Iain Baxter

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) to Host Retrospective of Iain Baxter&

Posted: 29 Oct 2011 10:24 PM PDT

Chicago, Illinois.- The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) is proud to present the first retrospective of one of Canada's most compelling artists, when "Iain Baxter&: Works 1958-2011" opens on November 5th. The exhibition will remain on view through January 15th 2012. Iain Baxter legally changed his name to Iain Baxter& in 2005. He appended an ampersand to his name to underscore that art is about connectivity and collaboration with the viewer."Iain Baxter&: Works 1958-2011" is a survey of all major phases of his work. Baxter&'s consistent emphasis is on reaching out to the viewer, his core concern with ecology and the environment and his belief that art must be made in many kinds of media, inform his early understanding that "art is all over." 

Interactions Between Painting and Photography

The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Shows Interactions Between Painting and Photography

Posted: 22 Oct 2011 08:07 PM PDT

Santa Fe, NM.- "Shared Intelligence: American Painting and the Photograph", a major exhibition that addresses the anxious, yet highly productive relationship between painting and photography in 20th-Century American art is on view at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum until September 11th. This exhibition of more than 75 paintings and photographs focuses on the work of American painters for whom the photograph has been essential, beginning with the acclaimed 19th century realist Thomas Eakins and continuing through to contemporary art, including such masters as Georgia O’Keeffe, Frederic Remington, Charles Sheeler, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Chuck Close, David Hockney and Sherrie Levine. Major works by such ground-breaking photographers as Eadweard Muybridge, Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, Edward Weston, Walker Evans, Cindy Sherman and Margaret Bourke-White will also be included.

Shared Intelligence brings together approximately 75 photographs and paintings by artists for whom the two mediums were essential to their practices, such as Robert Bechtle, Chuck Close, Thomas Eakins, Sherrie Levine, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cindy Sherman, Charles Sheeler, Ben Shahn and Edward Steichen.  The exhibition pairs paintings and photographs to demonstrate specific relationships between the two media and how painters consistently turned to photography to invigorate aspects of their work. In the beginning of the 20th Century, photographers felt obligated to justify their use of the camera as a means of expression.  Today however, the question is no longer Can photography be the equal of painting? but rather Has the photograph supplanted painting’s position in the hierarchy of the art world? Certainly it is nearly impossible to imagine a contemporary artist whose work is untouched by the camera, if only as a means of reproduction.  And yet, the photograph’s role in modern art goes far beyond reproduction or even as a source of subject matter.

Photographic seeing, the way the lens freezes, flattens, enlarges and crops the world, conditions all visual representations.  Above all, there is no way of escaping the the camera’s service to the vast legal, scientific and economic systems of knowledge that categorize and regulate modern existence itself. The exhibition intends to refute the idea that painting from a photograph is some sort of failure of imagination or technique - rather the two mediums enrich each other.  Ultimately, the exhibition emphasizes the role of the artist as picture maker, rather than as either painter or photographer.  In opposition to modernist critics such as Clement Greenberg and John Szarkowski who have tried to establish the autonomy of painting and photography, a crucial theme of this exhibition is the way in which the two mediums have always intersected and spilled into each other.  Painting has used the camera repeatedly to reinvigorate itself, just as photography has been equally enriched by a dialogue with painting.

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, opened to the public in July 1997, eleven years after the death of the artist from whom it takes its name. Welcoming more than 2,225,000 visitors from all over the world and being the most visited art museum in the state of New Mexico, it is the only museum in the world dedicated to an internationally known American woman artist. One of the most significant artists of the 20th century, Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was devoted to creating imagery that expressed what she called “the wideness and wonder of the world as I live in it.” She was a leading member of the Stieglitz Circle artists, headed by Alfred Stieglitz, America’s first advocate of modern art in America.  These avant-garde artists began to flourish in New York in the 1910s. O’Keeffe’s images—instantly recognizable as her own —include abstractions, large-scale depictions of flowers, leaves, rocks, shells, bones and other natural forms, New York cityscapes and paintings of the unusual shapes and colors of architectural and landscape forms of northern New Mexico. The Museum’s collection of over 3,000 works comprises 1,149 O’Keeffe paintings, drawings, and sculptures that date from 1901 to 1984, the year failing eyesight forced O’Keeffe into retirement. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum is the largest single repository of O'Keeffe's work in the world. Throughout the year, visitors can see a changing selection of these works. In addition, the Museum presents special exhibitions that are either devoted entirely to O’Keeffe’s work or combine examples of her art with works by her American modernist contemporaries.  The Museum also organizes exhibitions of works by her contemporaries, as well as by living artists of distinction.

