visual thought and experimentation and in themselves represent a great aesthetic accomplishment. But they have never received the recognition they deserve. David Smith: Drawing and Sculpting focuses on David Smith’s history and talents as a draftsman and explore the fascinating interaction between his drawings, paintings, and sculptures. Works exhibited span from David Smith’s early development in the 1930s under the influence of European modernism to the powerful and evocative constructions in iron and steel from his maturity, and the drawings that accompanied them.

“This is one of the few exhibitions ever mounted to examine the interactions between Smith’s work in different media,” said Dr. Steve Nash, Director of the Nasher Sculpture Center. “We want to spotlight the power and beauty of Smith’s drawings and also contribute to the understanding of his working methods. It will be a pleasure and honor to exhibit in Dallas so many outstanding works by this great artist.”

Two special public programs are offered to Center guests in conjunction with the exhibition. First, a 28-minute film, David Smith: American Sculptor, 1906-1965, is showing continuously in a viewing room adjacent to the exhibition. David Smith’s ideas about art and his methods are revealed in archival footage of the artist, through reminiscences of the sculptor by his daughters, and by fellow artists Helen Frankenthaler and the late Robert Motherwell.

Secondly, on Thursday, May 5 at 7 p.m., Candida Smith, daughter of the artist and representative of The Estate of David Smith, and Peter Stevens, Executive Director of The Estate of David Smith will present illustrated lectures entitled Remembering David Smith. Following the presentations, Nash will moderate an informal discussion including audience participation.

Steve Nash and Candida Smith are co-curators for the exhibition. Both are contributing essays to the show’s catalogue, which features full-page illustrations of all works in the show, many historical photographs of David Smith and his art and studio, and a compendium of statements by Smith on drawing.

NASHER SCULPTURE CENTER
2001 Flora Street, Dallas, TX 75201
www.nashersculpturecenter.org

AP Photojournalists win Pulitzer Prize

The Associated Press won for a series of graphic and heartbreaking pictures of bloody combat in Iraq

Some of the photos had already won prizes. Many were taken at great personal risk to the photographers, including pictures of gunmen executing Iraqi election workers in the midst of morning traffic, and the charred remains of U.S. contractors who had been killed, dismembered, burned and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.

"These photographers showed extraordinary courage," said AP President and CEO Tom Curley, who celebrated the first Pulitzer AP has won since he became leader of the news cooperative June 1, 2003.

"This is a real testament to the best that AP can be that this prize was won by photographers who came into Iraq on assignment, and five Iraqis who work in the most dangerous place on the earth, to tell the story." said AP Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll. "Their images have a power that will last through history. When we want to look back at what happened in 2004, we'll look at their images."

The photographers cited were Bilal Hussein, Karim Kadim, Brennan Linsley, Jim MacMillan, Samir Mizban, Khalid Mohammed, John B. Moore, Muhammad Muheisen, Anja Niedringhaus, Murad Sezer and Mohammed Uraibi. An unnamed stringer was credited in the photo package for the picture of a daytime execution of vote workers, with the anonymity due to security concerns.

The Iraqi team included Hussein, Kadim, Mizban, Mohammed and Uraibi. The photographers who were on assignment in Iraq were Linsley, from Jerusalem; MacMillan, who is returning to the Philadelphia Daily News from Baghdad; Niedringhaus from Geneva; and Moore, who has since left the AP. All the Iraqi photographers have been recruited, tested and trained on an ongoing basis by the visiting photographers.

The Iraqi photojournalists risked their lives in frequently dangerous situations to get all sides of the story for the AP and to provide readers, listeners and viewers around the world with a level of access to their homeland unmatched by any other news organization.

As a crowd gathered around the photo desk at AP headquarters in New York on Monday, April 4, to hear an announcement, CEO Curley stood atop a chair beside Executive Editor Carroll to congratulate the staff. "They took some extraordinary pictures, they captured some incredible moments in history and they did it in a way that made all of us proud," he said.

Abbreviated bios

Khalid Mohammed, Baghdad, worked with AP for the past two years, spent significant time in Fallujah and at great personal risk, took the photos of the U.S. contractors killed, then dismembered, burned and their charred remains hung from a bridge. Khalid Mohammed said he was threatened immediately after taking the picture and had to escape quickly by car. "I told the driver to keep the engine running, just in case," he said.

