James Koskinas & Julie Schumer, Farrell Fischoff Gallery, Santa Fe - Without Hesitation

James Koskinas & Julie Schumer: Without Hesitation

Farrell Fischoff Gallery, Santa Fe

June 23 - July 24 2006

Farrell Fischoff Gallery presents an exhibition of new paintings by New Mexico artists James Koskinas and Julie Schumer. 

This is the second two-person show Farrell Fischoff has given James Koskinas and Julie Schumer, and their work has grown stronger and more compositionally sophisticated in the intervening two years.

James Koskinas describes himself as an Expressionist painter: "I do not own my talent. The paintings come from somewhere. All I have to do is hold on to the brush."

In his current series of paintings, Portraits of Women, James Koskinas explores his subconscious archetypes of woman and femininity with boldly colored studies of women's faces. These striking paintings portray a wide range of expression and emotion, demonstrating James Koskinas' skill with the brush, and his fascination with the human form.

Julie Schumer’s geometric abstractions are drawn from her acute observation and sensitivity to the world around her. They distill the southwestern landscape using color, light and form. Painted over time, layer by layer, each canvas or work on paper has developed a compelling depth and warmth.

Originally from Arizona and California, respectively, James Koskinas and Julie Schumer now reside in Lamy, New Mexico where they have lived and worked together for the past 6 years.

FARREL FISCHOFF GALLERY

1807 Second Street, #29, Santa Fe, NM 87505-3801

www.farrellfischoff.com

Jeff Elrod at Texas Gallery, Houston - Fingers Never Stop

Jeff Elrod: Fingers Never Stop
Texas Gallery, Houston
December 8, 2006 - January 6, 2007

Texas Gallery presents an exhibition of new paintings by JEFF ELROD. A former Glassell Core artist, Jeff Elrod was born in Texas and works in both New York and Marfa. This will be his third show one person at the gallery. Titled Fingers Never Stop, the show consists of a series of new works on canvas utilizing silkscreen, latex and airbrushed acrylic paint. Known for use of graffiti like gestures made originally as drawings on a computer which were then embedded in monochromatic fields of color, Jeff Elrod in the new work balances expressive color and gestures, strong positive and negative spaces, with a background grid that still retains references to the computer origins of his drawings. Like Brice Marden or even earlier abstract artists such as Adolph Gottlieb, Jeff Elrod balances the elements applied to the painting surface in a tension that resists any direct reference to content or illusion and re introduces the idea of the shallow space of the picture plane. The work brings to mind the work of the color field painters of the 1960s and 1970s in the use of large areas of color but given a different kick through the use of spray paint as the colors glow rather than recede. Casual marks which are a serendipitous result of the working process are sprinkled throughout the paintings. The resulting paintings are exuberant abstractions of color and light following in the best tradition of modern American painting.

In the past few years, Jeff Elrod has exhibited in Berlin, Milan, New York and Marfa, Tx. Most recently he had a solo exhibition at Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, New York.

TEXAS GALLERY
2012 Peden, Houston, TX 77019
www.texgal.com

Nathan Carter, Casey Kaplan Gallery, NYC - ALL CITY

Nathan Carter: ALL CITY 

Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York

November 16 – December 22, 2006

NATHAN CARTER presents sculpture, photographs, mobiles, wall relief sculptures, videos, drawings and collages in “ALL CITY,” his third solo show at Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York.

These works attempt to visualize the chaotic intersection of communications, overlapping networks of transportation, and unfolding geopolitical events.

High-density color patterns, lines, letters, and graphic diagrams represent modes of communication such as faxes, Morse code, cell phone signals, pirate radio, ship-to-shore frequencies, air traffic control transmissions, and text messages written on the go. These symbols are intermingled with representations of airplanes, dirigibles, helicopters, subways, large- and small-scale vehicles, communication towers, train diagrams, signage, contrails, and flight patterns. Irreverent texts and menacing abstract shapes add to the sense of disorder, leading to the question: What happens when lines of communication break down?

A partial list of works described in the artist’s own words:

One giant traveling blue and Bavarian cream language machine that uses its alphabet set-up and selection of antennae to send out heavy musical broadcasts, propaganda, and urgent text messages about foul weather and geopolitical schisms.

A loosely affiliated menacing armada of eighteen black and blue dirigibles covered with threatening insignia flying through bad weather in an aggressive formation trying to find a place to land. They're hot under the collar, low on patience, behaving erratically, and looking for trouble.

Six green weather balloon stations sponsored by well-meaning humanitarian/scientific research groups perched on a red landing platform. Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior R.I.P. in Davy Jones’s Locker.

One 747 "Heavy Big Bird" stacked to the rafters with American Youth of university age drinking and self-medicating to dramatic excess while weathering air pockets on a bumpy trans-Atlantic flight piloted by an astronaut and a well-known and much missed literary figure.

A triptych of Harry Beck inspired way-finding subway map diagrams representing New York, London, and Paris.

Three photographs of object collections that tell stories illustrating the answers to the questions: "Hey buster, what's in your pocket?" "How are we going to get the message through to the front if all we have is this old transistor radio?" and "Where did you learn the protocol for Moscow Rules, on the Farm?"

A magnified handy hanging Morse code educational/learning instrument.

Two strange amorphous floating shapes with high visibility symbols and incident recording sensors.

A full set of blue and red text messages warning wandering malcontents, merchant marine types, wayfarers, and information merchants to STAN BAC -- adjust attitude -- fLaP yoUr fLaiR fLApS -- and STAN KLR.

Nathan Carter has recently been featured in group exhibitions including "Level 5: The View from Here: Acquisitions since 2000," Tate Modern, London, UK and “Greater New York 2005,” PS1, Long Island City, NY. The artist had a solo exhibition at Galerie Esther Schipper, Berlin, Germany in 2006 and organized “Fearless Vampire Killers,” Casey Kaplan, New York, 2005. In 2007, Nathan Carter will have a solo exhibition at Da2 Center for Contemporary Art, Salamanca, Spain and at Pilar Parra, Madrid, Spain where he will simultaneously organize a group exhibition. The Final Runnings' “Hella Mega,” will tour Paris, San Antonio and one other location TBA. The artist has recently been short listed for the 2006 International Painting Prize of the of the Castellón County Council, Spain and will show at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Castellón, Castellón, Spain next year.

CASEY KAPLAN GALLERY

525 West 21th Street, New York, NY 10011

www.caseykaplangallery.com

ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6 Ultra-Compact Telephoto Zoom

ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6

ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6

Size compared to standard Business Card

(c) Olympus Imaging Corporation

ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6

mounted on Olympus E-330 digital SLR Body

(c) Olympus Imaging Corporation

ZUIKO DIGITAL interchangeable lenses are specifically designed to maximize the performance potential of the image sensors in “Four-Thirds System” digital SLR cameras. Newly announced ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0–5.6 lens is a lightweight, ultra-compact telephoto zoom lens that offers outstanding value.

ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0–5.6 is the lightest (220g) and smallest lens in its class*, and boasts the shortest minimum shooting distance (0.9m). Its wide zoom range is equivalent to 80–300mm on a 35mm camera, and its Four-Thirds System design assures outstanding portability that makes interchangeable lens photography easier. (*) as an interchangeable telephoto zoom lens covering telephoto ranges over 200mm: 35mm equivalent (as of November 13th, 2006, by Olympus study)

Main Features

･ Lightweight and Ultra-Compact Design

ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6 uses ED (Extra-low Dispersion) and high-performance glass elements and an optimized zoom range to ensure outstanding performance and portability. Packing the equivalent of 300mm telephoto power in a barrel only 72mm long, and weighing just 220g, it makes it easy to enjoy true telephoto shooting in the field. The lens’s 3.8x zoom covers a wide range of focal lengths, and offers performance equivalent to 80-300mm on a 35mm camera.

･ Excellent Close-Focusing Capability

An inner focusing system assures that lens length remains constant, and provides close focusing from 90cm at any focal length.