Over 140 artists other than O’Keeffe have been exhibited at the Museum, such as Arthur Dove, Sherrie Levine, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center opened in July 2001 as a component of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. As the only museum-related research facility in the world dedicated to the study of American Modernism (late nineteenth century – present), it sponsors research in the fields of art history, architectural history and design, literature, music and photography.  Its annual, competitive stipend program awards six stipends to qualified applicants who can spend three to twelve months at the Research Center, which makes its library, collections and unique archives accessible to researchers worldwide as well as to its in-house scholars. The Museum and its Research Center are both Pueblo Revival-style buildings located two blocks from the historic Santa Fe Plaza and were renovated in 1997 and 2001, respectively, by Gluckman Mayner Architects, New York. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/

William Eggleston's Retrospective of Photographs & Video

Haus der Kunst to feature William Eggleston's Retrospective of Photographs & Video

Posted: 23 Oct 2011 07:32 PM PDT

Munich, Germany - William Eggleston's early photographs were black and white. In the 1960s he began to photograph in colour and - almost single-handedly - heralded in the era of fine art colour photography. A solo show at the MoMA in 1976 made him famous. Eggleston's snapshot aesthetic and his psychologising use of colour was still unusual at the time; in an annual review, the MoMA show was even called, "The most hated show of the year."Today Eggleston enjoys a cult status among younger generations of photographers and film directors.

"Anonymous Was A Woman"

Ten Women Artists Receive Grants from "Anonymous Was A Woman" Award

Posted: 23 Oct 2011 08:11 PM PDT

NEW YORK, N.Y.- Anonymous Was A Woman announced the ten artists selected to receive the Foundation’s sixteenth annual awards. The “no strings” grant of $25,000 enables women, over 45 years of age and at a critical juncture in their lives or careers, to continue to grow and pursue their work. Lauren Katzowitz Shenfield, director of the program, explained, “Anonymous Was A Woman Awards are synonymous with important recognition in artists’ personal and artistic development. The financial gift helps artists buy time, space, materials, and equipment, often at early stages of a new project, and, sometimes, recover from traumatic life events. In itself, the Award helps artists feel recognized and honored by other distinguished women who seek no credit for the role they play.”

1000 Strip Off in Spencer Tunick Tribute

1000 Strip Off in Spencer Tunick Tribute to Artist LS Lowry

Posted: 19 Oct 2011 08:29 PM PDT

Manchester, UK - More than one thousand volunteers braved the cold and stripped naked. . in the name of art. People of all ages, shapes and sizes were photographed by Spencer Tunick at eight landmark locations across Salford and Manchester. The nude mass gathering was held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Lowry arts centre, with the pictures set to form part of an exhibition at the venue later in the year.The New York artist has photographed thousands of nude volunteers across the world, most recently at the Sydney Opera House last month. But he chose chilly Salford and Manchester for his first multiple site installation after being inspired by the works of LS Lowry, who also captured crowds of people in public places . . albeit with their clothes on.

The volunteers were taken by heated buses to the secret locations and asked to pose naked for the early morning photo-shoots yesterday and today.

The M.E.N. was on hand to capture the action at the iconic Peel Park, Salford. The site was chosen because LS Lowry painted there and studied at the nearby Salford School of Art.

The installation 'Everyday People' focuses on ordinary men and women, and was inspired by the Salford legend LS Lowry, known for his 'matchstick men' style.