Bilal Hussein remained behind in his hometown neighborhood so he could document the events of the battle for Fallujah, obtaining for AP a stunning and exclusive photo showing Iraqi insurgents firing their weapons. When he was forced to flee to Baghdad, his house – and his cameras – were destroyed in the fighting.

Mohammed Uraibi, Baghdad was hired and trained by AP's visiting non-Iraqi photographers. Samir Mizban and Karim Kadim, Baghdad, navigated the hostile areas in the Iraqi capital, including the Sadr City neighborhood.

Jim MacMillan, a Philadelphia Daily News photographer who is wrapping up a one-year assignment for AP in Iraq at the end of April, has been primarily embedded with U.S. forces, and involved in editing the work of Iraqi photographers from the field. Of the Pulitzer notification, MacMillan said he found out when AP Director of Photography Santiago Lyon sent him an instant message saying he should call New York – now. "I didn't suppose he wanted a call immediately to tell us we lost," MacMillan said.

Brennan Linsley, Jerusalem, was on assignment in central Iraq. On another assignment, he was lightly wounded – scratched by shrapnel.

Muhammed Muheisen, Jerusalem, based in West Bank, was on his first assignment in Iraq.

Murad Sezer, Istanbul, has the versatility to shoot sports, news and feature work, and has been on several tours in Iraq.

Anja Niedringhaus, Geneva-based photographer, has spent many tours in Iraq, and covered the U.S. Marines in their assault on Fallujah.

John B. Moore, who had been based in Cairo, got exclusive access to the U.S. military hospital in Baghdad and took a memorable shot of medics attempting to resuscitate a dying soldier. On the Net

AP PULITZER HISTORY: http://www.ap.org/pages/about/pulitzer/list.html

PULITZER PRIZE WEB SITE: http://www.pulitzer.org

AP IMAGES: http://www.apimages.com

The 2005 DeCordova Annual Exhibition

 

Each year DeCordova presents its Annual Exhibition, a round-up of regional talent in the visual arts. This show focuses on the quality and diversity of contemporary art created in the New England states rather than emphasizing any over-arching themes based on media, content, or subject.

For 2005, the following ten artists from four states have been invited to participate:

Jean Blackburn (Barrington, RI), Sculpture— Jean Blackburn deconstructs domestic objects by cutting, sawing, and reassembling them, transforming familiar, comfortable, reliable objects (such as chairs, couches, tables, silverware) into unstable structures. Her work subverts safe/nostalgic notions of home, as well as the object's original function.

Lalla A. Essaydi (Boston, MA), Photography— Born in Morocco and a resident of Saudi Arabia for many years, Lalla A. Essaydi combines Islamic calligraphy and the female body to address the complex reality of Arab female identity. Essaydi's work often involves a series of photographs depicting Arab women with intricate calligraphic writing completely covering the spaces and subjects photographed. The calligraphic writing, a sacred Islamic art form forbidden to women, constitutes an act of rebellion.

Milan Klic (Brookline, MA), Sculpture— Milan Klic creates delicate and spare three-dimensional structures out of bamboo and other organic materials such as wood and cotton thread, some of which measure seven and eight feet in height. His works refers back to the origins of travel, and many are winged vehicles with wheels. Light and delicate, they seem to materialize out of thin air, appearing as spatial drawings reduced to bare essentials.

Michael Lewy (Jamaica Plain, MA), New Media/PowerPoint— Michael Lewy has created an installation using a computer program everyone loves to hate: PowerPoint. Lewy subverts the bullet-point approach of the typical business presentation by creating absurd and nonsensical charts, graphs, and clip art that are both funny and ironic. The artist’s self- produced book of this work, “Chart Sensation,” accompanies the installation.

Sally Moore (Jamaica Plain, MA), Sculpture— Sally Moore uses natural materials such as stones, feathers, wood, eggs, and moss to construct her diminutive wall sculptures that look like miniature landscapes. Tiny landscape elements suspended by thin wires teeter, precious and precarious, resembling environments that address issues of balance, tension, and natural order.