Other Features

･ Superior Imaging Characteristics

ED and high refractive index glass elements are used to minimize chromatic aberration, coma flare, and image curvature. Sharp, high-contrast imaging is achieved at the outer periphery of the lens at all focal lengths. Advanced technologies for high image quality include multi-coating to reduce ghosting and flaring in backlight, and the use of a circular iris to achieve smooth, soft, background defocusing.

･ Filter Support

A non-rotating mount ensures that filters do not rotate when the lens is focused, making it much easier to shoot when using polarizing filters.

The ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6 is scheduled to go on sale in Japan on November 23, 2006.

Specifications of the ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6

Focal Length: 40-150mm (35mm Equivalent: 80-300mm)

Lens Construction: 12 Elements in 9 Groups, including 1 ED Lens

Focusing System: Internal Focusing System

Angle of View: 30.0-8.2 Degree

Closest Focusing Distance: 0.90m~∞

Maximum Image Magnification: 0.14x (35mm Equivalent: 0.28x)

Minimum Field Size: 124 x 93 mm

Number of Blades: 7

Aperture: Maximum F4.0 (40mm) - F5.6 (150mm) - Minimum F22.0

Filter Size: Ø58 mm

Diameter: Ø65.5 mm

Total Length: 72.0 mm

Weight: 220g

Can be used with Tele Converter EC-14 and Extension Tube EX-25

Accessories: Lens Hood LH-61D, Lens Cap LC-58C

Georg Gerster, British Museum, London - The Past from Above

The Past from Above
Through the lens of Georg Gerster
British Museum, London
16 November 2006 – 11 February 2007

The first major photographic exhibition at the British Museum presents extraordinary aerial photographs of archaeological and heritage sites from across the globe taken by the Swiss photographer Georg Gerster. These awe-inspiring images range from natural phenomena such as Uluru in Australia to man-made wonders such as the Ziggurat of Ur in Iraq or the Great Wall of China and will allow visitors to take a  ‘world tour’ of the great monuments of human civilisation.

These unique images create a sense of wonder at the scale and magnificence of mankind’s achievements as well as highlighting the complex relationship between culture and nature. Humans have shaped nature but are also shaped by it. The photographs provoke questions about the people who created these monuments, why they created them, and what they meant to them. To provide insights into these people, the exhibition will also feature objects from the Museum’s worldwide collection which will be displayed alongside some of the photographs. This will present a snapshot of these civilizations and the monuments which defined them. A stone hand-axe, one of the earliest objects made by humans from the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, will be displayed alongside a photograph of the site, a Mummy portrait by an image of the Kharga Oasis and a seated Buddhist goddess next to a shot of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka. The objects will personalise these imposing sites, re-emphasising the part humans have played in their construction or, in some cases, destruction.

The photographs also serve as reminders of the transience of culture and civilizations. In many instances the photographs are a reminder of times that have passed, beliefs which have faded and empires which have crumbled. Aerial photography is vital in preserving views of sites which have subsequently been damaged or lost. Environmental destruction, excavation, the removal of material for other purposes and reconstruction work have all had a profound impact on these sites. The photographs highlight the environmental impact the modern world has on its heritage. For example, it is likely that sites in Iraq have sustained considerable damage as a result of bombardment and looting, the aerial photographs of sites from that region in the exhibition may now be an essential record of these buildings and monuments prior to the conflict.

GEORG GERSTER was born in Switzerland in 1928 and has been taking aerial photographs for over forty years. His first archaeological photographic flight in 1963 documented temples, pyramids and fortresses in ancient Nubia, modern Sudan. Since then he has photographed sites in over one hundred countries across six continents. Produced in often hair-raising circumstances, the photographs have contributed greatly to our understanding of world archaeology. They are also aesthetically fascinating views of our diverse and complex world.

A book, THE PAST FROM ABOVE, edited by Charlotte Trumpler with photographs by Georg Gerster is published in paperback by Frances Lincoln priced at £25.00. In the book archaeologist Charlotte Trumpler introduces 250 of Gerster’s photographs, taken in more than fifty countries in Europe, North and South America, Asia, Australia, and Africa. Each is accompanied by a detailed explanatory description. 

BRITISH MUSEUM
Great Russell St, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3DG
www.britishmuseum.org

Ron Mueck at Brooklyn Museum

Ron Mueck
Brooklyn Museum
November 3, 2006 - February 11, 2007

Ron Mueck, a solo exhibition of ten works by the sculptor Ron Mueck, known for his extraordinarily lifelike, empathetic renderings of his subjects, will be presented at the Brooklyn Museum.

The exhibition includes five major new works, commissioned by the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain in Paris, where they were recently presented to an enthusiastic audience of 75,000 visitors. Five additional works on loan from North American collections are added to the Brooklyn exhibition, the only United States presentation before the show travels to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

Born in Australia in 1958, Ron Mueck began creating his scrupulously detailed sculpture in the 1990s. His works are so lifelike, with veins, wrinkles, sagging skin, and body hair, that viewers almost expect them to breathe. Included in the exhibition is Dead Dad (1996-97), commemorating the death of his father through a somewhat smaller than life-size sculpture, which captivated Brooklyn Museum visitors when it was included in the exhibition Sensation. Among the other works included in Ron Mueck are Wild Man (2005), a nine-foot sculpture of a naked, bearded man clutching the stool he is seated on, and Head of Baby (2003), a more than eight-foot-tall head of a newborn infant.

Through his detailed works, which are always either smaller than life size or monumental, Ron Mueck explores the ambiguous relationship of reality to artifice through strategies of imitation and illusion. His earlier pieces were sculpted with fiberglass, but recently he has begun to work with silicone, which is more flexible and allows greater ease in shaping body parts and implanting hair.

After working in Australian television as a puppet maker, Ron Mueck went to Los Angeles in 1986, where he worked in the film industry, and later moved to London. For a time he worked for Jim Henson on Sesame Street and the Muppet Show. For more than a decade, he has focused on creating his sculptures, which have been the subject of previous solo exhibitions at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and the Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, and have been included in several group exhibitions. 

The Brooklyn Museum presentation is organized by Charles Desmarais, Deputy Director for Art at the Brooklyn Museum. A bilingual catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

BROOKLYN MUSEUM
200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11238-6052
www.brooklynmuseum.org

California as Muse: The Art of Arthur & Lucia Mathews at Oakland Museum of California - A Retospective Exhibition

California as Muse 

The Art of Arthur & Lucia Mathews

Oakland Museum of California

October 28, 2006 – March 25, 2007

The Oakland Museum of California presents California as Muse: The Art of Arthur & Lucia Mathews, a major retrospective of the signature artworks, furnishings, and decorative objects by the couple considered among the outstanding California artists of the twentieth century.

Organized by Harvey L. Jones, senior curator of art, California as Muse includes nearly 150 works by Arthur Frank Mathews and Lucia Kleinhans Mathews, creators of what has come to be known as the California Decorative Style, a unique fusion of artistic European influences at the turn of the last century and the ideals of the International Arts and Crafts movement— in a California setting.

The exhibition includes the Mathewses’ light-filled landscapes, murals, and stained glass, carved frames and furniture, graphic design and illustrations, and decorative pieces. More than two-thirds of the objects are from the museum’s collection.

“Arthur and Lucia Mathews are among the most important rediscoveries from a long list of neglected California artists,” said Harvey L. Jones, “a result of (belated) attention from scholars and collectors to the art history of California. It has become the privilege of the Oakland Museum of California to maintain the artists’ visibility.”

Arthur Mathews (1860-1945) was born in Wisconsin; Lucia Mathews (1870-1955) was a native San Franciscan. The couple met in 1893 at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art, in San Francisco, where Arthur served as director and teacher. Lucia was enrolled in his women’s life class. Arthur was by then an established artist who had studied in Paris, where in 1886 he won the first Grand Gold Medal to be awarded at the Académie Julian in several years. Lucia had spent a year at Mills College before coming to the Institute. They married in 1894 and toured Europe in 1898-99, returning to San Francisco so Arthur could resume his teaching duties.