Tunick has photographed similar pieces at the Sydney Opera House in Australia and the Institut Cultura in Barcelona, Spain, as well as at the Saatchi Gallery in London and the Baltic in Gateshead.

Tunick, 43, was at the centre of the project, roaring instructions at his participants – who had nothing to protect their modesty – using a microphone.

He asked them to perform a series of poses – ranging from freezes to jumping up and down – before capturing their images.

Speaking at the Peel Park event, he said: "Hopefully it was enjoyable for the participants. I think it went really well. We had a wonderful morning of making artwork around Salford and Manchester.

"I feel like I didn't miss anything – I'm not looking back thinking I missed this or that. The people were here to make interesting artwork to reflect Lowry's paintings – they weren't here to spread a message about nudity."

Speaking after the event, Tunick said: "I think it went really well. I think we got it. I think the people here in Salford had the intention to make art.

"I feel like I didn't miss anything. I made some really good works here.I really like how scattered the bodies were. It's not so much a covering of bodies, but a sprinkling of bodies." said Tunick.

Victoria Denning, 56, from Birmingham, was one of the participants.

She said: "It was absolutely amazing. It's wonderful how many different shapes and sizes of bodies there are.

"You get so used to seeing a certain shape of body in magazines, and not one single person looked like that.

"Even the first time it felt normal because everyone was doing it and nobody was looking. It was just amazing."

Laurence Stephen Lowry (1 November 1887 – 23 February 1976) was an English artist born in Stretford, Lancashire. Many of his drawings and paintings depict nearby Salford and surrounding areas, including Pendlebury, where he lived and worked for over 40 years at 117 Station Road (B5231), opposite St. Mark's RC Church.

Lowry is famous for painting scenes of life in the industrial districts of Northern England during the early 20th century. He had a distinctive style of painting and is best known for urban landscapes peopled with human figures often referred to as "matchstick men". He also painted mysterious unpopulated landscapes, brooding portraits, and the secret 'marionette' works (the latter only found after his death).

Because of his use of stylised figures and the lack of weather effects in many of his landscapes he is sometimes characterised as a naïve, a 'Sunday painter' although this is not the position of the many museums galleries that have organised retrospectives of his works