Laurie Sloan ( Storrs, CT), Printmaking— Laurie Sloan's process involves a number of detailed steps: She develops her imagery by making small ink drawings that she scans or cuts into fragments, alters on the computer, prints on acetate, and then arranges in various combinations. These combinations are then exposed onto photosensitive screens to make photo screen prints, which are printed on large sheets of paper. Sloan cuts strips from these sheets to form new wholes. She intends for her process to be apparent, and to resemble gene-splicing experiments gone awry.

Barbara Takenaga (Williamstown, MA), Painting— Barbara Takenaga's highly detailed abstract paintings are dense, swirling cosmic compositions comprised of countless small dots, squiggles, and spirals that result in pulsing centripetal and centrifugal vortices. Most of Takenaga's works consist of spherical shapes, conjuring up many associations such as op art, fractals, images from space, and microscopic organisms.

Nao Tomii (Boston, MA), Painting/Sculpture/Installation— Nao Tomii is a Japanese- American artist who creates sculptural installations of colorful pastel plants and creatures that inhabit his metaphorical parallel world. Tomii is interested in the relationship between the noises that are created by modern civilization and their effect on natural world. The artist has created a series of cast resin anthropomorphized “listening” plants called Plump, as well as a series of small bugs wearing headphones called Gossipers. These alien creatures are installed on pedestals, surfaces, and walls, mute, but always listening.

Nadya Volicer (Marion, MA), Installation— Nadya Volicer collects fragments of found and recycled wood painted a variety of colors and glues them together in jigsaw or mosaic shapes to create dynamic large-scale installations that often reference water, such as a rushing waterfall. She will construct a work titled Home Spun for our Fourth Floor Hallway that will span the length between the two café entrances, and cover the walls and ceiling. This work visually transforms solid into liquid and references the passageway of a surfer's “rip curl,” inviting visitors to walk through the work and experience a frozen moment—and the progression of a “wave” from a swell to the breaking point.

Mark Wethli (Brunswick, ME), Painting/Installation— Mark Wethli will create a large-scale painting for the elevator shaft wall of the Grand Staircase titled Elevator. The artist's massive abstract geometric painting installations cover walls with huge swatches of vibrant color, and for this exhibition, he will paint a wall of polka dots of various sizes and colors. Wethli's work investigates the interplay of color, light, and geometry within the surrounding architecture.

The 2005 DeCordova Annual Exhibition is organized by Director of Curatorial Affairs Rachel Rosenfield Lafo, Curator Nick Capasso, Curator of New Media George Fifield, and Curatorial Fellow Alexandra Novina.

 

DeCordova

April 30 – July 31, 2005

51 Sandy Pond Rd
Lincoln, MA 01773

Hussein Chalayan, Groninger Museum - 10 years’ work

Hussein Chalayan, 10 years’ work
Groninger Museum
17 April - 4 September 2005

The Groningen Museum will display the first large-scale solo exhibition of the work of the British based Turkish Cypriot fashion designer Hussein Chalayan (Nicosia, 1970). In the past ten years Hussein Chalayan has created more than twenty collections of which the most important will be shown in the form of outfits, installations, photographic work, and video work. In conjunction with NAi Publishers, the first monograph on the work of Hussein Chalayan will be issued to accompany the exhibition, celebrating his tenth anniversary as a professional designer.

Hussein Chalayan belongs to the most innovative, experimental and conceptual fashion designers of the present day. With inspiration coming from various and assorted disciplines such as architecture, philosophy and anthropology, his oeuvre can be located at the interface between fashion and art. His themes often have a socio-cultural streak relating back to Hussein Chalayan’s personal history as someone who owes his identity to different cultures.

In 1993, Hussein Chalayan graduated from Central St Martins College of Art and Design in London with an eye-catching presentation for which he had first buried the garments. His use of innovative, unusual materials and unorthodox techniques, in combination with the conceptual wealth of his presentations, won him the title of Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards of 1999 and 2000. From 2001 onward, he has held his shows during the Prêt à Porter fashion weeks in Paris. He launched his first menswear collection in 2002, and since then he has participated in countless exhibitions worldwide, including Radical Fashion in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Fashion in the Kyoto Costume Institute in Japan, Airmail Clothing in Musée de la Mode Palais du Louvre in Paris, and the Biennale in Istanbul. In 2001/2002 he was Artist in Residence at the Wexner Center (State University of Ohio). In April 2004 Hussein Chalayan opened his first flagship store in Tokyo, which submerges customers in the Mediterranean atmosphere of Northern Cyprus.