The 1906 earthquake marked a turning point for the Mathewses. In keeping with the philosophy of the Arts and Crafts movement, they sought to help rebuild San Francisco, incorporating aesthetic standards in the design and production of practical necessities. Gathering around them a loosely defined circle of like-minded artisans, architects, city planners, and dreamers, they threw themselves into the re-conceptualization of San Francisco.

With local entrepreneur John Zeile Jr., they established the Furniture Shop, which produced their designs along with commissioned work. Built on Zeile family land, at 1717 California St., the Furniture Shop was the first artists’ studio to open for business after the Great Fire. For 15 years the Mathewses successfully combined their art with commerce, serving commercial and residential clients.

The Furniture Shop was also home to Philopolis Press, which published the monthly magazine Philopolis (“published for those who care”) and books and ephemera (note cards, calendars, bookmarks) designed by Arthur and Lucia that are prized as collectors’ items.

Although the Mathewses did occasionally collaborate and shared a love of the rich, nuanced tones in nature, each had a distinctive style. Arthur was a traditionalist and man of his time, but also made many contributions to modern California art. His paintings and murals often drew on classical references, with mythological figures placed in idyllic California settings, dancing or admiring the bountiful land and vistas. His skills and prodigious output as an architectural designer, graphic designer, and painter defy categorization.

From the foundation of Arthur’s vision Lucia Mathews developed her own personal style and philosophy. Her work centered on images of children, botanicals, and landscapes. Lucia’s work may have proved more enduring vis-à-vis popular appeal and contemporary art sensibilities. Her portraits, painted screens, and floral studies seem remarkably fresh today.

An authority on the Mathewses’ lives and work, Harvey Jones has presented two previous exhibitions of their work at the museum, in 1972 and 1985. For California as Muse, Jones has published a companion book, The Art of Arthur & Lucia Mathews (Pomegranate, 2006), with a foreword by Kenneth Starr and an essay by Kenneth R. Trapp.

OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA

10th & Oak Streets, Oakland, CA 94607

www.museumca.org

La photographie humaniste 1945-1968, BnF, Paris

La photographie humaniste 1945-1968

Autour d'Izis, Boubat, Brassaï, Doisneau, Ronis...

BnF, Paris

31 octobre 2006 - 28 janvier 2007

Consacrée à la photographie dite « humaniste » et à la phase la plus féconde de ce courant, cette exposition présente plus de trois cents pièces – photographies et supports illustrés. Elle rend hommage au travail de nombreux photographes qui, par leur regard bienveillant et pudique, ont écrit l’une des plus belles pages de l’histoire de la photographie française. 

Le courant dont Boubat, Doisneau ou Ronis sont les représentants les plus célèbres place l’homme au coeur de son propos. Des photographes moins connus mais tout aussi représentatifs de ce mouvement sont également mis à l’honneur : Marcel Bovis, René-Jacques, Jean Dieuzaide, Janine Niépce, Sabine Weiss, Jean Marquis, Jean-Philippe Charbonnier ou encore Eric Schwab.

Ces photographes ont tous en commun d’avoir été des « reporters-illustrateurs » et d’avoir nourri de leurs images le paysage visuel des Français de l’après-guerre. Leurs clichés ont participé après 1945 à la reconstruction symbolique et morale de la France.

Les photographes « humanistes » ont contribué à construire une imagerie nationale avec ses lieux pittoresques et ses archétypes sociaux, mais également à élargir les horizons et les points de vue sur les réalités de l’époque : misère des banlieues, crise du logement, loisirs, ouverture au monde à travers de grandes revues internationales… Animés d’une foi délibérée dans le genre humain et son avenir, ils ont donné à voir leurs semblables avec empathie et se sont engagés dans leurs luttes pour des lendemains meilleurs, à travers des campagnes pour l’éducation, l’hygiène, le bien-être de tous et la paix dans le monde.

Ces reporters ont également développé « un imaginaire d’après nature » - selon l’expression d’Henri Cartier-Bresson - où la figure de l’homme occupe une place centrale. Cette dimension onirique du réel est révélée par la photographie à l’occasion de riches coopérations avec les écrivains et les poètes de l’époque.

Les oeuvres des photographes humanistes n’étaient pas initialement destinées à être exposées. Elles ont pour la plupart vécu à travers des revues, ouvrages, calendriers, agendas, dossiers pédagogiques ou affiches, présents dans les fonds de la BnF grâce au dépôt légal. La BnF rend hommage à ce courant en présentant clichés et supports imprimés regroupés par ensembles thématiques, montrant ainsi à la fois leur participation à la construction d’un pittoresque parisien, leur ancrage dans la réalité, leur vision de l’homme et la poésie dont fait preuve leur regard teinté d’imaginaire.

Exposition présentée dans le cadre du Mois de la Photo à Paris.

Commissaires de l'exposition : 

Laure Beaumont-Maillet, conservateur général, directrice du département des Estampes et de la photographie

Dominique Versavel, conservateur au département des Estampes et de la photographie

Françoise Denoyelle, professeur des Universités à l’Ecole nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière

BnF - BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE

Site Richelieu, Galerie de photographie

58 rue de Richelieu, 75002 Paris

www.bnf.fr

Pinceaux de lumière : Du modèle au vitrail, Exposition au Musée du Moyen Age, Paris

Pinceaux de lumière : 

Du modèle au vitrail

Musée du Moyen Age, Paris

18 octobre 2006 - 15 janvier 2007

Le musée national du Moyen Âge possède la plus riche collection de vitraux en France (230 panneaux, médaillons ou fragments de vitraux, couvrant une période du XIIe jusqu’au début du XVIe siècle). De 2000 à la fin de l’année 2004, cette collection a bénéficié d’une exceptionnelle campagne de restauration dont cette exposition marque l’aboutissement. Choisis parmi les plus beaux et les plus importants vitraux, trente panneaux de la collection sont exposés en regard de trente-cinq œuvres, sur parchemin, papier ou toile. L’exposition s’attache en effet à montrer les liens étroits qui existent entre les peintres-verriers et les enlumineurs, dessinateurs, graveurs, du XIIe au XVIe siècle. 

Le peintre-verrier, dont le métier apparaît au début du Moyen Âge, maîtrisait un savoir-faire particulier : après avoir découpé les morceaux de verre, il les peignait et les assemblait en recherchant les plus belles harmonies de couleurs. Pour les figures et les motifs, il s’inspirait d’enluminures, de peintures ou de gravures d’artistes de son temps. Dans le cas de commandes très importantes, il arrivait que les modèles soient directement fournis par des peintres : ainsi Duccio di Buoninsegna (vers 1225-vers 1319) ceux des verrières de la cathédrale de Sienne. Il semble aussi que certains grands peintres aient pratiqué eux-mêmes la peinture sur verre, Fouquet (vers 1420-vers 1480) et Lucas de Leyde (1494-1533).

Ce qui est sûr, c’est que l’on trouve, dans les grands cabinets d’arts graphiques, des modèles dessinés par des artistes, à partir du XVe siècle, en vue de la réalisation de vitraux ou de rondels. Et, s’il est très probable, pour certaines verrières présentées dans l’exposition (en provenance de Rouen, de Saint-Denis, de Troyes …), que des artistes-créateurs aient fourni de tels modèles, pour d'autres commandes moins importantes, les peintres-verriers ont copié ou imité, plus ou moins librement, des enluminures, gravures ou dessins “ indépendants ”.

Le parcours de l’exposition comprend trois parties :

- XIIe- XIVe siècle. Vitraux et enluminures d’origine prestigieuse (roi, princes, haut clergé lié à la couronne)

Les vitraux des XIIe -XIVe siècles conservés au musée national du Moyen Âge appartiennent aux plus importantes commandes de leur temps. Ils sont le reflet d’un milieu artistique de très haute qualité, celui de la cour du comte de Champagne à la fin du XIIe siècle, celui du roi et de son entourage au XIIIe siècle et au début du XIVe (abbaye de Gercy, château royal de Rouen, chapelles de Saint-Denis).