Diane Arbus Major Retrospective

Diane Arbus Major Retrospective in France Opens at Jeu de Paume Posted: 19 Oct 2011 08:41 PM PDT PARIS.- Diane Arbus (New York, 1923–1971) revolutionized the art she practiced. Her bold subject matter and photographic approach produced a body of work that is often shocking in its purity, in its steadfast celebration of things as they are. Her gift for rendering strange those things we consider most familiar, and for uncovering the familiar within the exotic, enlarges our understanding of ourselves. Arbus found most of her subjects in New York City, a place that she explored as both a known geography and as a foreign land, photographing people she discovered during the 1950s and 1960s. She was committed to photography as a medium that tangles with the facts. Her contemporary anthropology—portraits of couples, children, carnival performers, nudists, middle-class families, transvestites, zealots, eccentrics, and celebrities—stands as an allegory of the human experience, an exploration of the relationship between appearance and identity, illusion and belief, theater and reality. On exhibition 18 October through 5 February, 2012. In this first major retrospective in France, Jeu de Paume presents a selection of two hundred photographs that affords an opportunity to explore the origins, scope, and aspirations of a wholly original force in photography. It includes all of the artist’s iconic photographs as well as many that have never been publicly exhibited. Even the earliest examples of her work demonstrate Arbus’s distinctive sensibility through the expression on a face, someone’s posture, the character of the light, and the personal implications of objects in a room or landscape. These elements, animated by the singular relationship between the photographer and her subject, conspire to implicate the viewer with the force of a personal encounter.  Diane Arbus was born in New York City on March 14, 1923, and attended the Ethical Culture and Fieldston Schools. At the age of eighteen she married Allan Arbus. Although she first started taking pictures in the early 1940s and studied photography with Alexey Brodovitch in 1954, it was not until 1955-57, while enrolled in courses taught by Lisette Model, that she began to seriously pursue the work for which she has come to be known.  Her first published photographs appeared in Esquire in 1960 under the title The Vertical Journey. From that point on she continued to work intermittently as a free-lance photographer for Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, Show, The London Sunday Times, and a number of other magazines, doing portraits on assignment as well as photographic essays, for several of which she wrote accompanying articles.  During the 1950s, like most of her contemporaries, she had been using a 35mm camera, but in 1962 she began working with a 6x6 Rolleiflex. She once said, in accounting for the shift, that she had grown impatient with the grain and wanted to be able to decipher in her pictures the actual texture of things. The 6x6 format contributed to the refinement of a deceptively simple, formal, classical style that has since been recognized as one of the distinctive features of her work.  She received Guggenheim Fellowships in 1963 and 1966 for projects on “American Rites, Manners and Customs” and spent several summers during that period traveling across the United States, photographing contests, festivals, public and private gatherings, people in the costumes of their professions or avocations, the hotel lobbies, dressing rooms and living rooms she had described as part of “the considerable ceremonies of our present.” “These are our symptoms and our monuments,” she wrote in her original application. “I want simply to save them, for what is ceremonious and curious and commonplace will be legendary.”  The photographs she produced in those years attracted a great deal of attention when a selected group of them were exhibited, along with the work of two other photographers, in the 1967 “New Documents” show at the Museum of Modern Art. Nonetheless, although several institutions subsequently purchased examples of her work for their permanent collections, her photographs appeared in only two other major exhibitions during her lifetime, both of them group shows.  In the late 1960's she taught photography courses at Parsons School of Design, the Rhode Island School of Design and Cooper Union and in 1971 gave a master class at Westbeth, the artists cooperative in New York City where she then lived. During the same period she initiated the concept and did the basic research for the Museum of Modern Art’s 1973 exhibition on news photography, “From the Picture Press.”  She made a portfolio of ten photographs in 1970, printed, signed and annotated by her, which was to be the first of a series of limited editions of her work. She committed suicide on July 26, 1971 at the age of forty-eight. The following year the ten photographs in her portfolio became the first work of an American photographer to be exhibited at the Venice Biennale.  In the course of a career that may be said to have lasted little more than fifteen years, she produced a body of work whose style and content have secured her a place as one of the most significant and influential photographers of our time. The major retrospective mounted by the Museum of Modern Art in 1972 was attended by more than a quarter of a million people in New York before it began its tour of the United States and Canada. The Aperture monograph Diane Arbus, published in conjunction with the show has sold over 300,000 copies. Beginning in 2003, Diane Arbus Revelations, an international retrospective organized by The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art traveled to museums throughout the United States and Europe between 2003 and 2006. Major exhibitions devoted exclusively to her work have toured much of the world including, Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Visit the Jeu de Paume in Paris at : http://www.jeudepaume.org/

Red Saunders' Photographic Tableaux Vivants

The National Media Museum Shows Red Saunders' Photographic Tableaux Vivants

Posted: 18 Oct 2011 11:32 PM PDT

Bradford, UK.- The National Media Museum is proud to present "Hidden", on view at the museum through December 10th. Red Saunders’ epic photographic tableaux vivants (‘living pictures’) recreate momentous but overlooked events from Britain’s struggle for democracy and equality, from the Peasants Revolt of 1381 to the Chartist movement of the mid nineteenth century.  Shown as part of Ways of Looking, a new photography festival in Bradford, this first major solo exhibition of Saunders’ work features the world premiere of two dramatic new works, specially commissioned by Impressions Gallery and The Culture Company.Focussing on the contributions of ordinary men and women, rather than the monarchs and ‘Great Men’ that dominate official history, Saunders seeks to shed light on the parallel, ‘hidden history’ of revolutionaries and radicals. Meticulously detailed, atmospherically lit, and historically accurate, each scene is recreated and posed by models, providing photographic ‘evidence’ for events that occurred before the widespread adoption of camera technology. 