In the exhibition, which will be held on two floors of the Museum, the much-discussed collection Afterwords (AW 2000-2001) will be shown. This collection refers to the reality of the refugee. In this, the upholstery is transformed into dresses, the chairs into suitcases, and the coffee table unfolds to become a skirt. Ambimorphous (AW 2002-2003), a project that covers cultural change, can be seen in the (fashion) show as a kind of journey from one culture to another, both geographically and temporally. The presentation begins with a model dressed in a completely ‘ethnic’ costume, and this is followed by models who gradually change clothes, piece by piece, ending with a modernist black outfit. A collection of photos has been made of these different outfits by Marcus Tomlinson, a video artist with whom Hussein Chalayan has often worked. Recent creations – the video work Place to Passage (2004), whose theme covers a(n) (internal) journey from London to Istanbul, and his latest work Anaesthetics (2004) – will also be on show in this first large-scale solo exhibition.

A monograph on the work of Hussein Chalayan has been published in conjunction with NAi Publishers Rotterdam. Authors: Caroline Evans, Suzy Menkes, Bradley Quinn, and Ted Polhemus. 176 pages, paperback, edited by Barbera van Kooij and Sue-an van der Zijpp, price Euro 29.50

Curator of the exhibition: Sue-an van der Zijpp 

GRONINGER MUSEUM
Museumeiland 1 - 9711 ME Groningen, The Netherlands
www.groningermuseum.nl

Video Art Exhibition – Istanbul Modern

The selection of video art works by Rivane Neuenschwander (Brazil), Jacco Olivier (The Netherlands) and Jennifer Steinkamp (USA) shows how some contemporary artists use new technologies to bring painting beyond its classical limits. Thanks to the wide possibilities of projections and computer animations, the traditional genres of landscape and portrait gain movement and change shape, perspective or colour. Through the interaction with sound and architecture, painting abandons its static character, expands from the bounds of the canvas and explores new conceptual and aesthetical territories. 

JACCO OLIVIER (Goes, The Netherlands, b. 1972)

Jacco Olivier has recently created a series of “Moving Pictures” that bring the classical horizons of painting into new areas of technical development and visual pleasure. Jacco Olivier departs from modern painting and he creates a series of pictures with abstract or figurative landscapes. He photographs and films these fragments to produce vivid and poetic animations. Landscapes and human figures become abstract compositions while abstract forms become suddenly figures and real things. These visual narratives are humorous and casual reflections on our world. Their meaning is enhanced by the interconnection of the images and the sound tracks. 

JENNIFER STEINKAMP (Denver, USA, b. 1958)

Jennifer Steinkamp uses computer animation to create virtual forms that provoke new perceptions of the architectural spaces where they are projected. Eye Catching 5 shows the image of a young tree in motion. The foliage, the branches and the trunk bow down, stretch up and rotate smoothly. This image belongs to a series of trees that were specifically created for the Yerebatan Cistern in 2003 during the 8th International Istanbul Biennial. Creating simulated images of fake natural elements and exploring the notions of gravity, turbulence and wind, Steinkamp provides a fascinating and non-narrative visual experience. Her projections bring painting beyond its classical limits. She reinvents the forms of nature, dematerialises the space and produces complex interactions between the viewer and the artwork. 

RIVANE NEUENSCHWANDER (Belo Horizonte, Brazil, b. 1967)

The artist Rivane Neuenschwander connects science and language in order to reinscribe culture into nature. Love Lettering is a video made with her brother, a neuroscientist at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt. Words taken from love letters were cut out and attached to the tails of red-orange fish in an aquarium. The trajectories of the undulating fish compose disconnected or intensified combinations of meanings: “Late – wish – hotel”… “your - talking", and so on. This film includes the perspective of two readers: the real, intended recipient of the original letter and the viewer who sees it recomposed by chance. Combining formal systems with organic forces, Rivane Neuenschwander proposes a new balance between art and nature... Her art suggests that destiny can be changed by interfering through simple means, like writing or tearing a love letter, with the flow of what seems predetermined.

This video art exhibition was curated by Rosa Martinez.

ISTANBUL MODERN
16 April - 25 August 2005