- XVe siècle. Vitraux et interprétation des modèles enluminés puis gravés

Les panneaux du XVe siècle présentés dans l’exposition proviennent de deux grandes régions où s’épanouit l’art du vitrail : la Normandie, où prévalut l’influence des enluminures parisiennes, et l’Alsace, terre d’élection des graveurs.

- Fin du XVe-début du XVIe siècle. Les rondels : multiplication des modèles et production en série

L’art du vitrail ne pénètre que tardivement les salles des plus riches demeures nobles ou bourgeoises. Dans cette section, l’exposition présente des rondels : taillés dans une seule pièce de verre, ces petits médaillons délicatement peints en jaune d’argent s’inspirent de dessins des Pays-Bas du sud, de gravures allemandes et de livres imprimés à Paris vers 1500, et répondent au goût d’une clientèle nouvelle.

De grandes institutions françaises et étrangères se sont associées à cette exposition (à Paris : Bibliothèque nationale de France, bibliothèque Mazarine, musée du Louvre; musée Jacquemart-André; - en région : Troyes, médiathèque et trésor de la cathédrale ; Bourges, musée du Berry; Rodez, musée Fenaille - à l’étranger : New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung; Stuttgart, Graphische Sammlung; Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum ; Leyde, Universiteitsbibliotheek).

Commissaire : Sophie Lagabrielle, conservateur en chef au musée du Moyen Âge.

Publication : Album : 96 pages, 18 €, éditions RMN

Musée national du Moyen Âge - Thermes et Hôtel de Cluny

6, place Paul Painlevé, 75005 Paris

www.musee-moyenage.fr

Keith Haring - BALTIC Centre of Contemporary Art, Gateshead

Keith Haring
BALTIC Centre of Contemporary Art, Gateshead
21 October, 2006 - 7 January 2007

BALTIC presents an exhibition by seminal artist Keith Haring. Haring’s work responded to the street culture of New York in the 1980s, and he used the directness of graffiti art to make his signature style known. Powerfully combining the voice of the street and the voice of the gallery system, he created a visual language which has become universally recognised.

BALTIC will display a series of drawings created during an extremely immersive time when the artist returned to drawing after his time as a student at the School of Visual Arts (SVA), New York when he experimented widely with video, performance and installation. Though he always maintained a strong commitment to drawing, in 1980 the longing to devote more time, energy and focus upon this medium became overwhelming, and it was during this period that he developed his unique visual language. This is the first time these drawings have been displayed in the UK.

The exhibition consists of 3 series of early drawings, a total of 27 individual works. One of the series was created specifically for the magazine P.I.M - Public Illumination Magazine, ‘the world's smallest magazine of its kind’ (7 cm x 11 cm). Independently produced in New York and still published, each issue has a theme and Haring contributed to issue #13, in 1981, on the theme of Civilization. Here, we see a continuation of his signature vocabulary in these surreal and engaging visual narratives with their direct and appealing comic strip style.

Drawing was Keith Haring’s passion from an early age; the abstract language gave space to more complex and figurative visual language that would characterise the rest of his career. He used a very personal language and style, to communicate basic emotions through creating timeless images. A greatly influential artist, he was able to communicate to many generations and across many cultural boundaries. He was also highly committed to social causes, putting his art to the service of the community to make a contribution towards the arrest of the spread of AIDS, drug addictions, fighting for gay rights and against racial discrimination, but most of all acting on behalf of children.

During a brief but intense career Keith Haring’s work was featured in over 100 solo and group exhibitions. He was highly sought after to participate in special projects and collaborated with artists and performers such as Madonna, Grace Jones, Bill T. Jones, William Burroughs, Timothy Leary, Jenny Holzer and Andy Warhol. By expressing universal concepts of birth, death, love, sex and war, using a primacy of line and directness of message, Haring was able to attract a wide audience and assure the accessibility and staying power of his imagery, which has become a universally recognised visual language of the 20th century.

Exhibition supported by Embassy of United States of America, London

BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
Gateshead Quays, South Shore Road, Gateshead NE8 3BA
balticmill.com

Visions du déluge. De la Renaissance au XIXème siècle, Musée Magnin, Dijon

VISIONS DU DELUGE

De la Renaissance au XIXème siècle

Musée Magnin, Dijon 

11 octobre 2006 - 10 janvier 2007

Episode célèbre de la Genèse, premier livre de la Bible, le Déluge universel a été souvent représenté dans l’art occidental et de nombreuses œuvres sur ce sujet sont bien connues et publiées, mais aucune exposition ne lui a encore été consacré en France. 

L’ambition de l’exposition consiste à mettre en évidence une évolution remarquable où l’on voit un sujet d’histoire devenir un sujet de paysage. L’exposition montre aussi comment une même historia peut recevoir un traitement maniériste ou se prêter à une vision pré-romantique. Esthétiquement, il est intéressant de noter qu’un sujet violent, en adéquation avec le Sublime « horrifique » mis à l’honneur à la fin du XVIIIe siècle - époque d’un regain d’intérêt pour le thème - peut aussi s’ancrer dans un registre classique et relever du Sublime de simplicité d’un Poussin.

C’est pourquoi les catastrophes naturelles sont évoquées ici aux côtés du Déluge : à partir du XVIIIe siècle, ce sont dans les deux cas des visions terrifiantes de la nature qui rompent avec les canons de la beauté classique, deux effets comparables de la Providence ou de l’histoire de la Terre.

Dans le contexte de désacralisation progressive de la première moitié du XIXe siècle, l’intérêt artistique pour le sujet atteste de la persistance du Déluge comme événement fondateur.

L’épisode biblique est un sujet d’histoire fréquent dans les œuvres des XVIe et XVIIe siècles ; Raphaël et Michel-Ange peignent à fresque le moment dramatique de la montée des eaux, et leurs œuvres seront des modèles. De leur côté, sensibles à la dimension morale de l’épisode, les artistes nordiques s’attachent aux causes du déluge – l’humanité corrompue – et à la Nouvelle Alliance qui en résulte. Dans les représentations,  l’évocation de l’Arche de Noé - symbole du Salut, au delà de la fin de la première humanité - tend à gagner les lointains, tandis que les premiers plans sont occupés par des scènes manifestant la détresse humaine. Confrontés à la difficulté de représenter le chaos, les artistes trouvent avec la prolifération des corps des solutions de composition dans lesquelles domine le point de vue panoramique.

Le Déluge de Nicolas Poussin marque un tournant dans le traitement du sujet. Peinte entre 1660 et 1664, l’œuvre (représentée dans l’exposition par une copie ancienne) montre un « paysage tragique »,  où s’inscrit une promesse de renouveau. A la vision des corps accumulés se substitue une atmosphère grise et froide, à l’agitation, le calme et la prière – et la scène familiale prend une valeur exemplaire. Le paysage assume dès lors une valeur allégorique : celle d’une communauté de destin entre l’homme et la nature, qui sera abondamment discutée au siècle suivant.

Lorsque le thème suscite un nouvel engouement, durant les vingt dernières années du XVIIIe siècle,  le tableau de Poussin n’est pas oublié et les artistes continuent d’y puiser. Mais un retournement idéologique s’est produit : la référence religieuse tend à s’effacer au profit de sources littéraires (Salomon Gessner en Suisse, John Milton en Angleterre) dans lesquelles s’exprime la détresse individuelle. Le Déluge tend à devenir le support de scènes de genre tragiques ; elles attestent d’une inquiétude qui n’est peut-être pas sans rapport avec les bouleversements sociaux en cours ou à venir.

