Exhibitions | 1990 | Fraenkel Gallery

The Playboys

Erin Nelson — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 22:41:40 +0000

Since 1975, Richard Misrach has been photographing the deserts of the American West. Earlier segments of Misrach’s Desert Cantos series depicted various aspects of the desert landscape such as man-made fires and floods, and events such as the space-shuttle landing. While the earlier Cantos addressed the state of our man-mauled environment through lyrical metaphor, the most recent series have been unmistakably political. The current series, entitled Desert Cantos XI: The Playboys documents two Playboy magazines which Misrach discovered in his documentation of a nuclear test site in the northwest corner of Nevada. The Playboy magazines were used for target practice by persons unknown. Although the women on the covers were the intended targets, all aspects of American culture, as reflected inside the magazines, were riddled with violence.

Playboy #097 (Marlboro Country), 1990

chromogenic color print, 40 x 50 inches

Printed as 40×50” color photographs, these images virtually explode with social commentary. The exhibition includes an advertisement for Sassoon hair products featuring Andy Warhol with his eye socket and half his face bullet-riddled. Several pictures of women, one of an illustration of a Mulatto woman, document an eerie and poignant misogyny incarnate, while other pictures of abstract text layered upon abstract text create some strange postmodern pentimento.

Considered one of the most significant and influential photographers working in color, Misrach in his recent work evidences an extraordinary sensitivity to light and its atmospheric effects on the land. His use of the cumbersome 8×10” view camera fills the photographs with dense and rewarding detail. Misrach has received numerous fellowships and awards including three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships (1973, 1977, 1984), a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, and the International Center for Photography Award for outstanding publication (Desert Cantos, University of New Mexico Press). Misrach’s most recent book which has just been completed this month is entitled Bravo 20 (Johns Hopkins University Press) which documents illegal test sites of high-explosive bombs on public land near Fallon, Nevada. He has recently been awarded the prestigious Eureka Fellowship from the Fleishhacker Foundation.

The post The Playboys appeared first on Fraenkel Gallery.

Panorama of San Francisco from California Street Hill

Erin Nelson — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 05:50:22 +0000

Mark Klett’s Panorama of San Francisco from California Street Hill, 1990 will be exhibited alongside Eadweard Muybridge’s celebrated 1877 panorama made from the same sight. The inspiration for this project was the gallery’s acquisition last year of Eadweard Muybridge’s exceedingly rare thirteen-panel mammoth plate panorama of San Francisco made from the top of the Mark Hopkins mansion. Mark Klett’s earliest photographic project included the re-photographing of important nineteenth century landscapes made by photographers in the early years of the medium. This involved seeing the exact locations and re-photographing them on the exact date at the exact time of day as it was first photographed by such masters as Timothy O’Sullivan, Carleton Watkins and William Henry Jackson. The project allowed Klett and his audience to see how the land had changed or, in some cases, how it had not. In this way, it was as if Klett studied directly under the great photographers and figuratively “stood” in their shoes.

Panorama of San Francisco from California Street Hill, 1990

thirteen gelatin silver prints, 20 x 16 inches (each image & sheet) [50.8 x 40.6 cm]

On April 12, 1990 Mark Klett stood on the terraces of the 16th floor of the Mark Hopkins Inter-Continental Hotel and re-photographed the city 112 years after Muybridge. The resulting study as seen in thirteen panels is on exhibit at Fraenkel Gallery and comprises the limited edition portfolio which the gallery has recently published.

Concurrent with the publication of the portfolio, is the new Bedford Arts publication of One City: Two Visions, an accordion-fold book which illustrates back-to-back, Muybridge’s and Klett’s views of the city. The publication date is appropriately October 17, 1990, the one-year anniversary of San Francisco’s 7.1 earthquake.

The post Panorama of San Francisco from California Street Hill appeared first on Fraenkel Gallery.