Photography Auction

Bonhams New York To Host Photography Auction on Nov. 1st

Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:10 PM PDT

New York City.- Bonhams is thrilled to announce its auction of Photographs, to be held on November 1st in New York, simulcast in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The sale will feature a wide range of subject matter as seen through the lenses of various photographers. Judith Eurich, Bonhams Director of Prints & Photographs, states about the highlights in the sale, "There is a broad range of works by important 19th century photographers, such as Alfred Stieglitz and Carleton Watkins, the mid-century masters represented by Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, and contemporary images by Irving Penn, Diane Arbus and Hiroshi Sugimoto."

Known for his documentary portraiture, as well as fashion photography, Irving Penn has an exemplary talent for working between two opposite worlds. This is apparent in his "Five Okapa Warriors, New Guinea" available in the sale (est. $20,000-30,000). This selenium-toned gelatin silver print features five Okapa Warriors in traditional dress, posing stoically with their bows and arrows. Penn's care in capturing them truthfully is evident. Also leading this group of masters is photographer and environmentalist Ansel Adams, known for his romantic black and white photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite National Park. His photograph "Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California" (est. $20,000-30,000), in the sale, is a perfect example of the photographer's aesthetic, and would be an ideal addition for any fine art collector. Rounding out this group is Alfred Stieglitz, who was greatly influential is making photography an accepted art form. His "Gossip, Katwyck" (est. $15,000-20,000) is one of few images he was pleased with on his travels through Northern and Southern Europe. After returning to the states, he printed the image at Heliochrome Engraving Company, a photo engraving company and printing firm purchased by his father. The print was later given to the present owner's descendents by Stieglitz's brother as a wedding gift.

Pre-dating motion pictures, the oldest highlight in the sale comes from British photographer Eadweard Muybridge, who is known for his pioneering work called "animal locomotion" which used multiple cameras to capture motion. Offered in the sale is "Selected plates, from Animal Locomotion," dated 1871-1885, which includes 67 collotype plates recording sequential motion of men walking and horses running (est. $16,000-20,000). Chronologically moving through the auction, the next highlight is French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson's "Srinagar, Kashmir," (est. $10,000-15,000). This gelatin silver print documents the period of unrest in India in 1948: Muslim women stand on the slopes of Hari Parbat Hill and pray while the sun rises behind the Himalayas. This photograph was given by Helen Wright, Cartier-Bresson's agent, to its present owner.

Next is Frank Horvat's aesthetically gorgeous "Givenchy Hat A, pour Jardin de Modes, Paris," taken in 1958 (est. $12,000-16,000). In this black and white portrait taken at a race track, five men stand in the back with top hats and binoculars, as renowned model Dovima's staring eyes are just visible from underneath a body-engulfing white hat with cascading white flowers. From Diane Arbus' series titled Revelations, in which she photographed little people, socialites, circus performers and the mental disabled, comes "Untitled-4," 1970-1971 (est. $6,000-8,000). Never turning away from the abnormal, Arbus cast her documentary lens on those that most shy away, unapologetically capturing things as they are. In the presented work she captured four asylum inmates masked with paper bags, questioning identity. Working during the same time as Arbus was American photographer and multi-faceted artist Ed Ruscha.

Offered in the sale is "Dutch Details," a book with 10 fold-out leaves, featuring 116 black and white photographic reproductions that were interpretations of the artist's response to the Dutch landscape around Groningen, where he was invited to work. This first edition book is one of only approximately 200 copies that survived when most of the edition was accidentally discarded from the warehouse where it was stored (est. $10,000-15,000). Other highlights in the sale include Japanese photographer, Hiroshi Sugimoto's "Time Exposed" (est. $8,000-12,000); John Minihan's "Francis Bacon, Paris," a portrait of the mentioned contemporary artist against his work (est. $10,000-15,000); Sebastião Salgado's "Iceberg between the Paulet Islands and the Shetland Islands, Antarctica" (est. $10,000-15,000); and Ruth Bernhard's "In the Box-Horizontal" which is a nude model eloquently positioned with in an open box (est. $12,000-18,000).