C’est ici que les catastrophes naturelles rejoignent le Déluge. L’homme y est également victime d’un décret divin ou d’une nature imprévisible. Si les représentations du Vésuve en éruption donnent souvent dans le pittoresque, celles des tremblements de terre de Lisbonne et de Messine expriment une conscience nouvelle de la précarité de l’existence humaine qui, conjuguée à la curiosité scientifique des Lumières, produit des œuvres dans lesquelles le spectacle « horrible » de la nature tient, comme le Déluge, de la catégorie esthétique du sublime telle qu’elle est définie par Edmund Burke en 1757.

En France, durant la première moitié du XIXe siècle, les scènes duelles ou familiales à tendance mélodramatique dominent l’interprétation du sujet. Le Déluge inspirant des paysages grandioses se développe particulièrement en Angleterre. La renaissance du débat entre science et religion sur l’origine de la terre et de l’homme transparaissent dans l’évocation d’une comète, des animaux antédiluviens ou des anges issus du texte de la Genèse.

Exposition organisée par la Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris, le musée Magnin, Dijon, et le musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne (où elle sera présentée du  2 février  au 29 avril 2007).

Commissaires : Rémi Cariel, directeur du Musée Magnin, et Sylvie Wuhrmann, historienne de l’art 

Musée Magnin, Dijon

4, rue des Bons-Enfants, 21000 Dijon

www.musee-magnin.fr

Christopher Wool, Simon Lee Gallery, London

Christopher Wool
Simon Lee Gallery, London
October 11 - December 22, 2006

Simon Lee presents new painting and works on paper by Christopher Wool.

Christopher Wool has punctuated the art world with works that have reinvigorated recent contemporary debate on the changing status of painting. He belongs to a generation of artists (Robert Gober, Jeff Koons and Richard Prince) who in the early 1980s were looking for new possibilities in painting and sculpture. Within his particular oeuvre, Christopher Wool has transposed elements from mass culture such as print media, advertising, music and film as a means to create a collision between painting and printing.

The processes of painting, the physical properties of paint and techniques of reproduction underpin Christopher Wool’s practice. Crucial to Wool is his impulse to exploit the limits of painting. In previous works he has used a plethora of media comprising aluminium, silkscreen, varnish, photography, paint rollers and stencils with industrial procedures and techniques made available by mass production. Wool used these procedures in combination with painting to play with the ideas and techniques of reproduction.

For Christopher Wool’s current body of work he employs silkscreen and spray paint that is meticulously built up and then partly removed. Wool has returned to painting in a reductive format to emphasis elements of painting and erasure, gesture and removal, depth and flatness. Chiefly using black spray enamel Wool draws out the tensions that are at play with form, line and colour. The action and erasure that become apparent highlight Wool’s unique form of mark making on the picture plane. By spraying the canvas, retracing the line with solvent, blending and then erasing the line of spray paint Wool maps out and retraces his line across the canvas. Wool’s medium of choice makes reference to the urban environment and graffiti, however the works sidestep hasty interpretation and the surface qualities allow the viewer focus on the retinal impact of the paintings.

Christopher Wool's work has been featured in numerous exhibitions including, most recently; Christopher Wool, Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, Valencia, Spain (2006), Christopher Wool, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France (2006), William Gedney-Christopher Wool: Into the Night, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island (2004), Christopher Wool, Camden Arts Centre, London (2004), Lyon Biennial of Contemporary Art, Lyon (2003), Crosstown Crosstown, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee / Le Consortium, Dijon (2003 / 2002) and Secession, Vienna (2001).

SIMON LEE GALLERY
12 Berkeley Street, London W1J 8DT
www.simonleegallery.com

Michel Blazy, La Maréchalerie, Versailles - Animort

Michel Blazy : Animort

La Maréchalerie, Versailles

6 octobre - 16 décembre 2006

Qu'il s'agisse d'un mur enduit de purée de carottes, de bouquets de spaghettis, d'écorces d'oranges empilées ou encore de chiens en mousse à raser, les oeuvres de Michel Blazy relèvent d'une curieuse contradiction. Ces sculptures associent effectivement la notion d'éphémère - d'oeuvres en constante évolution physique - et l'objet final résultant de cette petite fabrique composée d'éléments du quotidien. Cette dualité semble toujours prégnante dans l'objet final, résultat de processus divers et variés expérimentés par l'artiste sur les matériaux organiques consommables. Noyaux, liquide vaisselle, bonbons Kréma, sont ainsi soumis à de multiples transformations qui se développent sur une surface, et Michel Blazy nous conforte ainsi dans l'idée que ces objets sont bel et bien vivants, à l'instar des animaux et végétaux qu'il scrute minutieusement avec ses photographies et ses vidéos.

Si Michel Blazy expérimente à la fois la matérialité et la temporalité des objets qu'il met en scène, c'est avant tout pour soumettre la matière première de ses sculptures à des mutations minutieuses, afin de produire " un basculement dans une dimension autre, dans un ailleurs… ". Lorsqu'il rencontre une oeuvre de Michel Blazy, l'observateur appréhende le dualisme des éléments entre confrontation et cohabitation. Il rencontre à la fois le vivant et le dépérissement jusqu'à la mort, la beauté et la laideur, la fascination et la répulsion, le naturel et l'artificiel, le tout poétiquement énoncés dans cette relation entre la matière et la forme, soumis à l'influence de la transformation naturelle.

A la Maréchalerie, Michel Blazy compose un paysage de sculptures, poules en crème chocolatée : Animort. Ces " chocopoules " apparaissent momifiées dans des attitudes diverses, assujetties au processus du temps, existants dans un décor de flocons de colle. Le centre d'art, logé dans l'ancienne maréchalerie des petites écuries du Roy, représenté par ses caractéristiques architecturales singulières semble alors ressaisi par l'évocation d'une affectation animalière, en adéquation avec d'une part les composants originels, notamment la charpente, et d'autre part les nouveaux réaménagements de l'espace d'art contemporain.

Produite pour l'exposition, cette installation incarne la pluralité et les différentes facettes de l'oeuvre de Michel Blazy alliant à la fois une activité du micro-vivant quasi imperceptible à un décor/environnement /espace à la limite de l'extravagance.

A l'occasion de Versailles Off, organisé par le Château de Versailles, l'intervention de Michel Blazy se poursuit dans la " Galerie des Moulages ", avec une production de sculptures éphémères, boudins de mousses fabriqués durant l'évènement, qui se déploient depuis leurs bacs, origine de la formation, jusqu'à envahir le lieu, dans un système de fin et de régénération constante, parmi les sculptures en plâtres entreposés par le département des Antiquités Grecques, Etrusques et Romaines du Musée du Louvre.

LA MARECHALERIE, Centre d'art contemporain

Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Versailles

5 avenue de Sceaux, 78000 Versailles

www.versailles.archi.fr

Seydou Keita, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco - Portraits

Seydou Keita: Portraits
John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
October 5 – November 30, 2006

John Berggruen Gallery presents its first solo exhibition of portraits by African photographer Seydou Keïta (1923 – 2001). 

This exhibition is comprised of black and white portraits taken in the 1950s and 1960s in Bamako, Mali. Keïta began his career as a portrait photographer in 1948, a period in time which is marked by the introduction of modernity to Africa. Although his early portraits were not always successful, by the mid-1950s Keïta had established a signature style and a loyal clientele. Having one's portrait taken in his studio was a mark of cosmopolitanism for the newly established "Bamakois," a phrase coined by NYU Africana Department Chair, Manthia Diawara, to describe the inhabitants of the new urban Bamako, which became an important French colonial center in the first half of the 20th century. This particular body of work displays the way in which Seydou Keïta would combine traditional African fabrics with props that signified technology and modernity – including radios, sunglasses, wristwatches, western suits and even a Vespa – of which the clients could choose from for their portraits. One sees in his portraits both the co-existence of and the struggle between the traditional and the modern in Seydou Keïta's Bamako, a struggle which became even more significant after the de-colonization of Mali in 1960. In addition to his usage of props, the artist's use of pattern is remarkable. His juxtaposition of intricately patterned fabrics became a signature of his work.