William Wegman

Erin Nelson — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 05:54:46 +0000

William Wegman’s large-format (24×20) Polaroid photographs of his dogs have become world famous. In fact, Wegman and his portraits of his models Man Ray and, more recently, Fay Ray have become indelibly intertwined in the public eye. Last summer Fay Ray gave birth to her own ‘limited edition’ of eight Weimaraner pups, one of which has now grown into the third generation of models for Wegman. The current exhibition will include his most recent studies in which Fay Ray and her protege Battina serve to illustrate, once again, human experience both emotional and psychological.

The exhibition will include approximately 18 unique Polaroid prints made with the large format camera. The photographs include formal ‘nudes’ such as Rounded, a picture reminiscent of Edward Weston’s similar tributes to the female form. Other photographs explore the canine models as other animals, such as Bat Bird and Pet. But not to be overlooked is Wegman’s innate sense for psychology as witnessed in Puppet in which dog and female model become one new being.

It is often the laughter and comedy which observers first sense, but at the core of the pictures is a poignant sense for the human condition. Witness the representation of the eyes throughout Wegman’s work. They have the ‘look’ of the melancholy clown whose silly antics never quite hide the sadness in his eyes. But scratch the surface of these sometimes comic visions and you will find the work of a conceptualist, addressing questions of perception and preconception.

The post William Wegman appeared first on Fraenkel Gallery.

14 Cigarettes

Erin Nelson — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 05:58:22 +0000

In the early 1970s, respected and renowned fashion photographer, Irving Penn, shifted his interest from the printed page to the expressive and eloquent possibilities of the photographic print. No single series addresses this shift more directly than Penn’s series of platinum printed photographs of discarded cigarette butts. In this series there is an unspoken irony as Penn transforms what is commonly considered garbage into exquisite abstracted images, some which harken directly to his stunning fashion studies. “We may if we wish think of them as metaphors- as shards of ancient sculpture, or architecture fragments, or the discarded costumes of kings and jugglers- but it is important that we remember also their inconsequence, for otherwise their new nobility and eloquence, their classical rectitude, would not so deeply touch our hearts. (John Szarkowski)

Cigarette No. 037, New York, 1972

platinum-palladium print mounted on aluminum, 32 x 26 inches (framed) [81.3 x 66 cm]

Cigarette No. 069, New York, 1972

platinum palladium print on Arches paper mounted on aluminum, 25 x 22-1/2 inches (sheet)

Penn’s first creative interest was in drawing and painting. In the late 1930s he studied under Alexey Brodovitch at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art and published drawings in Harper’s Bazaar. In 1942 Penn spent a year painting in Mexico and in 1943 was hired by Vogue to advise on artwork for covers. By chance, he was soon making a cover photograph, a still life with a purse, gloves, lemons, oranges and a large topaz, which was the first of over a hundred covers he created for the magazine. In addition to the still lives and fashion photographs, Penn is well-recognized for his extensive series of portraits.

Penn is the subject of several monographs and has been exhibited internationally. Most recently, he was the subject of a major retrospective at the National Gallery of American Art in Washington D.C.

The post 14 Cigarettes appeared first on Fraenkel Gallery.

Several Exceptionally Good Recently Acquired Pictures V

Erin Nelson — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 23:01:09 +0000

The post Several Exceptionally Good Recently Acquired Pictures V appeared first on Fraenkel Gallery.

A Small Selection of Large Prints

Erin Nelson — Sun, 22 Jul 1990 06:08:46 +0000

Born in 1934, Lee Friedlander, often referred to as “a photographer’s photographer,” is one of the most influential photographers of our time. Clearly, Friedlander stands out as one of the artists whose work and vision has dominated American photography since the 1960s. His images have assured him a place of honor among the photographers he admires: Eugene Atget, Walker Evans, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Robert Frank. His crowded, tense and often humorous images and skein-like interlocking of pictorial elements address the fractured characteristics of life, both urban and rural, in the late twentieth century. Friedlander is considered amongst the first photographers who addressed the “social landscape.”