One of the few surviving Georgian auction houses in London, Bonhams was set up in 1793 when Thomas Dodd, a renowned antique print dealer, joined forces with the book specialist Walter Bonham. The company expanded and by the 1850s was handling all categories of antiques including jewellery, porcelain, furniture, arms and armour and fine wines. In the early 1950s the Bonham family purchased some land in Knightsbridge and erected a saleroom on Montpelier Street. In 2001 Bonhams became Bonhams & Brooks when it was acquired by Brooks auction house. Brooks had been founded in 1989 by the former Head of Cars at Christie's, Robert Brooks who specialized in the sale of classic and vintage motorcars. Brooks continued a major acquisition programme aimed at creating a new international fine art auction house. Later that year, Bonhams & Brooks merged with Phillips Son & Neale to form a new UK company trading as Bonhams. Phillips Son & Neale had been based in 101 New Bond Street, which subsequently became the new headquarters of Bonhams. The building consisted of seven different freeholds and had been described as "a Dickensian rabbit warren". The first of the sites to be acquired was Blenstock House, a striking Art Deco building at the junction of Blenheim Street and Woodstock Street. Phillips took over the ground and lower ground floors in July 1939, gradually claiming more floors until the whole building was acquired in 1974. In the 1980s, 101 New Bond Street was added. An extensive renovation programme directed by Clare Agnew was undertaken when Bonhams moved into the premises. Acquisition activity continued, and in 2002 Bonhams purchased Butterfields, a leading auction house on the West Coast founded in 1865. Bonhams changed Butterfields' name to Bonhams & Butterfields, and Malcolm Barber, formerly of Brooks, became the chief executive officer of the American subsidiary. Bonhams remained the company's brand name outside of the United States. By the end of 2003 Bonhams was conducting more than 700 annual sales, had over 600 employees, and revenues of $304 million. The company's worldwide network of sales included two major London venues, nine additional UK locations, and salerooms in Switzerland, Monaco, Germany, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sydney. Bonhams & Butterfields conducted its first East Coast sale in 2003 with an auction of Edwin C. Jameson's collection of classic cars and antiques in Massachusetts.

During 2005, Bonhams continued to expand its presence in the USA and acquired a new saleroom on Madison Avenue in New York. The company also expanded further in Europe with the opening of the Paris office in June 2005. In October 2005, Bonhams gained full independence after buying back a 49.9% stake held by French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH. In 2005 Bonhams magazine was launched. Published quarterly, the magazine feature articles written by curators, dealers, valuers, and also art critics such as Matthew Collings and Brian Sewell. In 2007 Bonhams opened an office in Dubai as part of a joint venture with the family of former Ambassador to the UK Mohammed Madhi Al Tajir. The first sale held in Dubai on 3rd March 2008 was of Modern & Contemporary Arab, Iranian, Indian & Pakistani Art, and achieved total sales of over US$13million – almost three times the expected amount. Bonhams opened a new office in Hong Kong in 2007, to further support its expansion into the Asian market. The business in Hong Kong works with clients in mainland China, Japan, India, South Korea, Indonesia and Singapore. In March 2008, Bonhams New York moved to new salerooms on the corner of 57th Street and Madison Avenue - formerly the home of the respected Dahesh Museum. The inaugural sale featured 20th century furniture and decorative arts. By 2007 Bonhams sales totalled US $600million. In 2009 Bonhams announced that it has taken market leadership in ten key areas of the UK art market for the first time. The company now dominates the following specialist areas in the UK: Antiquities, Arms & Armour, Design Prior to 1945, Ceramics, Clocks, Glass, Jewellery, Japanese Art, Miniatures and Watches. During 2009 these departments all sold more by value in the UK than any competing auction house. With Christie's, Bonhams is a shareholder in the London-based Art Loss Register, a privately-owned database used by law enforcement services worldwide to trace and recover stolen art. Visit the auction house's website at ...http://www.bonhams.com

John Baldessari Retrospective

Tate Modern Opens Most Extensive John Baldessari Retrospective in the UK

Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:05 PM PDT

LONDON.- John Baldessari (b1931) is widely regarded as one of contemporary art’s foremost conceptual artists. Tate Modern presents the most extensive retrospective of his work to date in the UK. "John Baldessari: Pure Beauty" will bring together more than 130 works and examine the principal concerns of this legendary Californian artist. With humor and irony, Baldessari’s work dissects the ideas underlying artistic practice and questions the historically accepted rules of how to make art. Fascinated by language and meaning, he has always been interested in the connection between working in the visual field and working with words.