Seydou Keïta was born between 1921 and 1923 (he was unaware of his exact birth date) in Bamako Mali, and began his career in photography at the age of fourteen when his uncle brought him a camera from nearby Senegal. Although originally a carpenter by trade, Seydou Keïta opened his first studio in 1948. This studio was then closed in the early 1960s after Seydou Keïta was appointed official photographer for the Malian Security Services, a role he took on from 1960 until 1977. In the early 1990s Seydou Keïta's work was "re-discovered" by André Magnin, an African Art curator in Paris, and he had his first American solo show at the National Museum of African Art in Washington D.C. in 1996. He is represented in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the US Department of State Collection, Washington D.C. and numerous others. Seydou Keïta passed away on November 22nd, 2001, at approximately 78 years old. Jean Marc Patras-Delon/N.O.M.A.D.E., Paris, is Seydou Keïta's worldwide agent, and has established a foundation, based in Bamako, Mali, for the preservation, promotion and study of Keïta's work.

JOHN BERGGRUEN GALLERY
228 Grant Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94108
www.berggruen.com

Exposition Yves Klein, Centre Pompidou, Paris - Corps, Couleur, Immatériel + Catalogue

Yves Klein 

Corps, Couleur, Immatériel 

Centre Pompidou, Paris 

5 octobre 2006 - 5 février 2007

Le Centre Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne consacre une grande exposition à Yves Klein, artiste majeur de la seconde moitié du XXe siècle. 

Longtemps enfermé dans un rôle d’artiste-emblème, internationalement célèbre pour le bleu IKB et ses monochromes, Yves Klein fut peu compris de son vivant. Mort prématurément en 1962, à l'âge de trente quatre ans, après une carrière fulgurante - Yves Klein a réalisé son œuvre en l'espace de sept ans - l'artiste, dont la production dépasse largement le champ de la peinture, n'a cessé d'affirmer : « mes tableaux ne sont que les cendres de mon art » (Le dépassement de la problématique de l’art et autres écrits. Yves Klein. École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts). 

Malgré de nombreuses rétrospectives et notamment l'exposition présentée au Centre Pompidou en 1983, l’œuvre de l'artiste reste encore largement à découvrir ainsi que le révèle la publication récente de ses écrits.

Réunissant cent vingt peintures et sculptures, environ quarante dessins et manuscrits de l'artiste et un grand nombre de films et photographies d'époque, cette exposition propose une relecture du travail d’Yves Klein. Aussi fidèle que possible aux déclarations de l’artiste contenues dans les écrits publiés récemment, la scénographie met en évidence l’importance qu’Yves Klein accordait aux aspects multiples de son activité artistique: peintures, sculptures, mais aussi performances, œuvres sonores, interventions dans les espaces publics, projets d’architecture…

En reconstituant des œuvres telles que la Sculpture aérostatique, 1957 (lâcher de 1001 ballons) ou l’Illumination de l’Obélisque, 1958, de la place de la Concorde, cette manifestation met sur le même plan que les monochromes les actions éphémères de l’artiste. Le travail d’Yves Klein repose sur un équilibre dynamique entre deux pôles : le visible et l’invisible, la matière et le vide, la chair et l’immatériel. Cette tension est au cœur de son œuvre: tout en explorant la non matérialité au point d’exposer Le Vide (Galerie Iris Clert, Paris 1958), Yves Klein continuera à créer des œuvres visibles.

Le parcours de l’exposition s’articule autour des trois couleurs emblématiques d’Yves Klein: bleu, or et rose, citées dans cet ordre dans ses écrits, ou rassemblées dans quelques rares triptyques. Dès 1959 c’est à partir de ces couleurs que se construit l’œuvre de Klein. L’ Ex-voto dédié à Sainte Rita, 1961, déposé par l’artiste au Monastère de Sainte Rita à Cascia (Italie), œuvre inédite présentée dans l’exposition, constitue un témoignage précieux de la valeur symbolique que l’or et le rose représentent au même titre que le bleu dans l’univers de sa création.

Le sous-titre de l’exposition CORPS, COULEUR, IMMATÉRIEL met l’accent sur les aspects du travail d’Yves Klein qui le révèlent éminemment contemporain, proche du regard des artistes aujourd’hui : l’implication physique et quotidienne de l’artiste dans son œuvre, sa volonté d’étendre le rôle de l’artiste par l’intermédiaire de la couleur à une transformation (technique, urbaine et philosophique) du monde, son utilisation de matériaux éphémères et naturels, ainsi que son exploration de l’immatériel.

L’exposition sera également présentée au Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (Vienne, Autriche) du 9 mars au 3 juin 2007.

Commisariat de l'exposition

Camille Morineau, conservatrice, Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou

Alexandra Mueller, Marion Guibert, chargées de projet

Bruno Veret, chargé de production

Katia Lafitte, Pascal Rodriguez, scénographes / architectes

A l'occasion de cette exposition les Éditions du Centre Pompidou publient un important catalogue :

CATALOGUE YVES KLEIN

CORPS, COULEUR, IMMATÉRIEL

ÉDITIONS DU CENTRE POMPIDOU

Directrice d'ouvrage : Camille Morineau

Format 23,5 x 28 cm, 304 pages

250 ill. couleur, 100 ill. noir et blanc

SOMMAIRE DU CATALOGUE

I L’exposition

Denys Riout, Imprégnations : scénarios et scénographies

Yve-Alain Bois, L’actualité de Klein

Camille Morineau, De l’imprégnation à l’empreinte, de l’artiste au modèle, de la couleur à son incarnation

Camille Morineau, Le bleu, l’or et le rose : comment appropriation rime avec sublimation

II Yves Klein en son siècle

Kaira Marie Cabañas, Yves Klein en France : un paradoxe spatial

Marion Guibert, Yves Klein en Allemagne (1957-1961)

Marco Meneguzzo, Klein et l'Italie : entre Nucléaires et Spatialistes

Ming Tiampo, Empreintes de l’immatériel : Yves Klein au Japon

Nuit Banaï, Dangereuse abstraction : Yves Klein à New York, 1961-1967

Catherine Grenier, Moi aussi, j’ai sauté dans le vide : l’influence d’Yves Klein sur l’art de Los Angeles

Eva Badura-Triska, Yves Klein en relation avec l’actionnisme viennois

Vitek Havranek, Yves Klein et l’Europe de l’Est : une oeuvre à l’état d’idée, 1959-1971

III Yves Klein et son image

Albums de presse d’Yves Klein (18 pages en fac-simile)

L’IMAGE ÉCRITE

Rita Cusimano, Les albums de presse d’Yves Klein, la rumeur publique autour d’Yves Klein

Kaira Maria Cabanas, De Klein à Restany : vers le Nouveau Réalisme

L’IMAGE PHOTOSENSIBLE

Alexandra Mueller, Yves Klein et la photographie

Jean-Michel Bouhours, La caméra saurait-elle être le témoin de l'irreprésentable ?

François Albera, Yves Klein vu par le cinéma

L’IMAGE REDÉFINIE DE L’ARTISTE

Emmanuelle Ollier, Yves Klein et le judo : l’impulsion créatrice ou théâtre du « je »

Laurence Bertrand Dorléac, La politique au cœur du vide

Marion Guibert, La collaboration selon Yves Klein, un réalisme spirituel

Didier Semin, Yves Klein, la propriété intellectuelle en question

CHRONOLOGIE

Collectif (Rita Cusimano, Auteurs catalogue, Archives Yves Klein)

Bibliographie sélective

Filmographie

Liste des œuvres

CENTRE POMPIDOU, BEAUBOURG, PARIS

www.centrepompidou.fr

Twilight: Photography in the Magic Hour, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Twilight: Photography in the Magic Hour

Victoria & Albert Museum, London
10 October - 17 December 2006

 

This autumn, the V&A will exhibit around 50 works by international contemporary artists who have explored the visual and psychological effects of twilight. Twilight: Photography in the Magic Hour includes work by established photographers Robert Adams, Gregory Crewdson, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Bill Henson and Boris Mikhailov as well as emerging talents, Chrystel Lebas and Liang Yue and a specially commissioned film installation by Ori Gersht.

