These beautiful studies look like knifed oil work on canvas and five of them feature inside the skull and crucifixion room at the current solo exhibition ‘A beautiful announcement of death’ with Pertwee Anderson & Gold Gallery on until June 15th. head into 15 Bateman Street, W1D 3AQ and see them for yourself.
This is an interesting look at the very cinematic Mr Crewdson, and it’s funny hearing the production manager shout out to the crew not to worry about clearing up the foreground of the shot ‘we’ll get rid of it in post’.
I was fortunate enough to see Cai Guo-Qiang’s stunning exhibition at the New York Guggenheim a few years ago. This was the first contact I had with his work and process. The scale and depth of his work is just thrilling to me so I decided to bring this short Art.sy film to your attention. It focusses on the artist’s large-scale gunpowder drawings made by a series of sketches, which are then cut into stencils. Afterwards, gunpowder is applied and the piece is ignited. The moment of explosion is the fantastic conclusion to millions of years of minerals evolving; this meeting of past and present is a key aspect of Cai’s work.
‘A beautiful announcement of death’ (detail), Alexander James 2012, 180 x 135 cms, Edition of 2
Capturing the forgotten alchemy of a medium often considered to serve a purely documentary function, Alexander James creates meticulously crafted scenes immersed in dark tanks of water. For the most part he destroys these creations, leaving behind only the medium format transparencies as documents of these acts.
Through careful manipulation of water and light and without the use of postproduction techniques, the artist has produced a new series of photographic works that weave a deviant historical thread between the mechanical reproduction of today’s image making and the meticulous realism and existential gaze of painters such as Pieter Claesz of the 16th Century Vanitas tradition of painting.
With direct reference to the classical paintings ‘Ophelia’ (1851–52) by John Everett Millais and ‘La Jeune Martyre’ (1855) by Paul De La Roche, ‘A beautiful announcement of death’ takes the tragic story of Hamlet’s Ophelia as a central focus, drawing also a comparison with Alexander James’ own personal experience of a former lover’s suicide.
In James’ practice the camera, like the painter’s oils, is a tool in which to eternally preserve the bodies of the artist’s subjects: at times a collection of inanimate objects held in a purgatory state and at others the bodies of characters inscribed with historical and personal narratives, which the final image forever tells. It is both ironic and telling that water, the very element which for the Greek Philosopher Heraclitus stood as a symbol for the unstoppable mill of time, changing everything in its wake, serves precisely as the functional device through which he achieves the mesmerizing painterly effect of his photographs.
In his new body of work Alexander James is often found in direct dialogue with the painters that have inspired him as he participates in the age-old practice of contextualizing antiquities stories. In ‘A beautiful announcement of death’ photography emerges as a perplexing aporia, a kind of sorcery which successfully presences the past and yet only brings up ghosts.
A beautiful announcement of death – opens 11th May to June 15th
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an exhibition of new works at Pertwee Anderson & Gold Gallery, London – 12th May until 15th June 2012
Phillips de Pury & Company are holding a photography Auction on May 17th 2012 in london. This image; Still Life, Oyster Bay, Long Island, 1950 (detail) by the wonderful Horst P. Horst is estimated at £15,000-£20,000
The queen of 40’s & 50’s sylphlike models passed away monday at her home in Manhattan, where she was born. Her life in New york gave access to a remarkable commercial career following a chance apprenticeship at Harpers Bazaar in 1941. From the very beginning she was experimenting with the medium in ways not seen before, taking graphic design elements into the commercial fashion world which she then dominated for 20 heady years.
She decided to move in another direction and by the mid 60’s Lillian was feeling despondent with career prospects, so in 1969 she decided to destroy a large collection of her original negatives; she commented ‘that it was necessary at the time’.
Later in 1992 they were found by Martin Harrison, a fashion curator and historian who was staying at her house who persuaded Lillian to revisit them. She did by reprinting the negs, bleaching, toning and applying chemical reactants to the images creating an abstract set of works that were more mysterious than before. A technique she was experimenting with back in the 40’s.
This sense of refined playfulness has made her work iconic, here are just a a few of my favorites from her gift to us all; including a fitting farewell at the end.
Yayoi Kusama is undoubtably Japan’s most renowned living artist who over a 70 year period has worked obsessively; amassing bodies of work that encompass sculpture, painting, collage, drawing and of course large scale installations. For me an important part of this the largest exhibition of Yayoi’s work in the UK was the collection of archive material ranging from fliers, press cuttings, photographs and letters showing how her activity ranging far beyond the traditional gallery format. This form of visual documentation establishes an integral part of her practice displaying environmental control of authorship, placing her firmly in the centre.
I have always had a strong curiosity about Karl Lagerfeld and what thinks about his work, life & fashion. Answering metaphysical questions that have been plaguing him throughout his career saying “I would like you to describe you, and tell you if you are really that way.” He replies to himself, “You have what you see, that’s all.”
It was inevitable that the day would come when Kodak Eastman would file for bankruptcy protection, and today is the day. There is some great editorial coverage on the events as they unfold; so instead here are some of their moments in historical advertising to remind us just how much of an important role they have played in the development of photography in popular culture.
I feel so privileged to be able to experience first hand how these beautiful species emerge from their casings, here I am just preparing and mounting them ready for the hatching room. They include Caligo Eurilochus, Morpho Peleides, Morpho Amathonto & Morpho Alexandrovana.
If a photographer cares about the people before the lens and is compassionate, much is given. It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument.” (Eve Arnold)
Known for being the first woman photographer to join the ranks of the Magnum Photo agency. “She will perhaps be best remembered for her exceptional photographs of people; the famous, politicians, musicians, artists and the unknown, her intimate, sensitive and compassionate ten year collaboration with Marilyn Monroe has cemented her as one of the most iconic portrait photographers of our time, but it is the long term reportage stories that drove Arnold’s curiosity and passion.” says her agency.
During her long career, Arnold published more than 15 monographs. Later this month, TeNeues will release All About Eve, a 216-page retrospective of her work, including some of her most iconic images, as well as many never-before published images.
Whilst celebrity imagery is not a genre I hold a particular fondness for; I could name a lot of past and current photographers whose talents are nothing more than newsworthy in my opinion. For me the question is; were they great photographers or did they just spend five minutes with someone famous in front of their lens; and make the rest of their career spinning off of the experience? Eve Arnold was different, I truly admire the intimacy of her work and the level of respect she earned from her subjects and piers alike over a lifetime refining her craft.
You can hear Eve discuss her work recorded in 1990 on the BBC radio website and you can read her obituary published in the LA Times here.
Marilyn Monroe at the gaming tables in Reno, Nevada during filming of The Misfits. 1960
Silvana Mangano at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.1956
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Shepperton, England.1963
Amazon are now taking pre-orders for the soon to be released ‘Tokyo Taxi’ published and ready for shipment on the 2nd March 2012 – you can order your copy HERE