Jack Smith

ICA in London Celebrates The True Underground Filmmaker ~ Jack Smith Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:03 PM PDT LONDON.- Legendary American artist, filmmaker and actor Jack Smith (1932-1989), described by Andy Warhol as the only person he would ever copy and by John Waters as “the only true underground filmmaker”, is celebrated at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in film, performance and debate with a retrospective of Smith’s work from 7 to 28 September.  Working in New York from the 1950s until his death in 1989, Smith unequivocally resisted and upturned accepted conventions, whether artistic, moral or legal. Irreverent in tone and delirious in effect, Smith’s films, such as the notorious "Flaming Creatures" (1963), are both wildly camp and subtly polemical. Smith is best known for his contributions to underground cinema but his influence extends across performance art, photography and experimental theatre.

The Southeast Museum of Photography Shows Stuart Rome's Forest Photographs

The Southeast Museum of Photography Shows Stuart Rome's Forest Photographs

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 09:08 PM PDT

Deltona, Florida. The Southeast Museum of Photography (SMP) exhibition space at the Lyonia Envrionmental Center is proud to present "Stuart Rome: Wonders, Images of Florida's Forests" on view through March 19th 2012. Florida has always figured large in the American psyche. Shrouded in mystery and myth, the Florida landscape has inspired awe, fear and conjecture. From the early days of the republic, through the era of exploration and to the present day, explorers, artists and writers chronicled their travels and discoveries in Florida for a curious and fascinated nation. Stuart Rome has followed in the footsteps of many of these great pro-genitors and journeyed to the heart of the Florida peninsula. His new body of landscape images adds to this rich and compelling history of botanic, scientific and artistic curiosity and draws some of its inspiration from the writings and journals of many important early naturalists. The eloquent tracery of patterns and details in his prints resonates with an inner glow and with a draftsmanship that veers at will from lyrical to muted to explosive, to capture the many and varied complexions of the processes at play in the natural world. 

New York State Museum exhibits Historic Images from Burns Archive

New York State Museum exhibits Historic Images from Burns Archive

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 11:04 PM PDT

ALBANY, NY.- Shadow and Substance: African American Images from The Burns Archive -- opens at the New York State Museum October 15th, showcasing rarely-seen photographs from one of the largest private photography collections in the world. Open through March 31, 2012 in the Photography Gallery, the exhibition allows the viewer to perceive how African-Americans were seen by others and how they wished to be seen. These images do not tell a complete story of the past, but their eloquent shadows provide unique glimpses into the lives of African-Americans over the past 160 years. 

Photo Booth: Photographing the Great Recession, Looking Back to the Great Depression

Photo Booth: Photographing the Great Recession, Looking Back to the Great Depression www.newyorker.com

Junkculture: Cybertrash

Junkculture: Cybertrash: Artist Rémy Tassou creates amazing three dimensional totems using a variety of materials hidden inside data-processing machines, electric a...

Shag Rock (Pile) reduced again

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Photographer Annie Leibovitz Personal Exhibition at Russia's Pushkin Museum

Photographer Annie Leibovitz Personal Exhibition at Russia's Pushkin Museum

Posted: 14 Oct 2011 07:38 PM PDT

MOSCOW (REUTERS).- Photographer Annie Leibovitz paid homage to Russia's rich cultural past on Tuesday when she opened a 200-piece exhibit spanning 15 years of her professional and private life. Pictures of the births of the 62-year-old Leibovitz's three daughters were hung in Moscow's state Pushkin Museum next to her portraits of such famous personalities as Mick Jagger, Demi Moore and others for covers of Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. Last month Leibovitz presented the exhibit at St Petersburg's 18th century State Hermitage Museum. The exhibit will be open to the public from October 12 to January 15, 2012.