These artists explore the threshold between the familiar and the unknown, the comfortable and the dangerous and show twilight to be a poignant hour when sensibilities change and potential-laden atmospheres emerge. Twilight is used to present or facilitate the subversion of normality, the darker side of fantasies and the fairytale gone awry.

Twilight’s alchemical qualities have long attracted artists. Technically ambitious attempts to record and replicate the ambiguity of twilight can be mapped throughout the history of photography and have been particularly evident in recent years.

Martin Barnes, Curator of Photographs at the V&A and co-curator of the exhibition, said: “This exhibition will reveal the allure of the magic moment of twilight. In recent years, an increasing number of photographers internationally have chosen to explore the subject. It is an area of contemporary art where emotion and romanticism still have great currency.”

Twilight: Photography in the Magic Hour interweaves a range of explorations of the theme and will feature series of works by eight artists:

Robert Adams will be represented by printed black and white photographs from the series Summer Nights (1979-82), which were taken along the Eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Amid urbanisation, Robert Adams focuses on the continuing beauty of trees, sky and the shape of the land. 

A selection from Gregory Crewdson’s Twilight series (1998-2002) will be on show together with his Beneath the Roses series (2003-05). They feature elaborately-constructed cinematic tableaux of bizarre, primeval rituals staged in pristine suburbs.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s Hollywood series (1990-92) reveals the flip side of sunlit Hollywood through portrayals of male sex-workers and drifters along Sunset Boulevard at the brief, visually charged moment when natural light and artificial light are in perfect balance.

Ori Gersht will be producing a specially commissioned new film installation for this exhibition. It will be shown alongside his Rear Window series in which he records dramatic twilight skies above London, referenced by slithers of skyline at the base of the prints.

Bill Henson is a passionate explorer of twilight zones, of the ambiguous spaces between day and night, youth and adulthood, male and female, nature and civilization. This will be the first major showing of the Australian artist’s work in the UK.  On display will be his untitled photographs of landscapes at dusk (2000-03) that show an industrial ‘no-man’s land’ that lies on the outskirts of cities, peopled by androgynous figures.

Chrystel Lebas will show works from her Abyss series (2003) in which she uses panoramic long exposures to capture the eerie atmosphere of forests at dusk in France, Germany and Japan. This is the moment when light is still present outside the confined space of the forest, yet darkness spreads under the trees. Also included will be her triptych made in the Arctic circle, Between Dog and Wolf (2005), ( from the French saying ‘entre chien et loup’) that describes the mystical atmosphere when day turns to night.  An hour-long film, Blue Hour (2005), captures the onset of twilight in a forest in real time.

Boris Mikhailov will be represented by works from his At Dusk series (1993), taken in the artist’s home city of Kharkow in the Ukraine following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Recording this period of transition, the series also references the city’s traumatic experiences during the artist’s childhood in World War II.

Liang Yue’s Several Dusks (2003) will be shown. These images are shot on the streets of Beijing where the haziness of dusk is precipitated by dust, sandstorms and pollution. 

The exhibition was curated by V&A’s photography curators, Martin Barnes and Kate Best.

A new book will be published by the V&A and Merrell Publishers to accompany the exhibition, Twilight: Photography in the Magic Hour by Martin Barnes and Kate Best (£35 Hardback).  With contributions from Steven Connor, Professor of Modern Literature and Theory at Birkbeck College, London and Emily Winterburn Curator of Astronomy at the Royal Observatory.

Emily Carr New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon at Vancouver Art Gallery - A Retrospective Exhibition

Emily Carr

New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon

Vancouver Art Gallery

October 7, 2006 — January 7, 2007

The Vancouver Art Gallery presents a fresh look at the life and art of EMILY CARR (1871-1945) in the first national touring retrospective exhibition of the artist’s work in more than thirty year. Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon examines the painter through the lens of her exhibition history and extraordinary life to reveal a complex woman of extreme talent and conviction. Beginning with a partial recreation of the first exhibition of Carr’s work on the national stage, the exhibition also examines the artist as a modernist painter and explores how her persona and her work have been portrayed and interpreted over time. Jointly organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Canada, the exhibition features nearly 200 objects by Emily Carr and others, including paintings, drawings, watercolours, caricatures, ceramics, sculpture, hooked rugs, books, maps and photographs. Nearly 150 works of art from the National Gallery, the Vancouver Art Gallery and other major institutions are included, along with works from private collections.

“Emily Carr is a vital part of Canadian and British Columbian history, and we are proud to pay homage to her with this sweeping exhibition during the Gallery’s 75th anniversary year,” said Kathleen Bartels, director of the Vancouver Art Gallery. “As the holder of the world’s most significant collection of Carr’s work, the Gallery has a long tradition of exhibiting her art and contributing to the scholarship surrounding it. With this touring exhibition and the accompanying book, our visitors have the opportunity to better know the woman behind the stunning canvases.”

Emily Carr began serious study of art in her late teens after leaving home in Victoria, British Columbia to attend the California School of Design in San Francisco. Returning for a brief time, Emily Carr soon left Victoria again to attend the Westminster School of Art and study in the studios of a number of British artists. But, it was her year in France between 1910 and 1911 studying Post-Impressionist art that Emily Carr found most inspiring. In 1911, she returned to Vancouver with a commitment to document the First Nations cultures of British Columbia, a project she began in 1907, and produced a great number of watercolours and corresponding canvases in her new French style. These works met with mixed reception until 1927, when her paintings were included in the National Gallery’s Exhibition of Canadian West Coast Art Native and Modern, where they were embraced by members of the famed Canadian painters, the Group of Seven. She returned to British Columbia to begin the most productive period of her career, venturing out into remote parts of coastal British Columbia and creating the inspired, powerful canvases for which she is best known.

Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon begins with a reconstruction of the seminal Exhibition of Canadian West Coast Art Native and Modern, which introduced Carr’s work to the Canadian art establishment. This remounting of the landmark exhibition is presented in its original spirit, with contemporary works of the time mixed with historical objects of First Nations heritage. Carr’s early paintings intermingle with Haida, Tsimshian and Kwakwaka’wakw masks, house posts, carvings and textiles, as well as a selection of works by artists Anne Savage, Paul Kane, Langdon Kihn, and Group of Seven members Edwin Holgate and A.Y. Jackson.

The next section of the exhibition considers Carr as a modernist painter, drawing inspiration from the 1945 Emily Carr Memorial Exhibition presented the year of her death at the Art Gallery of Toronto. Gathering a selection of Carr’s finest works dating from 1910 to 1942, this section illustrates the artist’s skillful use of colour and form, inviting viewers to explore her unique and expressive style. Abandoning her attempts to create straightforward portrayals of First Nations life and art, the exhibition reveals Carr’s exquisite endeavour to describe the fundamental nature of her subject. It is here that Carr’s interests in primitivism and spirituality shine through in her paintings of First Nations sculpture and the dramatic landscape of coastal British Columbia.

The final section of Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon provides a unique perspective on the artist from a postmodern viewpoint. It introduces the many voices that have been brought to bear on Carr and her work, and examines Carr’s self-construction through her caricatures, self-portraits and writings. This section also evaluates her relationship to the landscape and considers her role in the development of cultural tourism on the northwest coast.

Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon was on display at the National Gallery until September 4, 2006. After showing in Vancouver, the exhibition will travel to Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario from February 24 to May 20, 2007, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts from June 21 to September 23, 2007 and Calgary's Glenbow Museum from October 25, 2007 to January 26, 2008.

The exhibition is curated by Vancouver Art Gallery senior curator, Ian Thom, National Gallery curator of Canadian art Charles Hill, and Johanne Lamoureux of the Université de Montréal. 

The exhibition is accompanied by a major full-colour book, including essays by all three curators and several notable historians and critics, published with Douglas & McIntyre.