This exhibition will be a rare opportunity to view Friedlander’s large gelatin-silver prints, measuring 20×24”. This selection is planned to supplement the traveling retrospective of Friedlander’s work entitled “Like a One-Eyed Cat” curated and organized by the Seattle Art Museum, which will be on view at the Friends of Photography Ansel Adams Center from July 18 through September 30.

*This exhibition runs concurrently with Several Exceptionally Good Recently Acquired Pictures V.

The post A Small Selection of Large Prints appeared first on Fraenkel Gallery.

McDermott and McGough

Erin Nelson — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 06:12:30 +0000

The post McDermott and McGough appeared first on Fraenkel Gallery.

The Headlands

Erin Nelson — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 06:22:44 +0000

The post The Headlands appeared first on Fraenkel Gallery.

The Indomitable Spirit: Works by John Baldessari, Barbara Kruger, Annette Lemieux, William Wegman, and Others

Erin Nelson — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 23:26:44 +0000

Just published in an edition of 50, the portfolio is a central fund raising tool of Photographers + Friends United Against AIDS. The portfolio is the result of the cooperative efforts of “Photography + Friends” and several major photography dealers, and will be available through galleries nationwide.

100 percent of the proceeds of the sale of the portfolio will benefit Photographers + Friends designated national beneficiaries, the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR) and the National Community AIDS Partnership (NCAP). AmFar and NCAP will use the monies to support community based research, care and education. Other programs of the Photographers + Friends include The Indomitable Spirit museum exhibition currently on view at the International Center of Photography Midtown, New York City through April 7 and traveling to the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Photographers + Friends is a not-for-profit corporation formed to raise awareness and significant funds to support AIDS research, care and education.

The post The Indomitable Spirit: Works by John Baldessari, Barbara Kruger, Annette Lemieux, William Wegman, and Others appeared first on Fraenkel Gallery.

Little Known Photographs by Helen Levitt

Erin Nelson — Sun, 22 Jul 1990 06:30:47 +0000

Though the photographs in Helen Levitt’s book A Way of Seeing (now in its third printing by Duke University Press) have long been regarded as classics of 20th century photography, a significant aspect of Levitt’s work from this period is relatively little known. It is also not commonly known that Levitt has continued to produce important work throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s. This exhibition attempts to excavate a number of Levitt’s important but lesser known images.

Levitt’s subjects have, nominally, never changed. She has always worked in poor neighborhoods because of the richly sociable and visually interesting street life. Levitt’s pictures report no unusual happenings: most of them show the games of children, the errands and conversations of the middle-aged, and the observant waiting of the old. What is remarkable is that these routine acts are revealed as being full of grace, drama, humor, pathos, and surprise, and also that they are filled with the qualities of art, as though the street were a stage, and its people were all actors and actresses. They also reveal an eye singularly attuned to the aesthetic possibilities inherent in the honest vision of the streets.

This exhibition opens in anticipation of the forthcoming Helen Levitt retrospective being co-curated by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, scheduled to open in 1991.

The post Little Known Photographs by Helen Levitt appeared first on Fraenkel Gallery.

The Animals

Erin Nelson — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 23:34:03 +0000

In the early 1960s, Winogrand spent much of his time with his children at Central Park Zoo, which was lively, convenient, and free. Winogrand’s photographs made in and around the zoo were radically different in ambition from those of his contemporaries. In Winogrand’s zoo the animals are not more important and are, in fact, united with them in a peculiar kind of symbiosis. Winogrand’s zoo is a kind of theater, in which humans and the lower vertebrates act out in parable the comic drama of modern urban life.

New York, ca. 1963

gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 inches (sheet) [27.9 x 35.6 cm]

Garry Winogrand died in 1984 at the age of fifty-six. His career as a photographer spanned a full generation during which time his work challenged and revised the standards by which ambitious photography is judged. Winogrand is the subject of a traveling retrospective exhibition and monograph entitled Figments from the Real World, organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1988).

The post The Animals appeared first on Fraenkel Gallery.