VANCOUVER ART GALLERY

750 Hornby Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6Z 2H7

www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

Related Post:

Carr, O’Keeffe and Kahlo: Places of Their Own, Vancouver Art Gallery, June 15 - September 15, 2002

Dana Schutz, MOCA Cleveland, Exhibition Dana Schutz: Paintings 2002-2006

Dana Schutz: Paintings 2002-2006

Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland

September 29 - December 30, 2006

The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA) presents the work of 30-year-old painter Dana Schutz, whose “ecstatically imaginative paintings” have rapidly established her as one of the art stars of the contemporary art world.

Dana Schutz: Paintings 2002-2006, the first comprehensive solo museum exhibition of the artist’s work, features eighteen paintings created over the last four years, including three new works shown for the first time which were created specifically for MOCA Cleveland’s presentation of the exhibition.

The works, with their thick, lush surfaces and expressive palette of gaudy yellows, reds, deep greens and purples, explore social, emotional and political themes. The exhibition was curated by Raphaela Platow and organized by The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts. MOCA’s presentation of the exhibition and related programming was coordinated by Senior Curator Margo Crutchfield.

Dana Schutz describes her work as “pictures that float in and out of pictorial genres. Still-lifes become personified, portraits become events and landscapes become constructions. I embrace the area between which the subject is composed and decomposing, formed and formless, inanimate and alive.” Dana Schutz: Paintings 2002-2006 demonstrates this approach to painting through significant examples of Schutz’s different bodies of work, including selections from the series, “Frank From Observation” and “Self-Eaters.”

Says Rose Curator Raphaela Platow, “In many of her dynamic works, Schutz attempts to paint things that one almost cannot imagine.” With the Frank From Observation series, Schutz creates a world in which Frank is the last man on earth, a “castaway” who is seen alternately engaged in activity or reposed and contemplative. In the Self-Eaters series, Dana Schutz paints figures who are calmly depicted in the acts of devouring, dismembering and recreating themselves. Other paintings in Dana Schutz: Paintings 2002-2006, such as Party (2004), which portrays the Bush Administration Cabinet wandering through a jungle, are more politically-charged and overtly satirical.

About Schutz, whose influences include the German Expressionists, Henri Matisse and the Fauves, Paul Gauguin and the Symbolists, and Philip Guston, among others, Raphaela Platow has said she “creates her figurative paintings in thick, glutting strokes, similar to sculpting the image from paint. Many of her works depict hypothetical scenarios that are based on reality, but extended into the imaginary based on the parameters the artist sets for her narratives.”

Born in Livonia, Michigan in 1976, Dana Schutz currently lives and works in New York. She earned a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art (2000) and an MFA from the Columbia University School of Fine Arts in New York (2002). Her paintings have been featured in one-person shows in New York, Boston, Paris, Berlin, and Santa Fe, and in many group exhibitions, such as the Prague and Venice Biennials. Dana Schutz’s work is in numerous private and public collections including The Progressive Collection in Cleveland, OH; the Saatchi Collection in London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, all in New York.

MOCA - MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CLEVELAND

11400 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106

www.mocacleveland.org

Jean-Marc Bustamante at Timothy Taylor Gallery, London

Jean-Marc Bustamante

Timothy Taylor Gallery, London

6 September - 6 October 2006

Timothy Taylor Gallery presents an exhibition of new work by Jean-Marc Bustamante. For his third solo exhibition at the Timothy Taylor Gallery, Jean-Marc Bustamante exhibits a series of jewel-like, sculptural plexiglass objects which were first shown earlier this year in the ground-breaking exhibition -beautifuldays- at KUB Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria. Jean-Marc Bustamante has also created ‘Contraposto II’, a previously unseen sculpture of galvanized steel with ink on plexiglass.

“The elements cut out of the material also form impediments or passages for the obstructed gaze that collides…with printing inks on Perspex, that throws light back at us like a delicious pain. The paradox of the reflecting materials, the sand-blasted steel, perspexy-sexy with its transparency and curved highlights.” Jean-Marc Bustamante

A series of ‘Trophées’ form a major part of the exhibition. Operating simultaneously as painting and relief sculpture, free-hand forms are cut out of steel plates, opening up to reveal a brilliant surface of underlying coloured Perspex, creating deep pools of reflection. Diverse materials are used to capture light to be either reflected or absorbed. Further works titled ‘Panorama’ and ‘Perfect Dream’, utilise the same method of silkscreen printed on plexiglass to achieve bold, abstract yet familiar images. ‘Panorama Okinawa’, (2005), evokes a tropical landscape and ‘Panorama Lion’, (2005) suggests the mane of a lion. Surfaces vacillate between being opaque and transparent. Colours entice, yet remain intangible.

In the late 1970’s Jean-Marc Bustamante changed the perception of photography in French art with his monumental ‘Tableaux’ blurring the boundary between painting and photography. Following his 1983-87 collaboration with Bernard Bazile, his practice became yet more complex with an exploration of the relationship between photography and sculpture, and between photography and painting. When chosen to represent France at the 2003 Venice Biennale, Jean-Marc Bustamante explored these three media in more depth with his Sérigraphiés on plexiglass, juxtaposed with photographs and sculpture. For this solo exhibition at the Timothy Taylor Gallery in 2006, the artist continues to push the boundaries between the three disciplines which fascinate him and challenge the viewer.

This exhibition is part of ‘Paris Calling’, a season of Contemporary art from France initiated by the French Embassy and the Afaa/ Culturesfrance. 

TIMOTHY TAYLOR GALLERY

24 Dering Street, London W1S 1AN

www.timothytaylorgallery.com

Don Doe, Dylan Graham, Sally Smart at Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Dangerous Waters: Three Solo Shows

Don Doe, Dylan Graham, and Sally Smart

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

September 1 - October 22, 2006

The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University presents Dangerous Waters: Three Solo Shows. The exhibition brings together the work of Australian artist Sally Smart, Dutch artist Dylan Graham, and North American artist Don Doe, who share similar concerns about globalization and new identities. Their work is linked by an iconography of maritime themes that simultaneously engage the languages of Romanticism and popular culture.

“Using images of frigates in full sail, flags flying high in the wind, and swashbuckling pirates in colorful costumes, the works featured in Dangerous Waters concern themselves with a different world,” said Andrea Inselmann, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Johnson Museum. “These three artists revive the Romantic spirit seen in the current popular imagination, with pirates symbolizing the subversion of authority and the rejection of accepted social mores.”

SALLY SMART has created gallery-size installations for the past ten years using cutting, staining, sewing, stitching, collage, and photomontage. Her new installation at the Johnson Museum, The Exquisite Pirate (Coral Sea), is the most recent incarnation of a project the artist has been developing since 2004, which began with the question of whether or not women pirates existed, and then uses the image to upset our expectations of sexual roles. Sally Smart was in residence for five days to install her piece at the Johnson, and will speak about her work on Wednesday, August 30.

DYLAN GRAHAM addresses colonialism and immigration in intricate paper cutouts of frigates and maps, metaphors for conflict and refuge-seeking. Graham not only incorporates imagery culled from many folk traditions, his technique itself is modeled on the Mexican folk art papel picado, which in turn is a blend of Asian and Hispanic influences. Cutting paper to minute details involves painstaking craftsmanship and intensity appropriate for the loaded relationships that Dylan Graham illustrates in his installation, Conquests & Endeavors. Dylan Graham will speak about his work on Thursday, September 14.

In his installation of watercolors and paintings of women pirates, Heroines & Hellions, DON DOE critiques the male gaze while addressing complex issues related to authorship. Spoofing kitschy illustration, crossing the boundary between high art and pulp fiction, Don Doe’s work proposes a new sexual identity as it displays a bawdy sense of irony. At once sexist and feminist, real and surreal, unsettling and seductive, Don Doe’s fiercely independent pirate chicks are in control of the male gaze, empowering (most) female viewers while putting (some) male spectators on edge. Doe will speak about his work on Thursday, September 28.

HERBERT F. JOHNSON MUSEUM OF ART

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4001

www.museum.cornell.edu